A forensic psychiatrist has revealed four reasons why women are more interested in true crime than men.
Dr Sohom Das is a forensic psychiatrist, from London, who also runs a YouTube channel called A Psych for Sore Minds, where he shares content about crime, mental health conditions, and other topics.
In a new clip, he revealed that there appears to be a fairly significant disparity in the interest in this type of content between the two sexes.
In fact, he noted that ‘some statistics have shown that women are 80 per cent more likely to binge true crime content, documentary shows, etc, than men’.
1. Vulnerability and safety
Explaining why vulnerability and safety is the number one reason on his list, Dr Das said: ‘Women are statistically more likely to experience violence and harassment than men.
‘So sometimes they engage in these true crime stories, particularly those involving female victims as a way of kind of conceptualising and understanding and grappling with these threats, he said.
Dr Das added that they may also watch this content ‘kind of to learn coping mechanisms and feel this sense of being prepared’.
2. Empathy and emotional connections
According to the expert, another reason why are more drawn to this content than men is ‘related to empathy and emotional connections’.
He explained: ‘Studies have shown […] that women generally score higher in empathy traits than men in the same kind of measures.’
According to Dr Das, true crime narratives ‘often delve into deeply emotional experiences of the victims and also of their families’, and therefore the more empathetic nature of women generally means that this content resonates more deeply with them.
3. Social expectations and gender roles
Dr Sohom Das (pictured) is a forensic psychiatrist, from London , who also runs a YouTube channel called A Psych for Sore Minds
‘Traditionally,’ Dr Das explained in the video, ‘women tend to be socialised to be more nurturing and more caring than than men, who are usually conditioned to be [more] stoic, emotionally detached, sometimes even aggressive in some cultures.’
He added that these gender roles ‘influence how each gender interacts with emotionally charged material and content like true crime’.
4. Representation
Describing his fourth reason as more ‘subtle’ than the others, Dr Das said it was about representation in the genre.
He explained: ‘We all know that true crime as a genre, increasingly is featuring female protagonists in terms of the investigators and the heroes.
‘And it’s no secret that females are far more likely to be the victims of aggression and crime. But I actually think that the opposite is also happening. So I think there’s slightly more representation of female perpetrators, even though they commit less violence.’
The psychiatrist added that it is often the case that more true crime is about men, content about women is ‘more interesting and [has] a more unique angle’.
‘I think people in general are gravitate towards […] what has a reflection of them,’ he explained.
‘So if there are more women into true crime, they’re more likely to be even more interested in it.’
Dr Sohom Das can be found on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, as well as YouTube.
