{"id":67321,"date":"2015-07-01T09:25:10","date_gmt":"2015-07-01T13:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=67321"},"modified":"2020-10-17T12:47:57","modified_gmt":"2020-10-17T16:47:57","slug":"tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch: UCF Prof Explains Why We Look at Gross Stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ever wonder why you can&#8217;t help but rubberneck at a car crash as you&#8217;re driving by?<\/p>\n<p>UCF Assistant Professor Bridget Rubenking says it&#8217;s all about evolution. Rubenking, an assistant professor of radio and television at the University of Central Florida&#8217;s Nicholson School of Communication, was a featured guest on HuffPost Live with host Nancy Redd on Thursday as part of a panel discussion on viewing gory images and videos on the Internet.<\/p>\n<p>During the 16-minute video, Rubenking shared findings from her research on why humans feel compelled to view things that elicit disgust, such as blood, guts and body products. Her research involved measuring various physiological responses experienced by 130 undergraduate students as they were shown video clips of disgusting scenes in entertainment media, such as the infamous toilet scene from the movie &#8220;Trainspotting.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We found that once disgust was introduced in a scene, people started paying attention a lot more&#8230;.Surprisingly few people stopped and turned away,&#8221; Rubenking said.<\/p>\n<p>Her research entitled \u201cCaptivated and Grossed Out: An Examination of Processing Core and Sociomoral Disgusts in Entertainment Media\u201d was published by the Journal of Communication in 2014, and has since been featured in media outlets such as the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sciencetech\/article-2657163\/Morbid-fascination-really-DOES-exist-Study-finds-physically-compelled-watch-gory-scenes-disgust-us.html\">Daily Mail<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Technology\/brain-gore\/story?id=24249549&amp;singlePage=true\">ABC News<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/nymag.com\/scienceofus\/2014\/06\/why-we-cant-look-away-from-disgusting-movies.html\">New York Magazine<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2014\/06\/140612142350.htm\">Science Daily<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a very evolutionary fit thing to rubberneck at gore and gross images. It\u2019s inherently human to pay attention to these things, because we want to avoid it. We tend to gawk at the scene of a car accident so that we know to avoid this happening to us,\u201d Rubenking said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ever wonder why you can&#8217;t help but rubberneck at a car crash as you&#8217;re driving by? UCF Assistant Professor Bridget Rubenking says it&#8217;s all about evolution. Rubenking, an assistant professor of radio and television at the University of Central Florida&#8217;s Nicholson School of Communication, was a featured guest on HuffPost Live with host Nancy Redd on Thursday as part of&hellip;","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":67324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5,23],"tags":[3393,14916],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-67321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","category-research","tag-nicholson-school-of-communication-and-media","tag-research"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UCF&#039;s Bridget Rubenking explains why we look at gross stuff<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"University of Central Florida professor Bridget Rubenking featured on HuffPost Live to explain why we&#039;re compelled to look at repulsive things.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Watch: UCF Prof Explains Why We Look at Gross Stuff\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"University of Central Florida professor Bridget Rubenking featured on HuffPost Live to explain why we&#039;re compelled to look at repulsive things.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UCF\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-07-01T13:25:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-17T16:47:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2015\/07\/Rubenking.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Schlueb \u201993 &#039;21MA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@UCF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@UCF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Schlueb \u201993 &#039;21MA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mark Schlueb \u201993 '21MA\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/c49b89acd64eb33d855225f922bd07a4\"},\"headline\":\"Watch: UCF Prof Explains Why We Look at Gross Stuff\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-01T13:25:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-17T16:47:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/\"},\"wordCount\":273,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2015\/07\/Rubenking.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nicholson School of Communication and Media\",\"Research\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Colleges &amp; Campus\",\"Research\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2015\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/\",\"name\":\"UCF's Bridget Rubenking explains why we look at gross stuff\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2015\/07\/Rubenking.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-01T13:25:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-17T16:47:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/c49b89acd64eb33d855225f922bd07a4\"},\"description\":\"University of Central Florida professor Bridget Rubenking featured on HuffPost Live to explain why we're compelled to look at repulsive things.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2015\/07\/Rubenking.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2015\/07\/Rubenking.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":1540,\"caption\":\"University of Central Florida Assistant Professor Bridget Rubenking\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Watch: UCF Prof Explains Why We Look at Gross Stuff\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/\",\"name\":\"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today\",\"description\":\"Central Florida Research, Arts, Technology, Student Life and College News, Stories and More\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/c49b89acd64eb33d855225f922bd07a4\",\"name\":\"Mark Schlueb \u201993 '21MA\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d4924778c237cb6a6ac852c094e147f12297b4d3a7384cd154cbb1214781a9da?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d4924778c237cb6a6ac852c094e147f12297b4d3a7384cd154cbb1214781a9da?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mark Schlueb \u201993 '21MA\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/author\/ma657918\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/#local-main-organization-logo\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\",\"caption\":\"University of Central Florida\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UCF's Bridget Rubenking explains why we look at gross stuff","description":"University of Central Florida professor Bridget Rubenking featured on HuffPost Live to explain why we're compelled to look at repulsive things.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Watch: UCF Prof Explains Why We Look at Gross Stuff","og_description":"University of Central Florida professor Bridget Rubenking featured on HuffPost Live to explain why we're compelled to look at repulsive things.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/","og_site_name":"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UCF","article_published_time":"2015-07-01T13:25:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-10-17T16:47:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":1540,"url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2015\/07\/Rubenking.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Mark Schlueb \u201993 '21MA","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@UCF","twitter_site":"@UCF","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Schlueb \u201993 '21MA","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/"},"author":{"name":"Mark Schlueb \u201993 '21MA","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/c49b89acd64eb33d855225f922bd07a4"},"headline":"Watch: UCF Prof Explains Why We Look at Gross Stuff","datePublished":"2015-07-01T13:25:10+00:00","dateModified":"2020-10-17T16:47:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/"},"wordCount":273,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2015\/07\/Rubenking.jpg","keywords":["Nicholson School of Communication and Media","Research"],"articleSection":["Colleges &amp; Campus","Research"],"inLanguage":"en-US","copyrightYear":"2015","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/","name":"UCF's Bridget Rubenking explains why we look at gross stuff","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2015\/07\/Rubenking.jpg","datePublished":"2015-07-01T13:25:10+00:00","dateModified":"2020-10-17T16:47:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/c49b89acd64eb33d855225f922bd07a4"},"description":"University of Central Florida professor Bridget Rubenking featured on HuffPost Live to explain why we're compelled to look at repulsive things.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2015\/07\/Rubenking.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2015\/07\/Rubenking.jpg","width":1024,"height":1540,"caption":"University of Central Florida Assistant Professor Bridget Rubenking"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Watch: UCF Prof Explains Why We Look at Gross Stuff"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/","name":"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today","description":"Central Florida Research, Arts, Technology, Student Life and College News, Stories and More","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/c49b89acd64eb33d855225f922bd07a4","name":"Mark Schlueb \u201993 '21MA","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d4924778c237cb6a6ac852c094e147f12297b4d3a7384cd154cbb1214781a9da?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d4924778c237cb6a6ac852c094e147f12297b4d3a7384cd154cbb1214781a9da?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mark Schlueb \u201993 '21MA"},"url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/author\/ma657918\/"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/tune-in-ucf-prof-will-explain-why-we-look-at-gross-stuff\/#local-main-organization-logo","url":"","contentUrl":"","caption":"University of Central Florida"}]}},"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2015\/07\/Rubenking-199x300.jpg","primary_category":5,"primary_tag":3393,"author_byline":"Christin Senior","acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67321"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114611,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67321\/revisions\/114611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67321"},{"taxonomy":"tu_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tu_author?post=67321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}