"The 'cursed image' is an internet phenomenon," Frank T. McAndrew, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Knox College, told Bored Panda. "It is an image that is unsettling because there is something not quite right about it, but we often cannot pinpoint exactly why it is so disturbing."
"It may combine things that should not go together (a cherry pie with a bleeding human face baked into it?) or it presents an object in a context where it does not belong," the professor continued. As for why they make us feel uncomfortable, he explained that we do not like uncertainty. "We like to make sense of the world around us, and things that defy our expectations or things that are difficult to categorize throw us off our game."
Yet, many people enjoy watching such creepy scenarios while mindlessly scrolling through their social media feeds. "People who are tolerant of ambiguity or open to new experiences may be drawn to them because they offer a pleasant diversion from normality and present us with a cognitive puzzle to solve," he added, saying that others simply find them unpleasant.
"We are programmed by evolution to intently focus on unexpected or unusual things in our environment. It is essential to determine if such things pose some sort of threat to us or not, and cursed images hijack the part of our brain that is responsible for protecting us," McAndrew noted.
To learn more about the Cursed Image Dealer project and the inspiration behind it, we reached out to the creator of this Instagram account who was kind enough to have a little chat about it. They revealed that they started this meme account at the end of their sophomore year of high school. "I thought cursed images were cool and a not very well saturated area of the 'market' so it was a perfect theme," they told Bored Panda.
While they don’t remember the exact reason behind creating this page, they mentioned that they "wanted clout" and a meme account "is pretty easy to run as opposed to me becoming a traditional influencer."
"I had a feeling it would become popular and, for some reason, I have a strong memory of telling a girl in my class who I wanted to be friends with that I started one and she seemed extremely uninterested," the creator added, wondering if she would care now when the account has amassed so many followers.
While Instagram is the unofficial home of avocado toasts, latte foam art, and carefully staged aesthetics, people there truly seem to enjoy the disturbing posts others share. "I think people like seeing cursed images because there is a sort of shock factor to the good ones," they told us.
"The classic images are confusing and a little unsettling because you can’t really tell what is going on in them, and people's minds try and fill in the blanks," they explained. "I think they scare some people in the same ambiguous way people have a fear of the dark; they don’t understand what is being hidden from them."
The curator of the account mentioned that they don’t like traditional gory shock videos but enjoy the subtle images they post. "I feel like there is an almost intellectual quality to them" since people online could try to analyze the "aura" behind them. "In a way, they almost seem to be an extension of the Creepypasta trend in the early 2010s."
When asked about their followers, they revealed that sometimes they can be quite active and engaged in their content, and other times the creator feels a bit ignored. "I’ve noticed a trend I find to be very unusual," they said. "When I first started, my account grew slowly [and] pretty steady until I started getting close to 100K."
"It started skyrocketing and I remember getting like a thousand new followers every few days," they even mentioned a point where they received this number of new joiners every day. "It was crazy."
After celebrating it with their friends and teachers, the growth of this account slowed down, and the creator is not exactly sure why. They guessed that cursed images might be losing their popularity or their account might be shadowbanned since their peers are finding themselves in a similar situation.
"You’d think a large account like this one should be able to consistently gain followers", but that’s not the case. Still, they wanted to make it clear that they’re not at all complaining. They even asked their followers about this and many replied that they still enjoy their content, which every creator is truly happy to hear.
