Jordan here. Before we start this show, I want to let you know this episode contains violence and some

explicit themes, so no kids in the car for this one. And if you leave the kids in the car and you still

play the episode, don't blame me when they have nightmares. Coming up next on the Jordan Harbinger

show. Darwin, of course, was famous for his theory of evolution. He was a theorist. He heard about this

story from a zoologist named Alfred Brim, who gave a story about these monkeys that saw a snake inside of a bag. This was

an experiment that he did. A monkey would look inside the bag and scream, and then another monkey

would come up and look inside the bag and scream and run away. The other monkeys had to come up

and see it because he survived. That other monkey survived. He was fine. And he signaled danger. So I kind of want to know what that thing is. And that's a very similar thing to, oh, this thing is terrible. You don't want to see it. Now I kind of do. Welcome to the show. I'm Jordan Harbinger. On the Jordan Harbinger show, we decode the stories,

secrets, and skills of the world's most fascinating people and turned their wisdom into practical

advice that you can use to impact your own life and those around you. Our mission is to help you

become a better informed, more critical thinker through long-form conversations with the variety

of amazing folks, from spies to CEOs, athletes, authors, thinkers, and performers, even the occasional drug trafficker, former jihadi, or four-star general. In fact, if you're new to the show or you want to tell your friends about it, and I always appreciate it when you do that, I suggest our episode starter packs. These are collections of our favorite episodes on topics like persuasion and negotiation, psychology, geopolitics,

disinformation, China, North Korea, crime and cults, and more. That'll help new listeners get a taste

of everything we do here on the show. Just visit jordanharbinger.com slash start or search for us

in your Spotify app to get started. Today we're talking about why so many of us are drawn to things

that are objectively disturbing,

horror movies, true crime, car accidents, we can't stop staring at, haunted hotels. You swear

you'd never pay for, but you still want to hear all of the details. Are horror fans secretly

violent? Is morbid curiosity a bug in the human brain, or is it a feature that kept us alive back in the day? And why does

Halloween feel cozy to some people, even though it's basically a celebration of morbidity and death?

We're getting into the neuroscience of fear, why scary play works, why empathetic people often love

horror, and why enjoying blood and mortal combat doesn't mean you're about to snap even if

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