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Why Do We Find Violence/Misfortune Funny?

Ivy

Strongly Ambivalent
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
Messages
23,989
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
6
Sorry, didn't see the "to me". I feel that propensity towards violence is inherent. Mostly because I have none and violent video games repel me instead of attract me. I guess I see them as a manifestation rather then a cause. Perhaps even used as indicators (Drawn to violence - higher possibility that the individual enjoys violence).

I think this may be an example of superimposing your mindset onto others and assuming they approach experiences in the same way you do. Video game violence repels you, so you assume that if it doesn't repel others they have violent tendencies. I don't think that's necessarily so-- maybe they are curious about game programming and want to see how far the game programmers set the game up to allow players to go.

That, and I dont think my NFy little 8 year old daughter enjoys real violence because she likes to make the Sims suffer, and neither would you if you met her. :D
 

snegledmaca

New member
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
145
Video game violence repels you, so you assume that if it doesn't repel others they have violent tendencies.

I was referring that because I haven't learned to be violent from violent video games I don't think it's something you learn. And that I don't think they cause people to become violent. I merely proposed that the people who enjoy playing them could be more prone to violence. Like you state, it's one's motivations behind actions that are of prime relevance.
 

Ivy

Strongly Ambivalent
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
Messages
23,989
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
6
I was referring that because I haven't learned to be violent from violent video games I don't think it's something you learn.

Maybe I'm missing a link here-- but wouldn't that only follow if you became violent despite not playing video games?

snegledmaca said:
And that I don't think they cause people to become violent. I merely proposed that the people who enjoy playing them could be more prone to violence. Like you state, it's one's motivations behind actions that are of prime relevance.

True, but you also said you thought it could be an indication of violent tendencies, and I don't find that to be true at all.
 

snegledmaca

New member
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
145
Maybe I'm missing a link here-- but wouldn't that only follow if you became violent despite not playing video games?

Well not necessarily. How and if I became violent would be irrelevant for the time being. The main point would be that I played a violent video game and it didn't make me violent.
 

Ivy

Strongly Ambivalent
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
Messages
23,989
MBTI Type
INFP
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6
Well not necessarily. How and if I became violent would be irrelevant for the time being. The main point would be that I played a violent video game and it didn't make me violent.

Okay, I think I got confused early on here when you said that violent video games repulsed you. I assumed that meant you didn't play them. :)
 

wildcat

New member
Joined
Jun 8, 2007
Messages
3,622
MBTI Type
INTP
Okay, I think I got confused early on here when you said that violent video games repulsed you. I assumed that meant you didn't play them. :)
snegledmaca:

I played a violent video game and it didn't make me violent.

Very good Ivy.
 

INTJMom

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 28, 2007
Messages
5,413
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5w4
I was reminded of this distubring fact of life as my husband played the Sims 2 earlier. He had made a redneck couple which he named the Simbies (a name I came up with the first time I played).

All was going well until I kept hearing the sounds of his two Sims falling asleep from sheer exhaustion. (The game plays the tune of "Go To Sleep" every time this happens.) He explained to me that both his Sims were miserable and he was trying to let them die because one of Mrs. Simby's desires was to be saved from death (by having her husband beg the Grim Reaper not to take her when he comes). He then explained to me that both of them were probably going to die. I asked him, "Why both?" and he really couldn't answer. Eventually a fire was set in the game, and I had to listen to them screaming for their lives as he watched, laughed, and did nothing to save them.

Now, I realize the Sims are completely fictional. "They're actually just programs," he pointed out. And, yeah, I can completely understand taking pleasure in killing a program - say Microsoft Word or AOL - but not simulated humans.

We talked about this some after church, and I guess we see each other's point of view a little bit better, but I think, me being a girl, and him being a guy, it's basically something kinda natural and will probably never change. He will always see it as "just a game", and I will always see that it is essentially simulated torture.

Now, I'm not saying Wallie's a bad guy at all. I don't mean to say anything bad about him. I realize this is simply a male phenomenon I will probably never fully relate to. But, is there any explanation for it? I mean, like I told him, since he's an INFP and I'm an ISTJ, he should technically be more feeling than I am. (And, admittedly, he pretty much is in real life, lol.)

Also, he pointed out - all humans tend to laugh at smaller catastrophes, as evidenced by America's Funniest Home Videos. What is WRONG with us???
I don't think that ALL people laugh at violence or misfortune.
I don't.
I never have.
I think a lot of testosterone loaded human-types think it's funny.

Some women do it, too, so I don't know what the prerequisite is.
 

wildcat

New member
Joined
Jun 8, 2007
Messages
3,622
MBTI Type
INTP
I was reminded of this distubring fact of life as my husband played the Sims 2 earlier. He had made a redneck couple which he named the Simbies (a name I came up with the first time I played).

All was going well until I kept hearing the sounds of his two Sims falling asleep from sheer exhaustion. (The game plays the tune of "Go To Sleep" every time this happens.) He explained to me that both his Sims were miserable and he was trying to let them die because one of Mrs. Simby's desires was to be saved from death (by having her husband beg the Grim Reaper not to take her when he comes). He then explained to me that both of them were probably going to die. I asked him, "Why both?" and he really couldn't answer. Eventually a fire was set in the game, and I had to listen to them screaming for their lives as he watched, laughed, and did nothing to save them.

Now, I realize the Sims are completely fictional. "They're actually just programs," he pointed out. And, yeah, I can completely understand taking pleasure in killing a program - say Microsoft Word or AOL - but not simulated humans.

We talked about this some after church, and I guess we see each other's point of view a little bit better, but I think, me being a girl, and him being a guy, it's basically something kinda natural and will probably never change. He will always see it as "just a game", and I will always see that it is essentially simulated torture.

Now, I'm not saying Wallie's a bad guy at all. I don't mean to say anything bad about him. I realize this is simply a male phenomenon I will probably never fully relate to. But, is there any explanation for it? I mean, like I told him, since he's an INFP and I'm an ISTJ, he should technically be more feeling than I am. (And, admittedly, he pretty much is in real life, lol.)

Also, he pointed out - all humans tend to laugh at smaller catastrophes, as evidenced by America's Funniest Home Videos. What is WRONG with us???
The Dutch poet Achterberg was dying, but his wife did not know it.

The wife asked: Shall I make some potatoes?
Achterberg: Ja, maar niet te veel.
 

wildcat

New member
Joined
Jun 8, 2007
Messages
3,622
MBTI Type
INTP
I don't think that ALL people laugh at violence or misfortune.
I don't.
I never have.
I think a lot of testosterone loaded human-types think it's funny.

Some women do it, too, so I don't know what the prerequisite is.
The prerequisite is the human condition.
 

Dufresne

New member
Joined
May 14, 2007
Messages
23
MBTI Type
INFP
I have a theory about this. I'm really not sure what I think about it. Here it is:

When people see misfortune they are saddened by it, and another part of their brain, in order to keep them happy makes them laugh to counteract the pain.
Kind of like how masochists get sexual pleasure from pain, because their bodies release endorphins to keep them from going into shock.

This definitely isn't true with some kinds of humor, but I sometimes find myself laughing hard, but deep down wanting it to stop.
 
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