Morbid Curiosity, Not True Crime Engagement, Predicts Risk-Taking in Student Population.

This paper reports an empirical study of 149 UK university students (18–25 years) that examines how true crime media use and morbid curiosity relate to risk-taking behaviour in everyday life. True crime content is now a major part of young adults’ media diets, yet its psychological impact is still debated. Our study adds to this discussion by directly testing whether risk-taking is better explained by exposure to true-crime media or by an underlying trait: morbid curiosity. Using well-validated measures of true crime engagement, morbid curiosity and domain-specific risk-taking, we show that morbid curiosity significantly predicts self-reported risk-taking, whereas true crime media consumption does not. This suggests that individual differences in curiosity for disturbing/morbid content, rather than media exposure alone, may be central in understanding which young people are more likely to engage in risky behaviour.