A MURDEROUS LUST: THE CONSEQUENCES OF SOCIETY’S EMERGING OBSESSION WITH TRUE CRIME AND VIOLENT MEDIA

Abstract

The consequences of violence in video games, television shows, films, and books are explored by psychologists and sociologists at length, but the expansion of the true crime genre leaves much to be explored. In this study, I investigate the consequences of growing consumption of true crime media and the unique challenges this genre poses. Does a framing of truth in violent media increase aggression or fear? Using Amazon Mechanical Turk, half of the study participants were assigned a passage framed as being true, the other half a passage framed as fictional, all participants then answered a questionnaire measuring aggression, fear, demographics, and true crime consumption. Findings suggest that aggression and fear did not increase with a truth framework, suggesting that the framing of the genre is less important than the content itself. Some groups, however, were particularly vulnerable to the effects of the framing, suggesting further research.