The reason people can't look away from public beheadings

Frances Larson suggest it is because the internet creates a sense of 'separation' between the victim and the viewer

An illustration of the killing of German Prince Conradin in the 13th century (Getty)

An academic has said the high number of people watching beheading videos, most recently perpetrated by Isis militants, is the result of the “sense of separation” created by the internet.

Frances Larson, an author and Oxford anthropologist, suggests filmed beheadings are neither ancient nor “primitive” but instead a “global 21st century event.”

Ms Larson, who also draws comparisons between the behaviour of crowds at public executions and incidences of “suicide-baiting”, claims viewing these clips online is crucial.

“This sense of separation, from other people, from the event itself, seems to be key to understanding our ability to watch,” says Ms Larson in a TED talk streamed on Tuesday.

In the talk, she suggests the internet creates a sense of detachment that “seems to erode individual moral responsibility”.

Online, not only do events appear unreal, with viewer allowed “a sense of detachment from what’s happening,” but the anonymity of the internet appears “to erode individual moral responsibility”.

This sense of separation, from other people, from the event itself, seems to be key to understanding our ability to watch

&#13; <p>Frances Larson</p>&#13;

Videos of the deaths of James Foley, Steven Sotloff, David Haines, Alan Henning, Peter Kassig, Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto provoked huge interest when they were released.

An August 2014 poll estimated 1.2 million people in Britain watched the beheading video of Mr Foley in the days immediately following its release. But Ms Larson acknowledges these figures are merely estimates - and the true number may be significantly higher.

Even before the advent of the Isis, also known as the Islamic State, the 2004 execution video of abducted cameraman Nick Berg in Iraq drew similar attention. The website of jihadist group Muntada al-Ansar, which hosted the footage, crashed because so many attempted to view and download the five and half minute clip.

The first known footage of a public execution is still available online. It shows the 1977 guillotine of German Eugene Weidmann in France. It has been viewed almost 300,000 times on YouTube.

Ms Larson also dispels the notion that watching is a “passive act” and states the impact of the video “comes from the reception the killer receives when he performs.

“In other words, watching is very much part of the event.”