Kanye West is a Ticking Time Bomb
Is anyone else nervous about how this ends?
There’s something particularly disturbing about the cavalier news coverage surrounding Kanye West; almost like we’re tuned into a train wreck from the safety of our cell phones. Let’s be honest, something is intriguing about tragedy, and I’m guilty of a subtle obsession myself. My Watch Later list is loaded with true crime coverage and episodes of the latest season of Snapped. Morbid curiosity is far from a new phenomenon, the scientific study of “Rubbernecking” reveals there’s nothing rare or recent about our obsession with the off-putting. Some psychologists argue that rubbernecking, sometimes referred to as “gapers’ delay” or “gapers’ block,” is the result of an unexplainable human urge to experience calamity, so long as the ride ends right before impact. Picture an amusement park for emotions, and you’re on a rollercoaster dashing towards disaster — only the danger is totally tributary, and the ugly ending is someone else’s. It’s a thrill ride with none of the risks; adrenaline with none of the drawbacks.
In fact, according to clinical psychologist, Matthew Goldfine Ph.D., fear and excitement elicit similar physiological reactions, both activating the hypothalamus and triggering the release of dopamine, the “happy hormone.” Notably, studies find that our ability to predict the outcome of the affair also has a way…