Here at Fish, we all love true crime. Sounds weird to use love and crime in the same sentence, but we all do have an odd obsession with the bizarre minds of murderers. Between podcasts, documentaries and movies, we all have seen/read our fair share of true-life horror stories, with the most recent being the Netflix documentary ‘Conversations of a Killer – The Ted Bundy Tapes’.
But, why do we find the stories of prolific serial killers fascinating? The reasons are simple – and not as dark as you think.
We want to know why
Killing, let alone hurting, another human being are acts that rarely cross the average mind. However, serial killers destroy lives without a second thought. The question is, why? Documentaries provide a glimpse into these criminals’ minds by analyzing their motives, potentially traumatic life events, and tendencies to figure out the cause. We want to understand why they commit these horrendous acts, but sometimes it’s unexplainable.
We want to survive
According to a 2010 study published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, women were more likely to watch true-crime stories than men. A set of experiments suggested that women were more likely to watch the story if they expected to learn something that might protect them if in a dangerous situation or if the victim was a woman. Subconsciously, we worry these acts of violence could happen to us and are interested in spotting the warning signs of a psychopathic personality.
We like to play detective
Trying to watch a true crime show and not predict the outcome is nearly impossible. Even though these stories are true, they seem surreal and can often feel like watching a work of fiction. While watching, our curiosity takes over and we want to solve the puzzle. It becomes a cycle of finding the evidence, locating the killer and locking them away – we become our own in-house detectives (we just wish it wasn’t real).
