True crime entertainment has recently had an uptick in popularity—with documentaries, tv shows and podcasts all centered around telling the stories of various criminal cases.

The question is: why do we find these stories of suffering so entertaining?

Max Guyll, a psychology professor at Iowa State, discussed the psychology behind the human interest in true crime and how it plays to our emotions.

“It connects with fundamental emotions that humans have, such as fear, sometimes revenge,” Guyll said. “We’ll feel outraged when someone is clearly guilty and they escape being punished for their crime.”

Guyll went on to explain how empathy plays a large role when it comes to the emotions humans feel while learning about true crime stories.

“I think another element that’s important is the idea of empathy,” Guyll said. “In the cases of true crime, it often just happens to people as they go about their everyday life. There’s this implicit understanding where a person says wow, that could’ve been me.”

Guyll also discussed the negative effects that could come with consuming true crime entertainment on a regular basis.

“I think that it would give you a warped view of the world in which we live and the likelihood of being victimized by crime,” Guyll said. “The truth is, over the last 30/40 years, there has been a dramatic decline in America at least of the amount of crime and violent crime that we’re experiencing. And yet people feel like they need to more now than ever arm themselves and protect themselves”

Guyll explained how true crime’s popularity can cause this “warped view of the world.”

“Of course there’s a lot of forces that are operating to encourage that, but one of the things is this perception that we’re greatly at risk,” Guyll said. “And I can see if you watch those type of crime shows all the time, you have a lot more examples to draw from because you’re watching them, and you just come to assume that this is commonplace.”

Students chimed in and discussed why they enjoy listening to/watching true crime.

Savannah Meyer, a senior in early childhood education, discussed why she finds true crime interesting.

“I find it interesting because there are so many clues leading up to the outcome and I like to kind of try to solve it along the way,” Meyer said. “I also find it interesting but sad because sometimes these cases turn cold and years later they get one piece of evidence that can change everything.”

Kelli Christensen, a senior in accounting, discussed that she likes true crime because it allows her to analyze people’s motives.

“I find true crime interesting as it helps me read into people and motives behind their darkest actions,” Christensen said. “I am also one who is big into analyzing people and situations, so I enjoy that aspect of them.”

Kendal Runels, a junior in psychology, spoke on how her everlasting interest in crime and mental health draws her to true crime shows.

“I’ve always grown up interested in crime and what causes other people to want to hurt others,” Runels said. “I’ve always been huge into mental health and so I want to really try to figure out what makes people want to hurt other people.”

Caitlyn Shipley, a senior in early childhood education, discussed how the storytelling aspect of true crime shows is what she finds most interesting.

“I enjoy true crime because it’s like a story,” Shipley said. “There’s twists, turns and I find it a thrill listening to how the police work is done.”

Guyll later discussed how true crime entertainment is not going anywhere anytime soon.

“I’m pretty confident that if you go back that you will always find sensationalist journalism, yellow journalism, tabloids where they put on the worst crimes that they can find and they highlight that,” Guyll said. “So I think history shows that it’s been common up to this point and I think because it connects with the fundamental human factors that connect with our interests just naturally, as long as there’s a profit mode within it, I see no reason it will go away.”