It is absolutely human nature to gawk at a tragedy, a fire, a car accident, a murder scene, a train wreck. The bulk of our entertainment and news industries are based on morbid curiosity (said the true crime addict). I don’t think why we do it is a big mystery. Early humans who were curious about tragedies and their causes gawked at such things and learned to at least try to prevent them. Early humans who were indifferent to tragedy learned nothing and had lower survival rates as a result. Our morbid curiosity is evolutionarily ingrained.