If you’re here, you might be morbidly curious.
If you’re here and you’re not sure if you’re morbidly curious, you can take my morbid curiosity quiz to find out.
Hi, I’m Coltan Scrivner. I’m an author, horror entertainment producer, and behavioral scientist affiliated with the Recreational Fear Lab at Aarhus University and in the Psychology Department at Arizona State University.
I research and write about the psychological and evolutionary foundations of why humans are morbidly curious. I investigate questions like, why are we fascinated by true crime and serial killers? What are the psychological foundations of the horror genre? And why are stories and art throughout history are replete with terrible monsters, nefarious witches, and haunting spirits?
If these questions also interest you, then you’ll enjoy my Substack.
My new book, Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can’t Look Away, weaves together years of research on this topic in an easily digestible fashion. It will be released on October 7, 2025, and you can pre-order it from anywhere you buy books.
The book covers a lot of ground, but I’ve done a lot of thinking and writing that didn’t make it into that book. This is where my Substack comes in.
In many ways, my Substack is sort of a companion to the book. It’s a deeper dive into some of the more fascinating topics. You don’t need to read my book to understand what I’m writing about on my Substack, but it would give you a much fuller context of the research and ideas around the topics I write about.
For a limited time, you can even get 3 free months of the paid version of my Substack if you preorder my book. Simply take a screenshot of the pre-order confirmation and email it to MorbidlyCuriousBook@gmail.com.
That’s an $18 freebie for purchasing a $19 book. Not a bad deal. This will unlock my entire catalogue of posts, including popular ones like:
Why true crime is so popular (especially among women)
and many more.
Why subscribe?
Free subscribers will get access to posts about the psychology behind morbid curiosity. These posts will be filled with the latest science on true crime, horror movies, and our fascination with the macabre. I’ll also write about topics that intersect with morbid curiosity, such as empathy, psychopathy, dark personality traits, hatred, and more.
If you’re a paid subscriber, you’ll get full access to all of my posts and the opportunity to post your thoughts and engage with others in the comment section. And, of course, you’ll be guilting me into producing more content, which hopefully is good for both us.
Stay up-to-date
If I’m working on a new project or writing about a new idea, my subscribers will get the exclusive first look. I’m always working on something fun, and I’m excited to share it with you all. For my paid subscribers I’m looking forward to engaging with you in the comment section.
