Why do people love to listen to true crime podcasts?

Hi there,

True crime podcasts became quite popular during the last few years but why is that? Why do people love to listen to true crime podcasts?  I can’t deny I also enjoy listening to them sometimes, but I’ve never asked myself why. These questions are going to be answered in this article.

So, one of the easiest explanations is that people like to go deep into cases and form their theories. Why did they do it? How could they do this? Another idea I found during my research is that true crime fans occasionally help out with investigations in real cases in real-time.

Well, true crime shows, podcasts, etc. trigger the most powerful emotion of us humans, which is fear. This is what the thesis of Scott Bonn Professor of Criminology at Drew University says. It is simply explained. While listening to true crimes people are facing their fears but more safely since there is no experience of danger or trauma. It is similar to exposure therapy where people get confronted with their fear to prove that the fear won’t hurt them. Krista Lawless, a mental health counselor, said something similar “ True crime is like therapy for dealing with fear.“

True crime fans also listen to those to understand the monsters and the purpose behind them. The how and why to empathize. Dr. Bonn explains that people are morbidity drawn to the violence of serial killers. They cannot comprehend the actions of those, but they feel compelled to. They want to understand why anyone would do such horrible things. The act of the serial killer might be horrifying and horrible, but the public simply cannot look away. This idea is similar to the one I mentioned before from Dr. Sharon Parker. This has something to do with the adrenaline that sets free while listening to those crimes it is the same as the one used for bungee jumping for instance. This easily can become addictive and result in a guilty pleasure. The guilt forms from the feeling of inappropriateness of listening to those but the people enjoy it way too much since it satisfies their adrenaline.