From Ted Bundy to the Zodiac Killer, serial killers have long captured the public's imagination.
Millions of viewers and listeners tune in to true crime documentaries and podcasts, with some people even having favorite serial killer stories.
Now, in a new paper in the journal New Media & Society, researchers have attempted to explain the phenomenon in relation to the interactive digital environment.
According to the study, part of the obsession with serial killers may stem from the ability of social media to allow people to discuss these crimes outside of traditional media outlets, which enables them to think about and discover their own humanity.
"In social media settings, like Reddit or YouTube, anyone can interact within that space," study co-author Laura Glitsos, a media and culture researcher at Edith Cowan University in Australia, said in a statement. "The gatekeeping function from the traditional outlets is removed, giving anyone with a device the opportunity to take part in the narrative, to help form the conversation.
"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."
The research reveals that social media posts about serial killers and the comments beneath them tend not to glorify the acts of the killers, but rather attempt to connect to the horrors of the topic and feeling sympathy for people affected by the crimes.
The concept of the uncanny—the feeling of unease or discomfort that arises when something familiar is encountered in an unsettling or strange way—is central to understanding the allure of serial killers in digital culture, the paper explains. The researchers suggest that serial killers represents a monstrous yet familiar figure that disrupts the normalcy of everyday life, leading to social media users exploring and making sense of this unsettling duality through digital media.
"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.
The study highlights how digital media provides a space to reflect on and reinterpret the near-mythical figures of serial killers, allowing users to engage with their fears and curiosities both about killers and the world at large in a controlled environment, thus contributing to the ongoing fascination with serial killers in popular culture
"You can think about the way that contemporary life can feel so connected, yet so detached at the same time. And it is really fascinating and allegorical that we can take that 'dehumanising' experience and explore it using the serial killer as a narrative," Glitsos said. "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.
"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."
The researchers noted that the users of different social media platforms had quite different approaches to discussions regarding serial killers.
"Social media platforms that are visual in nature, like TikTok, are often short, and therefore can give less information and less depth to the story, whereas Reddit has less virality because a post will not necessarily have a visual component to go with it, but what it does have is really long and intricate explorations," Glitsos said. "Social media platforms also have different guidelines when posting about these topics, with communities like Reddit actually self-regulating when it comes to this topic. A lot of work goes into making sure that serial killers aren't glorified in some of these communities.
"So even though people are engaging with the topic of serial killers more, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are celebretising these people. I think what it actually means is that people are working through complex ideas more as a social process."
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