Scandal Online

This is not mere nosiness. Psychology suggests three primal drivers:

Why can’t we look away? When a scandal breaks—whether it is a political sex scandal, a church cover-up, or a crypto crash—productivity across the world plummets. We refresh Twitter, we forward group chats, we devour the 10,000-word exposé. Scandal

Elizabeth Holmes promised a revolution in blood testing. When The Wall Street Journal revealed the technology was a sham, a corporate scandal erupted. Here, the transgression was not sex or violence but the betrayal of a modern sacred value: innovation backed by truth. The ritual played out in documentaries, podcasts, and courtrooms. Holmes’s conviction and imprisonment (2022) provided the cathartic punishment, reaffirming that even charismatic founders must obey factual and financial norms. This is not mere nosiness

Scandal as Ritual: Transgression, Mediation, and Social Repair We refresh Twitter, we forward group chats, we