Why are we so fascinated by tragedy?

Head of Psychology at Birmingham City University, Professor Craig Jackson, speaks exclusively to Public Sector.net to explain what it is about tragedy that fascinates us so much!

Photo: Missouri Division of Tourism

Head of Psychology at Birmingham City University, Professor Craig Jackson, speaks exclusively to Public Sector.net to explain what it is about tragedy that fascinates us so much!

I’ve always been somewhat mocked for my taste in films and TV shows. You see, on the surface, I’m a girly, make-up wearing, fashion-conscious, lovey-dovey, innocent girl. But inside is a dark, twisted creature, who has little-to-no time for chick-flicks in place of an obsession with horrors, thrillers and depressingly sad films.

Yes, I am that girl who you will see in the cinema watching Saw … surrounded by boys. I am the girl who loves to watch things that are downright disturbing. And on a good, more normal day, I will readily choose to rent a film that I know will make me cry.

But as it turns out, I’m not that strange, after all. Because following news that one of Australia’s wealthiest businessmen, Clive Palmer, is to resurrect the Titanic, building a new ship called Titanic II which is to set sail on its original voyage, it would seem that I’m not the only one fascinated by tragedy.

So what is it about misfortune that gets our juices flowing?

“There are three distinct areas that we’re fascinated by”, explains Professor Jackson.  “First off is the crime genre, including mass genocide and serial murders – in terms of programmes, movies, books and video games. The second one that’s very popular is natural disasters – we’re fascinated by volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis, and the third variant of that of course are man made disasters like the Titanic and oil spills. When there are innocent victims rather than people who deserve to die there’s a lot more interest in it because it could have been us wiped out on that bus or on the tube that was blown up.

“We do have this cult of the ‘twisted genius’, often known as the Hannibal Lector syndrome”, he continues. “You remember the name of the serial killer but you never remember the name of the victims. Harold Shipman killed about 250 people, but we don’t know any of their names. We can’t name anybody who was on the Titanic, either. People who commit these atrocities are somehow interesting and fascinating and dark.”

And there’s a name for this, he explains: Dark Tourism.

“Dark Tourism is certainly something that is creeping in”, he says. “We certainly do get more people coming on psychology courses who have been spurred on by CSI things – generation of students who I call the CSI generation – they see crime scene programmes and they think if they do a degree in psychology they’ll be able to go on and work as a forensic psychologist. These programmes do portray this massive, unrealistic fantasy, and therefore there’s a lot of misunderstanding.

“It’s nostalgia and it’s history – the Titanic is 100 years old. It’s more historical than tragic for some, and there’s an element of romance – because of it being a romantic liner and the love story that featured in the film by James Cameron. It’s so long ago that it becomes a historical romanticised interest, but I bet you right now if you tried to do a London 7th July bus bomb tour, where you travel around London on the bus that was blown up, not many people would take it. Because it’s distanced by history, people feel safer – it’s almost not real. In 100 years time, people will be doing the London 7th July bus bomb tour, in the same way that we do the Ripper walks now – 50 years ago people didn’t do that, but with the passing of time it becomes more acceptable.

“What we must remember also is that the power of reconstruction now is so much more alluring – when I was a kid we knew about the Titanic from books or encyclopaedias, and maybe a few photos. Now of course we’ve got people going down in submarines taking high resolution 3D images of boots and trousers and crockery – so the power of recreation now is much greater than it was even five years ago. I’m sure there will eventually be a Titanic virtual experience in a simulator, too!”