Mean world syndrome: is true crime bad for your mental health?

To state the obvious, the true crime genre is huge. From the now infamous ‘mushroomgate’ to the Jeffrey Dahmer murders, true crime stories have been the inspiration behind some truly addictive entertainment, particularly over the past decade.  

But, considering the often gory, salacious and downright disturbing subject matter, it’s worth asking the question: could true crime be bad for our mental health? 

According to one theory, it might be. The idea is called ‘mean world syndrome’ and, as we’ll explore with Deakin University’s Richard Evans, it’s a theory that might cause us to view the world as more scary and dangerous than it actually is.  

What is true crime? A definition 

It isn’t the same thing as crime reporting – so what is true crime?  

True crime has been defined as depicting ‘violent, nonfictional events that have specific characteristics that make it popular as entertainment’ — and that last part is particularly important. Whether it’s packaged as a book, podcast, radio show, TV series, film or any other form of media, true crime is a genre of entertainment. And, like all entertainment, the quality can vary. 

‘At its best, true crime can be excellent: penetrating and insightful book-length journalism or history, which uses the public’s innate interest in crime to explore bigger issues,’ says Evans, who has personally contributed to the genre with his book The Pyjama Girl Mystery.  

‘But like any genre, it can be done badly: writers who don’t really care how ‘true’ the details are and are willing to pander to people’s prejudices. A lot of work about serial killers is of this nature: the truth about serial killers is that they are vanishingly rare, but you wouldn’t pick that by looking at the true crime shelves of your local bookshop.’ 

How popular is true crime?  

You only need to look at the latest podcast charts to see that true crime is absolutely killing it (if you’ll pardon the pun). For podcasting alone, industry studies have shown that over 1 million Australians listen to true crime content each week, while true crime TV shows like Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story ranked in the top 10 most streamed shows of 2024. True crime is a big business. 

Although the explosive popularity of the true crime genre might seem like a recent phenomenon, Evans says we’ve been obsessing over dark truths for a long time now.  

‘The book which is often considered the origin point for true crime is Truman Capote’s [1959 novel] In Cold Blood, though there were actually true crime books long before that – all of the legendary figures of the Wild West, Billy the Kid and Jesse James and the like had books about them, which at least pretended to be factual,’ Evans says. 

What is mean world syndrome?  

Ideally,  consuming true crime media would be purely entertaining – we watch, we enjoy. Sometimes, though, true crime content can leave us with a warped sense of the world around us, and this is where the idea of mean world syndrome comes in.  

But what is mean world syndrome, anyway? 

‘Mean world syndrome refers to a closed feedback loop which can occur when media texts consistently portray the world as a threatening and unsafe place,’ says Evans. ‘Audiences become accustomed to this and so expect more alarming content about how society is on the edge of the abyss, and media producers oblige. The result is that we all think the world is a riskier and more threatening place than it really is.’ 

We shouldn’t just blame the issue on true crime podcasts and TV shows, either – mean world syndrome can be cultivated by the news and social media, too. 

Is true crime bad for you and your mental health? 

The feedback loop of mean world syndrome – in which we begin to fear that the world around us is as dangerous as true crime and other media depicts it to be – certainly has the potential to cause negative mental health effects, says Evans. 

‘The feedback loop can cause people to withdraw from a healthy engagement with society,’ he says. ‘To some extent, being told the world is dangerous appeals to our worst instincts: it means we have an excuse for locking ourselves away and being cruel to the threatening “other”. The idea that mentally ill people are a threat is particularly damaging.’ 

Without the studies to back it up, though, it’s hard to say definitively that true crime is bad for you or your mental health. At the very least, there seems to be a growing movement among those experiencing mental health issues like anxiety, who have pledged to actively avoid true crime. 

Considering the ethics of true crime 

When it comes to our mental health, there might well be negative impacts of true crime podcasts and other media. According to Evans, though, ethics of true crime are worth exploring, too – with two main considerations. The first is about accuracy, and admitting that situations are often unclear, rather than making up information to fill in the blanks. 

‘This is particularly true when it comes to the state of mind of an offender,’ Evans says. ‘Think about the last time you did something a bit bad or risky – maybe you drove home when you might have been over the blood alcohol limit. How clear were your thoughts and motivations at the time? Usually when we do bad stuff, our mind is a mess.’ 

The other ethical consideration Evans raises is something that true crime often deals with – the deeds of people still living. It’s important, he says, not to create unfair prejudice against the people involved in the case. 

‘Again – imagine that you had driven home and you got done for being over the limit, and lost your license and because of that then lost your job. Yes, you know you did the wrong thing, and the penalty is deserved. But, were someone to decide to tell the story of your offence, how would you want them to go about it? What would be fair, and what would be going too far into your private life? I think true crime content creators need to keep that element of fairness and respect in mind.’ 

Is true crime really resulting in mean world syndrome? 

Without more specific studies, it’s inaccurate to suggest that true crime is definitively causing mean world syndrome. ‘Those [studies] I am aware of tend to focus on TV news and so-called ‘reality’ shows, rather than longer-form true crime,’ Evans says. ‘But broadly, I would agree that for some people it can cause needless anxiety and threaten mental well-being.’ 

What we can say, though, is that true crime is as popular as ever and budding researchers could find themselves a rich and interesting field in exploring the overlap of mental health and crime as entertainment.