Fatal Attraction: Study Reveals Why People Are Obsessed With Serial Killers
The FBI first used the term 'serial killer' in the 1970s, and the popularity of true crime documentaries as well as access to more information about cases in the digital age has contributed to the growing fascination with serial killers, according to a study.
Laura Glitsos and Mark Deuze in their research titled "Serial Killers and the Production of the Uncanny in Digital Participatory Culture" attempt to understand how people are approaching serial killers as a result of discussions about them in digital spaces.
The study claims that the interest in serial killers has increased because the platform on which their topics were discussed has moved on from traditional media to the contemporary interactive digital environment. This allows people to have a collective and collaborative discussion about topics, as per the study.
"Through this paradigm shift, media publics perform a kind of co-ownership over the artifact of the serial killer as a cultural phenomenon. As a result, the serial killer archetype becomes, more than ever, an act of co-creation," the authors explain in the study. In traditional media, information was supplied to individuals who simply consumed it, while on platforms like X, TikTok, and Reddit, people can connect with the topics and share theories of their own, the study revealed.
The ways in which people are participating in the serial killer discourse are- "streaming and binge-bonding over content (such as serial killer documentaries or podcasts on the major platforms), sharing content, commenting about serial killers, creating amateur content, as well as remediating or remixing content into memes and other forms of creative expression online," according to the study.
The study explains how using these methods allows people to become co-creators of the serial killer lore in popular culture, which increases their appeal. Through discussion about serial killers, people desire to understand more about the 'uncanniness' or feeling of unease associated with human nature, Newsweek reported. Stories about serial killers disrupt normalcy in people's lives and make individuals uncomfortable.
"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," Glitsos said, Newsweek reported.
Glitsos discusses in the study, that people want to associate with platforms that have policies in place that take care of human sensibilities, Newsweek reported. "One of the most interesting things that have come from this research is that people really want to be able to express and participate in a community that doesn't leave its humanity behind, and that takes a stand against encroaching feelings around uncanniness, which is represented, as we argue in our research, by the serial killer phenomenon," Glitsos elaborated.
After analyzing the social media posts regarding serial killers, the researchers concluded that most of them do not glorify the acts committed by the criminals, but instead, the focus is on the hurt and pain caused by their actions, Newsweek reported.