Psychological process underlying morbid curiosity

• Project/Area Number: 18H01102
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 10040:Experimental psychology-related
• Research Institution: Kochi University of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Murayama Kou 高知工科大学, 総合研究所, 客員教授 (10748726)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 繁桝 博昭 高知工科大学, 情報学群, 教授 (90447855)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2021)
• Budget Amount: ¥16,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥13,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥3,900,000); Fiscal Year 2020: ¥7,670,000 (Direct Cost: ¥5,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,770,000); Fiscal Year 2019: ¥7,670,000 (Direct Cost: ¥5,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,770,000); Fiscal Year 2018: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
• Keywords: 好奇心 / 情報探索 / 知的好奇心 / 報酬系

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Why do people often spontaneously see negative stimuli such as horror movies? What is the psychological mechanisms underlying this phenomenon? We conducted a series of behavioral experiments (including experiments with virtual reality) to answer these questions. The results showed that people spontaneously view negative stimuli partly because they are relatively novel (novelty hypothesis) and people mispredict their negative emotional feelings (misprediction hypothesis). However, these mechanisms did not completely explain participants' behavior, leaving some open questions for future work on the topic.

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

どうして私たちは怖いものをついみたくなってしまうのだろう。今回の研究では，（１）「怖いもの」というものが新鮮に感じられるから，（２）こうした怖いものの実際の怖さを過小評価してしまうから，人はつい怖いとわかっていてもみてしまうことが明らかになった。こうした怖いもの見たさの心理を知ることは，それ自体が基礎研究として価値があるだけでなく，たとえば「なぜ人はダメだとしりつつついドラッグをしてしまうのか」などといった現在の社会問題に対する一つの答えを与えてくれる。

Research Products

• [Journal Article] A reward-learning framework of knowledge acquisition: An integrated account of curiosity, interest, and intrinsic-extrinsic rewards. (2022)
  • Author(s): Murayama, K.
  • Journal Title: Psychological Review Volume: 129 Issue: 1 Pages: 175-198
  • DOI: 10.1037/rev0000349
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] Shared striatal activity in decisions to satisfy curiosity and hunger at the risk of electric shocks. (2020)
  • Author(s): Lau, J. K., Ozono, H., Kuratomi, K., Komiya, A. & Murayama, K.
  • Journal Title: Nature Human Behavior Volume: - Issue: 5 Pages: 531-543
  • DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-0848-3
  • Peer Reviewed / Int'l Joint Research
• [Journal Article] Surprise, Curiosity, and Confusion Promote Knowledge Exploration: Evidence for Robust Effects of Epistemic Emotions (2019)
  • Author(s): Vogl, E., Pekrun, R., Murayama, K., Loderer, K. & Schubert, S.
  • Journal Title: Frontiers in Psychology Volume: 12 Pages: 2474-2474
  • DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02474
  • Peer Reviewed / Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
• [Journal Article] Process account of curiosity and interest: A reward-learning perspective (2019)
  • Author(s): Murayama, K. FitzGibbon, L., & Sakaki, M.
  • Journal Title: Open Science Framework Preprint (https://osf.io/hbcz5) Volume: -
  • DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/hbcz5
  • Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] バーチャルリアリティを用いた怖いもの見たさの心理の検討 (2019)
  • Author(s): 繁桝 博昭，玉井 颯一，村山 航
  • Organizer: 日本心理学会第83回大会
• [Presentation] なぜ見たくないものを見てしまうのか―刺激の新規性が個人の選好に及ぼす影響― (2019)
  • Author(s): 玉井颯一・繁桝博昭・村山航
  • Organizer: 日本基礎心理学会第37回大会
• [Presentation] A reward-learning framework of autonomous knowledge acquisition: An integrated theory of curiosity, interest, and extrinsic-intrinsic motivation. (2019)
  • Author(s): Kou Murayama
  • Organizer: Tuebingen Summer Series on Personality Psychology
  • Int'l Joint Research / Invited
• [Remarks] Kou Murayama's HP
  • URL: http://koumurayama.com/