Roadkill. Car crashes. Sickening news stories. Talking about death. Even doomscrolling endlessly. Many of us find that it’s the most unappealing sights and topics that pique our interest the most.

It’s a phenomenon called “morbid curiosity,” and even though it’s perfectly natural, it’s a source of shame for a lot of people. It’s easy to feel like there’s something wrong with you for not being able to resist reading about a murder or craning your neck to look at roadkill. Psychologists say otherwise.

Morbid curiosity has been studied for decades

Morbid curiosity has long been understood as an evolutionary mechanism. But our grasp of its function, and where it comes from, has evolved over time.

In 1986, one of the first published papers on morbid curiosity introduced a scale known as CAME: Curiosity About Morbid Events. Early research like this study focused on the kinds of people who were interested in death and things that can lead to death, rather than the why. It was viewed as a trait of people who sought thrills and stimulation.

Later theories began to link morbid curiosity to our will to survive. Some researchers posited that morbid activities—say, watching a violent horror film—were a way to “practice” the act of being mortal while still being safe. In other words, it’s a rehearsal or a test-run that prepares us for more life-threatening situations.

Later still, psychology began to understand that morbid curiosity could be related to our ancestors’ need for threat detection. A dead animal could indicate that there’s a predator nearby, for example, so it would make sense that we’d be drawn to look at it and not away for our own safety. Scientists were interested in how this mechanism could override our natural sense of disgust.

But there were gaps in all of these theories that couldn’t explain all the different forms morbid curiosity can take.

New paper makes key distinctions about our morbid fascinations

A paper in the Psychological Review builds on previous research through an evolutionary lens.

David S. March argues that morbid curiosity isn’t just about thrill-seeking, fear management, or even survival. It’s a combination of many of these things; a concept he calls “resolving ambiguity.”

Simply put, when something is related to death or danger, we want to know more about it. It could mean that a predator is nearby, but it could also be an opportunity: a dead animal, to use the example again, could also have been a food source for earlier humans.

It’s a theory that helps unify all the ones that came before, and it helps explain why our morbid curiosity takes many forms. It’s not just roadkill and horror movies; it’s also doomscrolling and true crime. It’s natural, and evolutionary, for us to be interested in anything that might contain survival-relevant information.

One study referenced in Psychology Today found that true crime listeners, for example, were adept at paying attention to and remembering tricks potential victims used to escape or spot a threat before they got hurt. That’s the kind of survival relevant information we can glean by not shying away from things that would otherwise trigger disgust or fear.

March’s new theory has yet to be put to the test. It’s a new theoretical model rather than a revealing new dataset. But it changes the way we think about our own morbid curiosities and, hopefully, helps reduce any feelings of shame we might experience.

Being drawn to murders and roadkill and the worst news stories imaginable doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you. It’s just your brain seeking to make sense of all the information available, reduce ambiguity, and find any and all information that might later help you survive.

While a bottle of bubbles might seem out of place in a hospital setting, you might be surprised to learn that, for thousands of children around the world born with cleft lip and palate, they can be a helpful tool in comprehensive cleft care. Lilia, who was born with cleft lip and palate in 2020, is one of the many patients who received this care. 

As a toddler, Lilia underwent two surgeries to treat cleft lip and palate with Operation Smile’s surgical program in Puebla, Mexico. Because of Operation Smile’s comprehensive care, it wasn’t long before her personality transformed: Lilia went from a quiet and withdrawn toddler to an exuberant, curious explorer, babbling, expressing herself with a variety of sounds, and engaging with others like any child her age. 

Lilia is now a healthy five-year-old, with the same cheerful attitude and boundless energy. Her progress is the result of care at every level, from surgery to speech therapy to ongoing support at home—but it’s also evidence that small, sustained interventions throughout it all can make a meaningful difference. 

Cleft Conditions: A Global Problem

Since 1982, Operation Smile has provided cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries to more than 500,000 patients worldwide with the help of generous volunteers and donors. Cleft conditions are congenital conditions, meaning they are present at birth. With cleft lip and palate, the lip or the roof of the mouth do not form fully during fetal development. Cleft conditions put children at risk for malnutrition and poor weight gain, since their facial structure can make feeding challenging. But cleft conditions can have an enormous social impact as well: Common difficulties with speech can leave kids socially isolated and unable to meet the same developmental milestones as their peers. 

Surgery is a vital step in treating cleft conditions, but it’s also just one part of a much larger solution. Organizations like Operation Smile emphasize the importance of multi-disciplinary teams that provide comprehensive, long-term care to patients across many years. This approach, which includes oral care, speech therapy, nutritional support, and psychosocial care, not only aids in physical recovery from surgery but also helps children develop the skills and confidence to eat easily, speak clearly, and engage in everyday life. This ensures that each patient receives the full range of support they need to thrive. 

A Playful (and Powerful) Solution

Throughout a patient’s care, simple tools like bubbles can play a meaningful role from start to finish. 

Immediately before surgery, children are often in a new and unfamiliar environment far from home, some of them experiencing a hospital setting for the first time. When care providers or loved ones blow bubbles, it’s a simple yet effective technique: Not only are the children soothed and distracted, the bubbles also help create a sense of joy and playfulness that eases their anxiety. 

In speech therapy, bubbles can take on an even more important role. Blowing bubbles requires controlled airflow, as well as the ability to form a rounded “O” shape with the lips, which are skills that children with cleft conditions may struggle to develop. Practicing these skills with bubbles allows children to gently strengthen their facial muscles, improve breath control, and support the motor skills needed for speech development. Beyond that, blowing bubbles can help kids connect with their parents or providers in a way that’s playful, comforting, and accessible even for very young patients. 

Finally, bubbles often follow patients with cleft conditions home in the “smile bags” that each patient receives when the surgical procedure is finished. Smile bags, which help continue speech therapy outside of the hospital setting, can contain language enrichment booklets, a mirror, oxygen tubing, and bubbles. While regular practice with motor skills can help with physical recovery, small acts of play help as well, giving kids space to simply enjoy themselves and join in on what peers are able to do.

Bubbles at Home and Beyond

Today, because of Operation Smile’s dedication to comprehensive cleft care, Lilia is now able to make friends and speak clearly, all things that could have been difficult or impossible before. Instead of a childhood defined by limitation, Lilia—and others around the world—can look forward to a childhood filled with joy, learning, discovery, friends, and new possibilities.  

CTA: Lilia’s life was changed for the better with the care she received through Operation Smile. Find out how you can make an impact in other children’s lives by visiting operationsmile.org today. 

Since the dawn of man, right-handedness has reigned supreme without much intel as to why. While our ape brethren also develop strong preferences toward one hand over another, there is generally an equal number of left- and right-handed individuals. Conversely, 90% of humans are right-handed. And now, scientists think they have discovered when this prevalence developed. 

A new study led by researchers at the University of Oxford suggests that it went hand-in-hand (pardon the pun) with two other major evolutionary shifts: walking on two legs and developing much larger brains.

Thousands of primates helped narrow the possibilities

The research, published in PLOS Biology, analyzed data from 2,025 monkeys and apes representing 41 different primate species.  All the evolutionary factors tested—tool use, diet, habitat, body size, social structure, brain size, movement patterns, etc.—seemed to match human data, leaving no real clues as to why our species decided to become almost exclusively right-handed. 

However, that changed once researchers added brain size and the ratio between arm length and leg length to their analysis. Suddenly humans, with their larger brains and legs much longer than their arms (a hallmark trait of bipedal walking), stood out from an evolutionary standpoint. 

These factors, along with other fossil records, help us imagine a timeline that looked something like this: 

Human ancestors (Ardipithecus and Australopithecus, respectively) began walking upright, allowing one hand to become specialized over the other. At this point, there would likely be an equal number of left-handers to right-handers. 

As our brains grow to incorporate more complex activities like using tools, communicating through a wide array of gestures, and participating in complex tasks like cooking and performing rituals, so too does our right-hand bias. In fact, the same 90% right-hand dominance is already present around 2.6 million years ago…before Homo sapiens and Neanderthals entered the scene. 

One side of the brain might hold an important clue

That third factor (complex tasks) is particularly interesting. Sequentially organized behaviors, also known as hierarchical action, are often believed to be something managed by the brain’s left hemisphere. The left hemisphere also controls all the motor functions and movements on the right side of the body. That said, all three elements, along with the fact that humans learn by imitating their parents, likely played equally important roles in the evolutionary narrative. 

Ancient “hobbits” added another intriguing clue

Backing this theory is the “hobbit” species discovered in Indonesia. This ancient humanoid species maintained smaller brains and the ability to climb while also walking. Conversely, it did not have nearly the same amount of right-hand dominance. 

There are, of course, more mysteries to unravel. Why some of us are still left-handed, for instance. Or whether the limb preference of other animals suggests a similar evolutionary pattern. But, regardless, the study reminds us that even the most seemingly simple quirks that make us human actually tell an incomprehensibly vast story of how we came to be in the first place. 

Many of us have walked into an old building and felt some kind of eeriness. Depending on your own personal beliefs, you might be inclined to attribute this feeling to the presence of........

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