3 Ways That A Fascination With Serial Killers Might Actually Be Beneficial

To know what is inhumane is also to know what humanity truly means.

By Mark Travers, Ph.D. | July 15, 2024

Despite the abhorrent atrocities they commit, many people can't help but wonder what it is that makes criminal minds tick—especially the most depraved ones. This became incredibly apparent in 1979, when Ted Bundy's murder trial was the first to be publicly televised. Since then, and the subsequent advent of the term "serial killer" in the 1970s, criminals have persistently been a subject of morbid curiosity.

Now, with the internet and technology, true crime media has grown wildly popular. From documentaries and movies to TikToks and YouTube channels—all purely dedicated to dissecting the criminal mind—knowledge regarding serial killers has never been so accessible before.

This exponential growth in popularity begs the question: is our interest in serial killers inadvertently glorifying them? And does our engagement with the inhumane reflect our own inhumanity? According to recent research, this is not the case at all.

Why We Engage With True Crime Content Online

According to a May 2024 study from New Media & Society, engaging with online content surrounding serial killers isn't an inherently negative, harmful or sensational activity. Rather, it's a means for people to make sense of the good, the bad and the ugly aspects of the world, humanity and themselves. The researchers behind the study argue that our fascination with serial killers can be understood through several key lenses:

1. Uncanniness

Consuming media and engaging in communities that focus on serial killers serves as a way for us to come to terms with how at odds they are with our own values and beliefs. The authors quote Julia Kristeva's 1982 novel, Powers of Horror, where she explains how the interest in macabre matters brings about a sense of uncanniness—a feeling which is simultaneously captivating and disturbing.

She explains how the sense of uncanniness that serial killers prompt makes us feel radically separate from them, and places them in a liminal space between familiarity and alienation: "Not me. Not that. But not nothing, either. A 'something' that I do not recognize as a thing."

They embody the extreme end of human behavior, presenting actions and motives that are fundamentally alien and repulsive. By exploring these figures, we confront the boundaries of normalcy and deviance—which helps us understand and reinforce our own moral and ethical standards.

2. Connection

Contrary to what many may think, sharing our fascination, disgust or sadness regarding serial killers and their actions allows us to relate to others—while simultaneously reminding us of our own humanity. The authors reflect on user comments under videos about Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer and Edmund Kemper:

• "I don't understand why I have a morbid curiosity about killers, but I do."
• "Why am I obsessed with these serial killer documentaries? Anyone else?"
• "Ugh, these documentaries freak me the hell out… but I find them so damn interesting."

According to the authors, "Users are both perturbed and fascinated by their own interest in this subject matter, producing discomfort and a need to reach out to others who may relate—and bring back a sense of humanity and connection."

Such a sense of shared experience and emotional response opens up communities in which people can discuss and process their feelings together. These communities allow for the creation of bonds that help reaffirm their humanity, as they are reminded that they aren't alone in their reactions and reflections—or their morbid curiosity.

3. Protection

The ways in which people discuss serial killers online, along with the many rules and regulations within these communities, allow individuals to psychically protect themselves against the kinds of atrocities serial killers perform. The authors reference, for instance, the rules on the Reddit forum r/serialkillers—which do not allow for glorification of serial killers or any attempts to communicate with them. These rules help maintain a focus on respectful and analytical discussions, preventing unhealthy glorification or obsession.

Moreover, discussion prompts in these communities—such as "What are some of the wildest conspiracy theories for why SKs killed people?", "Why is it commonly believed that a serial killer doesn't stop killing until they die or are imprisoned?", or "Why don't serial killers kill bad people instead?"—encourage users to be critical, discursive and to accumulate collective and collaborative knowledge.

According to the authors, the presence of rules, regulations and critical discussions "can also be read as a mechanism of protection against the psychic threat of violence upon the community. This is activated both through the attempt to collectively 'figure out' the serial killer as a problem to be solved."

How True Crime Media Offers A Window Into Humanity

In a July 2024 press release, the lead author of the above New Media & Society study explains how, ultimately, serial killers are a morbid reminder of our own humanity. "Serial killing as a topic in popular media appears so prevalent, which is a paradox because it is such an awful thing. But as individuals in the world, we are constantly trying to understand our place in it, and the serial killer becomes a totem of this paradox," said Dr Laura Glistos.

She explains how serial killers embody a duality that resonates with our contemporary experiences: "They are at once both human and inhumane, which is a little bit similar to living in this contemporary landscape where we engage with things like artificial intelligence, which seems so human, but is obviously not."

Such juxtapositions highlight our fascination with entities that straddle the boundary between the familiar and the alien—the moral and the monstrous. Just as we grapple with the implications of AI and its seemingly human characteristics, we use the figure of the serial killer to explore the limits of our own humanity.

She concludes by explaining, "The serial killer, time and time again, proves to be an enigmatic figure, particularly produced by the mass media of its time, available for us to act out and cope with our anxieties about what it is to be human, yet also reproducing us as inhuman cogs of the machine of mass society, industry, and culture."

Do you grapple with morbid curiosity? Take the Morbid Curiosity Scale to understand this tendency of yours better.

A similar version of this article can also be found on Forbes.com, here.