RE: Enjoyment from watching others get hurt, and sociopathy
November 27, 2017 at 2:30 pm
(This post was last modified: November 27, 2017 at 2:54 pm by Anomalocaris.)
(November 27, 2017 at 10:35 am)Catholic_Lady Wrote: When you think about the notion of taking enjoyment from watching other people get hurt, you think of a sociopath, right? You think of someone who isn't quite "normal," who doesn't have empathy and therefore isn't bothered by the pain of others... And even worse, actually likes seeing it. Thankfully, sociopaths only make up 4% of the population. Supposedly.
But I was having a conversation about it with someone the other day, and they made a good point. They pointed out that the "best parts" in watching contact sports like football, hockey, MMA, etc... are the big blows. They then said "is it really abnormal to enjoy watching others get hurt?"
This stumped me. While I personally don't take enjoymeny from watching that in sports, or even in movies where people are only getting pretend hurt, I must admit that MANY seemingly normal, non sociopathic people do. The popularity of MMA, by itself, is testimony to this... and how everyone cheers and gets excited when a football player gets a major blow, etc.
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And then I thought about the Colloseum in Ancient Rome, and how popular that was - watching people get eaten alive by animals or forced to kill each other with primitive weapons. It was fun for people. Thanks to a Netflix doc, I learned a few weeks ago that 40% of internet porn being viewed depicts violence against women. 40%! And people jerk off to that. And then I thought about the popularity of the Saw movies and how sadistic they are.
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What to make of this? I mean, if so many people enjoy watching others in pain in one form or another, is sociopathy even a thing?? How in the world is it so normal to enjoy watching other people's pain if we supposedly have empathy?
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Clearly these people cant all be sociopaths. Thoughts?
I don't think whether one can derive certain enjoyment out of situations where others find uncomfortable, or experience some degree of injury defines whether one is a sociopath.
Sociopath as I understand it is someone who lacks any ability to internalize his society's basic precepts about what is right or wrong, and it unable to empathize with others regarding the perceived consequences to others of his own actions.
In our society there is a basic assumption that if someone knowingly get into a situation in which they may be injured in expectation of being rewarded, it is not wrong for others to derive enjoyment from the situation in which they've put themselves.
