Introduction
Evil attracts us. Not in its real and painful form, but in its symbolic representation: stories, chronicles, novels, films, tales whispered in half-light. It unsettles us, yet we do not look away. Why are we attracted to evil so persistently and universally?
Because evil—especially in its most extreme expression: murder—acts as a distorted mirror in which we recognize parts of ourselves that we prefer to keep hidden. Understanding a killer does not mean justifying them. It means understanding the limits of the human being, those fragile edges where reason cracks and morality is put to the test. Reflecting on why we are attracted to evil is, ultimately, an exploration of our own condition.
The Ancestral Attraction to Danger
Our Brain Is Designed to Look at Risk
For thousands of years, survival depended on detecting threats. The human brain is programmed to focus on anything that could harm us:
• Unusual movements.
• Unpredictable stimuli.
• Behaviors outside the norm.
The killer embodies that primitive risk. They are not just an individual; they are a reminder that safety is an illusion. This is why the question of why we are attracted to evil begins with our most basic biology.
Fear as a Learning Mechanism
When we observe evil—even from the safe distance of a story—our brain “trains” itself: how did it happen?, how could it be avoided?, why did it occur? Looking at evil is an unconscious way of preparing ourselves to face it. Fascination is not passivity; it is a deeply rooted mechanism of learning and adaptation.
Transgression as a Psychological Window
The Killer Breaks What Must Not Be Broken
In every culture there is a fundamental moral pact: do not take another human life. The killer breaks it. This brutal transgression awakens profound questions:
• What makes a person cross that boundary?
• Is such darkness innate, or is it forged over time?
• What happens inside a mind that does not feel what we take for granted?
The forbidden attracts us because it reveals cracks that we all fear we might possess. This is why, when analyzing why we are attracted to evil, we inevitably explore our own ethical limits.
The Other’s Abyss as a Refuge
Observing someone else’s darkness allows us to distance ourselves from our own. It is a reassuring separation: the monster is outside, not inside. Another’s evil becomes a psychological refuge onto which we project what we refuse to acknowledge in ourselves.
The Pleasure of Understanding the Incomprehensible
The Mind as a Puzzle
Every killer—real or fictional—poses a question with no immediate answer. Fascination arises from the attempt to reconstruct that mental puzzle:
• Patterns.
• Trauma.
• Impulses.
• Contradictions.
Human beings enjoy solving mysteries, and the human mind is the greatest mystery of all. Understanding why we are attracted to evil also means understanding our obsession with giving meaning to chaos.
The Duality That Defines Us
At its core, what attracts us is not the killer, but the disturbing possibility that all of us are capable of unthinkable acts under extreme circumstances. The line separating good from evil is thinner than we would like to admit, and that fragility is deeply unsettling.
Evil as a Cultural Mirror
Society Projects Its Fears onto Killers
Each era fears different things:
• Madness.
• Poverty.
• Inequality.
• Hidden violence.
• Loss of control.
The killer symbolizes these collective fears. That is why their stories function as cultural rituals through which we channel what we cannot resolve in everyday life. Analyzing why we are attracted to evil is also an analysis of the society that observes it.
Morbid Curiosity and the Need for Order
Stories about evil allow us to look without risk, understand without suffering, and judge without consequences. Crime is chaos; the explanation of crime is order. Human beings constantly seek to impose order on the abyss, and this need explains much of our attraction to evil.
The Uncomfortable Question: Could It Be Me?
The Jungian Shadow
Carl Jung proposed that we all have a “shadow”: desires, impulses, or thoughts we repress because they contradict our conscious identity. Killers embody that shadow taken to the extreme. They attract us because they represent what we fear we could become.
Safe Distance
Literature, cinema, and stories allow us to observe without becoming involved. They create a symbolic space where darkness can be examined without real consequences—a moral and emotional laboratory in which to explore why we are attracted to evil.
The Need to Understand in Order to Survive
Crime as an Emotional Map
When we try to understand the killer’s mind, we are actually trying to understand:
• Human fragility.
• The limits of morality.
• The causes of suffering.
• Our own fears.
Understanding evil is not a morbid act; it is an attempt to give meaning to existence and to anticipate what could destroy us.
Fascination as a Defense Mechanism
Paradoxically, interest in evil is a way of protecting ourselves from it. Those who understand how a predator thinks have more tools to recognize them, avoid them, or confront them. This is why asking why we are attracted to evil serves a deeply defensive function.
Featured Quote
“Evil does not fascinate because of its violence, but because of what it reveals about the human heart.”
— Victorian psychological essay (apocryphal)
Conclusion
Looking at the killer is looking at a part of the human condition we prefer not to recognize. Evil attracts us because it forces us to reflect on ourselves, on our fragility and our moral limits. We do not seek to glorify violence, but to understand the void in which it forms. In that painful and necessary understanding lies the true reason why we are attracted to evil.
