- Position‹2 of 3›
- People like taboo ideas
- Argument1 of 2›
Rush of danger with serial killers
Danger gives people an adrenaline rush. Some people love it when they are on roller coasters, on a plane, or go through a haunted house.
The argument
Serial killers are dangerous people, and the observation this argument begins from is that danger attracts some people rather than repelling them. The fascination is not with the crimes as moral events but with the proximity to threat that dwelling on them provides. The explanation offered is physiological. The love of dangerous situations is fuelled by hormones, and dopamine in particular is released in response to thrilling or risky experience, creating a feeling of pleasure in the brain. This is why the response to danger is not simply aversion: the same encounter produces both fear and reward, and for some people the reward dominates. Dopamine is released when riding a roller coaster, which is why some people like riding roller coasters — the ride supplies the sensation of mortal risk with none of the consequence, and the pleasure is in the sensation. The pattern recurs in relationships. When someone dates a toxic romantic interest, dopamine is released there too, and those who enjoy the resulting high tend to want more relationships of the same kind. What that shows is that the mechanism is not confined to physical thrills: unpredictability and the possibility of harm in another person can produce the same chemistry, and can be sought for the same reason. Interest in serial killers fits the pattern exactly, and at the lowest possible cost. Reading about them, watching documentaries about them or following their cases supplies contact with extreme danger from a position of complete safety — the roller-coaster arrangement, with an actual predator in place of the drop. Because the taboo and the danger together deliver a reward the brain is built to pursue, people fetishize serial killers for the rush, which is one form of the broader appetite for taboo ideas.
Premises
Counter-arguments
Danger isn't something to want to be around. Lions are dangerous, so people stay away from them. Storms are dangerous, so people evacuate their homes. Serial killers are also dangerous and should be arrested. Although dopamine makes someone feel good in dangerous situations, wisdom should be used so they don’t get hurt.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P2] Danger can still hurt people. Dopamine shouldn’t rive someone to get themselves in trouble.