Coltan Scrivner

My new book "Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can't Look Away" is now available for pre-order from wherever you buy books. (pre-order link in reply). If you think your followers would be interested, please share it with them!

You can treat life like a department store or like a thrift store. The former will leave you perpetually frustrated. The latter will open you up to surprising joy. /thread

Its really striking to me that we learned about the atom and the distant universe before we learned many basic facts about human behavior, though we've had the relevant data there for hundreds of thousands of years.

Endorsed.

One more week to submit your abstracts to #ZAMM2025 See the link for further information, or reach out to @AthenaAktipis and @MorbidPsych zombiemed.org/#zamm2025

Is Saw really just a detective thriller?

I might start doing more of these posts about films that some people argue are/aren't horror. Terminator, Predator, Get Out. There are tons of them! morbidlycuriousthoughts.com/p/is-saw-a-thr…

I recently read an op-ed that claimed Saw was more of a psychological thriller than a horror film. It certainly has some thriller components. James Wan and Jason Blum also called it a thriller, but I wasn't so sure. So, I analyzed it using the Horror Formula to see. 🧵

28 Years Later was a cool movie, here's a thread on what to me was its most interesting anthropological observation, regarding the treatment of the head after death. Numerous spoilers below.

Next Episode is up! Dave and David discuss examples of good evolutionary psychology. epthepod.podbean.com/e/good-evoluti… podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/evo… youtu.be/4CrMnhPHPec?si…

Barnes & Noble is having a 25% off upcoming books sale for rewards members July 8-11. Use code PREORDER25 to get my new book, Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can’t Look Away, for just $14.25 barnesandnoble.com/w/morbidly-cur…

Barnes & Noble is having a 25% off upcoming books sale for rewards members. Use code PREORDER25 to get my new book, Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can’t Look Away, for just $14.25 barnesandnoble.com/w/morbidly-cur…

i sent this screenshot from a steve jobs email to a friend & we ended up talking about how so many people plan so aggressively now that they leave no space for natural chaos. you ask someone when they’re free & they hit you with “september 15th.” months out. especially in nyc,…

I've argued that a formidability imbalance between the protagonist and antagonist is central to the fear in horror stories (and may even define the genre). Narrative fear is a function of protagonist vulnerability.

Most of my work in the past few years has been on the paradox of horror: why we do sometimes seek out narratives that frighten us? The answer seems clear now: Because we are morbidly curious. But what is it about these narratives that frightens us?