World News for Students of English

08-02-2022 07:00

Psychologists say that people’s obsession with true crime is a natural part of their curiosity, and it goes back centuries. In the 1500s, British writers wrote about violent crimes and punishments in small books, and they sold them to the public.

In the 19^th century, people bought tickets to public hangings, and the real life mysteries on TV have interested viewers for over 30 years.

However, in 2014, a US podcast began to tell one crime story week by week, and 300 million listeners downloaded the first season on iTunes. It began a new focus on true crime. A year after the podcast’s success, Netflix started a true crime series, and more than 19 million people watched the hit.

According to psychologists, our obsession with true crime is normal and healthy because the stories focus us from our innate curiosity and interest in good versus evil. Surprisingly, women may be more interested in crime stories than men because they tend to be more curious about the mind of a killer.  According to a 2018 survey, women were about 75% of true crime podcast listeners.

Difficult words: obsession (to think about something a lot), curiosity (when you are curious or very interested in learning about something), innate (existing from birth).

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