In this episode, we jump right into the concept of the contagion heuristic. That's scientist speak for the idea that most of us believe, at least on some level of consciousness, that good and evil are physically contagious traits. It's a form of magical thinking that buys into the idea that a person's essence is transferrable to others through contact with inanimate objects, like clothing, created artwork, writings, locks of hair (or nail trimmings - GROSS!!!!!)
Now, along this line of thinking, most of us would think of any number of different forms of memorabilia from an autographed jersey from a popular athlete, or even a treasured family heirloom can give us positive feelings of connection with the person who used to own or wear that item. A cute film from 2002, "Like Mike" starring Lil' Bow Wow, is a great example of what we're talking about. You can check it out here.
But what about the darker side of the equation? Did you know that there are several websites where you can purchase MURDERABILIA? This is a term first coined by Andy Kahan, director of the Huston PD Crime Victims Office to identify collectible artifacts related to murders, homicides or the perpetrators of violent crimes. Who are these collectors, and why do they want any of this stuff?? It's hard to say, but there are several different working theories (see here) trying to explain the reasoning. Slate Magazine published an excellent article in 2011, you can read it here.
It was also very interesting to us that one of the biggest purveyors of Murderabilia collectibles was located in our very own city of Jacksonville, FL. If we were any sort of journalists, we should have contacted this dude and interviewed him for the show, but that just seemed like too much work. Besides, he's been interviewed by our local news teams on more than one occasion. If you're curious, take a peek here.
To prevent this episode from being a complete and total bummer, we wanted to give you a chance to take the Disgust-Sensitivity Test for yourself. You can find it here. Discovering what disgusts you, certainly is a Weirdly Human thing to do.
Stay tuned Weirdos! We'll be back with another episode soon.
