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Many of these images are straight-up strange without context. For many people, that can be quite jarring and unsettling, yet this type of content nonetheless draws fascination. Why is that?
According to Jonathan Mason, Edge Digital’s managing editor, it has to do with how we humans are wired to link fear and curiosity together.
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The brain is designed to prioritize and flag potential threats and uncertainty,” Mason told Bored Panda. “So it's an extremely effective hook that makes audiences want to check for content, scan the comments for explanations, and just generally engage with the content at a higher level than they would with something that makes sense on the face of it.”
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From the fear of the unknown, there is also curiosity. Everyone loves a good mystery trope, which makes pieces of content with a peculiar theme resonate with people.
“'Strange' content mixes novelty and ambiguity and grabs people's attention, so now people design content that way on purpose,” Simplee Digital co-founder and CEO Rafael Rositsan explained.
Rositsan further noted that strange content is similar to rage-baiting in that they elicit a strong reaction from the audience. Creators are also aware of the people’s “permanent appetite for anything weird and unsettling.
Content that elicits strong emotions is an automatic scroll-stopper, which, according to Rositsan, is also why it works so well in drawing attention. That helps the algorithm do its work.
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“Weird visuals tend to win attention because they break the pattern of everything else you’re scrolling past,” Rositsan explained. “Once someone rewatches, comments, or sends the post to a friend, the system reads that as valuable engagement and pushes it further, which is why niche formats like analog horror can suddenly become mainstream.”
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