posted on Jul, 23 2009 @ 12:26 PM
My twelve year old son just called me on the phone. He wanted to know why his father, sister, neices and nephews wanted to go down the street to see
a car accident that killed the driver just a short time before.
He said he didn't understand why people would want to go see death. He stayed home alone while everyone in the house ran out the door to go see and
called me to ask why they did that. His heart was broken and he felt very confused.
I don't know either and don't understand it. But we had a very long conversation about empathy and compassion and how different people act
differently in situations. He just could not grasp the reason for people wanting to go running off to see a tragedy in person.
What do you think? Is there something wrong with people who stop everything to chase ambulances? Or is there something wrong with people who prefer
NOT to see things like that?
What you would have done in a situation like this?
Rubbernecking has also been described as a human trait that is associated with morbid curiosity.[2] It can be the cause of traffic jams (sometimes
referred to as "Gaper's blocks"), as drivers slow down to see what happened in a crash. It is also a cause of accidents as drivers become
distracted and change their rate of travel while other drivers are also distracted. Rubbernecking has also come to be used more generally to describe
voyeuristic interest in someone else's "business" or difficulties.
rubbernecking