The Appeal of Crime Podcasts

Research has shown that women, compared to men, enjoy reading true crime books more, and recent statistics indicate that women make up the majority of crime podcast listeners. We also know that women report having a greater fear of crime than men. However, it remains unclear why learning about crime appeals to women more than men and whether the difference in fear could be part of the explanation. In the current study, we had participants complete questionnaires before and after listening to a crime podcast in order to determine if women truly did enjoy it more than men, and if so, whether a heightened fear of crime could explain this difference