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Rubbernecking is the act of gawking or staring at something of interest. A common example of rubbernecking is drivers trying to view the aftermath of a traffic accident. The term ''rubbernecking'' refers to the physical act of craning one's neck, performed in order to get a better view. Rubbernecking has been described as a human trait that is associated with morbid curiosity. It can be the cause of traffic jams (sometimes referred to as "Gapers' blocks"), as drivers slow down to see what happened in a crash. It is also a cause of further accidents in the vicinity of the original accident, as drivers become distracted and unexpectedly change their rate of travel, while other drivers are also distracted, and so forth. The word ''rubbernecking'' has also come to be used more generally to describe a voyeuristic interest in someone else's business or affairs. Fires in buildings tend to attract rubberneckers, as there is little danger for them in observing the spectacle from a distance. The term is generally considered to be slang or unconventional English. ==Etymology== The term ''rubbernecking'' was a term coined in America in the 1890s to refer to tourists. H.L. Mencken said the word ''rubberneck'' is "almost a complete treatise on American psychology" and "one of the best words ever coined".〔 By 1909 ''rubbernecking'' was used to describe the wagons, automobiles and buses used in tours around American cities,〔 and through their Chinatowns.〔 The tours included a megaphone-wielding individual offering commentary on the urban landscape. ''Chinese Rubbernecks'' was the title of a 1903 film.〔 One writer described the "out-of-towners" stretching their necks to see New York while having misinformation shouted at them, and artist John Sloan depicted them as geese in a 1917 etching called ''Seeing New York''.〔 Hawkers, touts and steerers were used to market the rubbernecking tours, also known as "gape wagons" or "yap wagons."〔 When phone lines were shared as "party lines" the term ''rubbernecking'' applied to someone who listened in on the conversation of others. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「rubbernecking」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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