Why do people rubber neck when they see an accident?

Question

Curiosity kills the cat...move along..

Answer 1

idk, its just a habit that humans have, they wanna see how effed up the car is and if anyone is mangled and folded up like an accordian( spelling )

Answer 2

Morbid fascination

Answer 3

I personally try best not to look as people deserve their privacy especially in these types of situations.

I believe it is human nature to want to know what is happening, however cruel it is to do so.

This is why accidents cause traffic flow problems; not bc of the accident so much bc they move as much off the road as possible without taking the chance on injuring someone further by the move.  People slowing down to view/rubberneck is what usually causes the fraffic jam.  Once you get past the incident the traffic flowing at the normal pace; here in Sugar Land/Houston, we have traffic problem everyday with a problem to rubberneck at in the first place.

April Hall

Answer 4

Schadenfreude. That is the answer. People like taking pleasure in other people pain. It's kina like watching the movie saw. Its entertaining because you can wintess someone elses misfortune without directly being involved.

(this deserves best answer)

Answer 5

Nosiness and sometimes wondering if they will see someone they know out there.

Answer 6

Human nature.  Mainly curiosity.  Sometimes annoying or even dangerous.  Hard to avoid though.

Answer 7

Seriously, unless there are flames shooting into the sky, which I only saw once (the funny thing is that time noone slowed down), people should not slow down. It's never interesting. The worst is when an ambulance shows up unnecessarily because I know there are probably a bunch of teenagers slowing down thinking they might see a dead body.

Answer 8

They might as well since those in front of them have slowed the traffic down already.

I hate rubberneckers and don't look myself since I don't like traffic jams at all. I try to move along as fast as I can and blow my horn for the rb'er in front of me to move it along.

Answer 9

it`s just like michael jordan visiting you in your own house and that does not happen everyday.......some drivers slow down just for a precaution,some flown car part on the other side of the road or maybe the other accidented car itself.........but once the parts or the car has been removed,expect that there will always be a little bit of traffic................from the start of the accident `til the end,cars are piling up on the road `coz sometimes,a three lane road is made one over the accident scene/area and that really slows the flow of the traffic............and that`s what really happens when there`s a road accident,rescuers have to secure the whole area first just to make sure there would be no other accident that will occur during the rescue........that`s why traffic flow slows down and not curiousity.

Answer 10

Wanna see what happened and some people are easily distracted. Bad driving habit

Answer 11

suppose so they can gloat to their mates and sound interesting!!!!

Answer 12

You already said the answer, so why waste the 5 pts. in asking?

Answer 13

they get curious.

Answer 14

human nature I guess