Villains We Love to Love (2 Pt Episode)
Jen and Jess discuss the psychology behind why we love to love a great villain. Stay tuned to the next episode to hear about the villains we love to hate and give a shoutout to some of our listener's favorite baddies.
Main Topic - Villains We Love To Love
From Wired.com's article: 'Why Do Supervillains Fascinate Us? A Psychological Perspective', written by: Travis Langley
Views vary on what drives our enduring interest in superhuman bad guys.
Psychiatrist Carl Jung believed we need to confront and understand our own hidden nature to grow as human beings.
Sigmund Freud viewed human nature as inherently antisocial, biologically driven by the undisciplined id's pleasure principle to get what we want when we want it – born to be bad but held back by society.
Humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow held that people who haven't met their most basic needs will have difficulty maturing. Some people who are unable to overcome social shortcomings fantasize about obtaining any means, good or bad, to satisfy every need and greed.
Ivan Pavlov would say we can learn to associate supervillains with other things we value – like entertainment, strength, freedom or the heroes themselves.
Behaviorist B.F. Skinner would likely argue that we can find it reinforcing to watch or read about supervillains, but without knowing what's reinforcing about them, that's a bit like saying it's rewarding because it's rewarding.
"Even the best amongst us have moments of outright deplorable behavior. We all want to be Luke Skywalker, but sometimes we’re Vader for a day or two and if we don’t clean that mess up, we have a way of becoming Emperor Palpatine." (From Cinemathread.com's article: 'Why We Love Villains', written by: Dan Johnson)
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