Ep.26: Why Is Everyone (Including Me) Obsessed With Murder Documentaries?

Murder documentaries, murder podcasts, books, videos and I don't know what. Netflix is full of it as well - stories about murders and murderers are everywhere and I was wondering: why is everyone (including me) so interested and obsessed with it? Why are we so attracted to those stories? You can find out in today's episode.

Also, you can find the vocabulary and comprehension quiz under the transcription!

(Česky: Najdete seznam slovíček a krátký kvíz porozumění pod přepisem)

Link for the episode:

WRITTEN TRANSCRIPTION OF THE PODCAST:

Hello and welcome to my podcast My Life and Other Funny Stories. My name is Dagmar Tomášková, I am an English tutor and coach and I created this podcast for English students who want to get better in their oral comprehension. As always you can find the transcription of this episode, comprehension quiz, and vocabulary list in the notes of the podcast.

I bet you noticed that in the past few years murder documentaries, murder stories, and murder podcasts have been coming out like on a treadmill. (A treadmill is a machine for exercising on which you run). I mean, if you turn on Netflix, it is one documentary about a serial killer after another. Podcasts about true crime are taking up the first spaces in popularity lists and people talk about it more and more.

Don't get me wrong. I will be the first one to admit that I have always been interested in this topic. I remember being 12 and reading a special edition of the magazine Epocha devoted to the 77 most terrible murderers. I listened to hundreds of podcast episodes about murder stories and watched countless videos and documentaries. Even though the Netflix documentaries suck, in my opinion, with all the shocking music and everything, it reminds me more of a circus than a documentary. Anyway, I am going off a tangent - going off a tangent means that someone starts saying something that is not directly connected with what they were saying before.

With this popularity rise, I started to ask myself - why is it so interesting? Why do people become obsessed with murders and murderers? To be obsessed with something means to be unable to stop thinking about something. So you think about it and think about it and think about it.

So I researched it. And today I decided to share it with you. I will link all my sources into the notes as well so feel free to read about it on your own. Also, it will probably include more advanced vocabulary so if you don't understand very well, check out the transcription and vocabulary list, it can help a lot.

This interest in or curiosity about unpleasant things, especially death can be described in English as "morbid curiosity".

Studies have shown that morbid curiosity is more common in people with personality traits such as rebellious, socially curious, and low in animal reminder disgust- that means that for example, bodies of dead animals don't look disgusting to those people.

Overall, there hasn't been any definite answer on why it might be so interesting for people but there are a few possible explanations:

1) evolutionary reason

The main objective, the main goal, of a human is to survive and avoid life-threatening situations (situations where you are afraid for your life). There is a learning component in watching and listening to crime stories. We learn how the murders and the victim behaved and by that, we might get an impression that if we got into those situations, we would be better prepared.

A study by Coltan Scrivner where he writes about the psychology of morbid curiosity, mentioned that it would make sense for natural selection to act on more specific socioecological problems related to death rather than the broad problem of death - it means that we could be interested in the sociological problems of the murderers and victims and see what led the murders to be the ones who kill another person or the victims to become a victim.

A 2010 study at the University of Illinois found out that women are more attracted to true crime than men. It mentions that women are most interested in stories that explain the killer's motives, and include information about how victims escaped. This all fits with the evolutionary idea because it would help us to get tricks and tips on how to escape in case we find ourselves in those situations.

2) Crime stories involve a problem-solving element.

When we watch, listen or read crime stories, there is always an element of mystery. What happened, who did it and why? There are questions that remain unanswered until the very end and usually, when the documentary is over, we get answers to all or most of those questions.

Predicting (guessing in advance) what might have happened, getting it right, and therefore having the feeling that we solved a problem or a puzzle before it was revealed to us, can spark the reward center of the brain, and give someone a sense of control. And having control or a feeling of self-accomplishment is pleasant.

3) Interest in human psychology

Usually, these stories contain unthinkable crimes. For the majority of people, it is absolutely unimaginable how someone can act in such a way. Very often it leads to certain reasons connected to the human brain and psychology.

Sometimes it is the result of a mental illness, sometimes it is the result of a terrible upbringing and sometimes it can be the result of a brain malfunction. In those cases, learning about human psychology can help us understand how the human brain works and what are the possible outcomes of different life scenarios. It can help us explore the darker sides of humanity without being directly involved.

______

With the frequency (which means - how often) we see those stories, we can be under the impression that it happens more often than it actually does. In one of the articles I read: we can get a big "fear of crime because of a lack of knowledge of crime statistics and overconsumption of certain types of media. This can give the perception that one is more likely to become a victim of crime than may be statistically true.

People are drawn - are attracted- to negative and sensational news much more than to positive ones. It is a fact. But we have to remember that very often those stories are being dramatized and more often than not, they give us insight into parts of the picture, not the whole thing. Think about the person who tells you the story- what words do they use? Are there any sides? If yes, what side are they on?

It is really easy to believe whatever we are served with when it is presented as a fact. But usually, there is more to the story.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode and don't forget that you can find the transcription, vocabulary list, and comprehension quiz in the notes. Please give it a five-star rating if you liked it and I will see you next time, bye-bye.

Sources:

Scrivner, Coltan. "The psychology of morbid curiosity: Development and initial validation of the morbid curiosity scale", Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 183, 2021, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886921005183

Schmidt-Petersen, Jennifer. "Why are we so obsessed with true crime?", The University of Law, https://www.law.ac.uk/resources/blog/why-we-love-true-crime/

Spanner, Holy. "Why are we so obsessed with true crime?", BBC: Science Focus, https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/why-are-we-so-obsessed-with-true-crime

SWNS, "Expert reveals biological reason why we're obsessed with true crime shows", NY Post, 2023, https://nypost.com/2023/02/14/expert-reveals-biological-reason-for-true-crime-obsession/

Watson, Galadriel. "Why Solving Puzzles Feels So Satisfying Especially During A Quarantie", Washington Post, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/why-solving-puzzles-feels-so-satisfying-especially-during-a-quarantine/2020/05/03/b87ac636-8bda-11ea-9dfd-990f9dcc71fc_story.html 

VOCABULARY LIST:

I bet - vsadím se

murder - vražda

treadmill- běhací pás

serial killer- sériový vrah

true crime - zločin, který se opravdu stal

murderers- vrahové

countless- nespočet

to suck - být na nic (This sucks = to je na nic)

going off a tangent - odbočit od tématu

obsessed- posedlý

curiosity- zvídavost

morbid curiosity - morbidní zvídavost

personality traits - vlastnosti osobnosti

rebellious - rebelantský

disgust - odpor

disgusting- odporný/ nechutný

definite- konečná/ jednoznačná

evolutionary- evoluční

life-threatening situations - život ohrožující situace

impression- dojem

broad- celkově/ široce/ široký

include- obsahovat

escape - utéct

mystery- záhada

remain unanswered- zůstává nezodpovězený

Predicting- předpovídání

puzzle- hádanka (pozor, české puzzle je v AJ "jig-saw") 

spark the reward center- zažehnout centrum odměn

self-accomplishment- seberealizace

certain- určité

mental illness- psychická/ mentální nemoc

upbringing- výchova

malfunction- nefunkčnost/ selhání

outcomes- výsledky

scenarios-  scénáře

explore- objevovat