Why True Crime Makes Us Overconfident (and Why That’s Risky)

Recording a podcast on Christmas Day was both a heartwarming and challenging experience, as I found myself juggling the holiday spirit, family expectations, and the comfort of spending time with my pet frog. The festive chaos offered a quirky backdrop as I pondered the complexities of mental health amidst binge-watching true crime documentaries and shared my enduring fascination with unsolved mysteries, particularly the Madeleine McCann case. Venturing into the world of unsolved crimes, I explored the psychological impact they can have, drawing parallels with those haunting dreams of showing up to an exam completely unprepared.

The episode took a reflective turn as I examined the rise of "armchair detectives" and their struggle with cognitive biases, which can obscure objectivity and influence perceptions during public trials. Amidst such serious discussions, a lighthearted interlude about Sally's trip and my amusing battle with words like "antics" offered some comic relief. Throughout the episode, I expressed gratitude for listener support and encouraged feedback to enhance the podcast experience. Join me for an engaging mix of introspection and humor, topped with a sprinkle of holiday cheer.

Transcript

Unsolved Crimes

Speaker 1 0:00

Merry Christmas . I can't tell if I love or hate myself the fact that I'm recording this on Christmas Day , but I personally feel slightly neutral about it . What it's gonna take me half an hour of my day , like I don't need to be socialising all day , okay , so leave me alone . Whereas lots of people would be like , oh my god , I can't believe you're podcasting or not spending time with your family on Christmas day . Guys , I am , but I need a break from the drama . So this is my break . I'm spending time with you , I'm spending time with myself , spending time with my pet frog , and that all sounds great to me . So I personally am not judging myself . There we go , it is . Oh , the episode's actually out tomorrow , so I'm being organized . For once , I thought it was Thursday , but there we go , I'm being organized through lack of knowledge . Anyway , if you guys listened to my last episode , thank you very much , because this episode follows on from the last one . Now you don't need to listen . Maybe you do . Actually , I think you might need to listen to the previous one because I might refer back to when we spoke to this . Uh , spoke about this in the last episode and it might get not confusing , but it might be helpful if you listen to the last episode , which was about whether watching murder documentaries , true crime documentaries in fact , I called them because I thought murder , I've already said it now . So fuck it , murder my trigger on the YouTube AI bot and be like , oh my God , she's saying horrible things and we must protect everyone and no one must hear such words because she must be an awful person . Guys , I'm just , I'm just saying the word okay . So true crime documentaries . I'll try and keep the m word down to as little as possible . So true crime documentaries and whether they're , like , good or bad for our mental health . I had a feeling they were probably bad , but you'll have to go and listen to the episode to find out the true crime truth . There we go , anyway .

Speaker 1 2:11

I started to talk about unsolved crimes last week and I thought you know what this episode is long enough . So I said this might be a whole episode in itself . So I decided I would carry on with a second episode . And here we are Today . We're not standing up , we're actually sitting down , which I know is going against my MO for the podcast . Now , from now on , we are wearing funky top , though , but if I stand up . This is how close I'll be , and you can literally just see my boobs , unless I bend down , and then I'm just really close , and that that is going to be a workout to squat . That much for the whole session . So , um , we're gonna , we're gonna sit down . The room hasn't got enough room to fit too much in it and I need to be facing the window , okay , because otherwise the lighting is going to be horrendous . So a lot of this was based on the daylight hours , because I was going to do it last night and I was like , wait , I didn't bring a light with me , so just using normal lighting is not adequate . Ok , let me tell you .

Speaker 1 3:17

Anyway , you guys did not come to hear about my logistical problems with podcasting . You came to hear about unsolved mysteries . They're not mysteries , actually , they're crimes , unsolved crimes . Oh boy , do I have a mild obsession with unsolved crimes ? I think the answer would be yes , because I'm going to talk to you generically about unsolved crimes , but I quickly want to cover one that is basically taking over , has taken over my life , two of them , in particular .

Speaker 1 3:49

Number one . This happened and she would be a similar , not similar age to me , probably a bit younger , but it kind of touches home a little bit . You'll all have heard of her , she's she's a household name , I would say in terms of especially in Britain , and kind of a little bit close to my heart as well , because this is , she needs no introduction . Give me a . That sounds like a round of applause , but it's meant to be a drum roll , but I only have one hand . Madeleine McCann , guys , madeleine McCann has taken up a lot of my thought time over the past 10 , how long has it been ? I don't even know 20 years . Number one if you don't know , I'm a doctor and if you don't know this , you don't know anything about Madeleine McCann .

Speaker 1 4:40

In fact , I will quickly go through the brief details . She , her and her family were on holiday in the Algarve , in Spain or Portugal . Omg , I don't know One of them . I think it's Spain , portugal . I want to say it's Portugal . You know when something just feels right and you're like , no , I'm pretty sure it's Portugal . Anyway , I don't know , I'm not , not , I don't know the exact details , okay , but I know it's the Algarve and I know it was south somewhere . Spain , portugal , they're . They're right , they're literally adjoining countries . So I should have checked the facts before I started . But alas , we come . We come unprepared , as always .

Speaker 1 5:19

This is like a recurrent dream in my head that I have an exam and I haven't revised for it , and that is significantly stressful . And then I have another recurring , recurring dream where I have to go on stage and I haven't learned my lines , so I learn them like two minutes before I go on stage and it's really stressful . That actually happened last night . That was a dream that I had last night . I don't know what it means . If you know , maybe I should do an episode on that .

Speaker 1 5:44

What do my recurrent dreams mean ? I have a few of them . Those ones in particular are stressful and I get them quite a lot . Like haven't revised for my exam , haven't , um , haven't , uh , learned my lines from a script . That one's particularly stressful because it's like public humiliation . Like I'm going on stage and then everyone's going to be like wow , I was like shit , did I press record , um , on the microphone ? I'm not sure it matters , I think it just does it anyway anyway . Uh , and then I have another one where someone I know , who wasn't very nice to me in my life , comes back to life but is still dead . Like it's still a corpse , but is like following , like is alive , like comes back to life , um is still dead , like it's still a corpse , but is like following , like is alive , like comes back to life , um , but it's like kind of rotten . So that's another one that I get quite a lot .

Speaker 1 6:32

Anyway , this is like a deep dive into my psyche . To be quite honest , I'm quite open and I don't really give a shit , so it's cathartic , okay . So there you go . I'm mentally messed up . Judge me , why don't you ? Uh , there we go . I can't , okay , I go off on these tangents .

Speaker 1 6:52

Like I said , I'm pretty sure I have ADHD , but , um , I think they make the episode fun and interesting and if you have a bit of an ADHD brain , the episodes work for you . If you don't , if you like order and routine and going in one tangent , then this probably isn't for you . You could try , but you might fail . Challenge accepted , okay . So basically , the whole point was that I don't know the full details . I have watched all the documentaries about Madeleine McCann but , alas , I haven't fully come up to scratch with my knowledge before doing this episode , which you know . Please forgive me , just forgive me , right .

Speaker 1 7:30

So , anyway , she and her family . They're doctors , by the way , gps , I think and they went on holiday and they left their kids in the room that they were staying in and they had . They were going and checking on them like they weren't that far away , probably , I don't know less than 50 meters away , like they were in the . They were right next to the place that the kids were . They had two twin boys and one girl , one was madeline and there was a group they were all doctors , uh , I believe , or at least a big , you know group of them , and then they would take turns to go back and check on the kids . Anyway , they went back and checked on the kids and madeline had gone and the window was open , I believe .

Speaker 1 8:20

Anyway , to this day , 20 years down the line , or however long it's been , nobody knows where she went . Well , nobody , somebody knows , but they're not telling us . Nobody in inverted commas knows . The majority of people in the world do not know where Madeleine McCann has gone , where she went , what happened to her ? Did she die ? Is she still alive ? Is she buried somewhere ? What happened to her ? Did she die ? Is she still alive ? Is she buried somewhere ? What happened to the body ? It's unknown and the kids that were with her , her twin , her brothers that were twins , not twin brothers , um , were too young to like remember anything really .

Speaker 1 8:56

And then there was a lot of oh , did the police fully investigate it properly ? They locked down the place , blah , blah , blah . Did they do it properly ? Blah , blah , did the parents do it ? Anyway , it's been a big controversy over the past . Yeah , it must be 20 years , 2000 and something . And people pop up every so often being like , oh , my god , I'm madeline mccann . They do any dna test and guess what ? They're not madeline mccann . Lots of people think the parents did it . Lots of people think she was taken and just killed . Lots of people and the body disposed of . Obviously lots of people think she was trafficked . Um , I'm not really sure .

Speaker 1 9:35

I keep my eyes open , I mean my mind open , and , to be honest , I would like this to be solved before I die . Like that is probably one of my biggest goals in life whether Madeleine McCann's mystery is solved . And if I die knowing what happened to her as a true fact of life , I think I'll be a happy woman . That's , that's it . I don't need friends , I don't need family , I don't need , you know , passing on generations worth of knowledge . I don't need happiness or health . I need to know , if Madeleine McCann , what happened to her . I need to know what happened . That's the end of it and then I'll die a happy woman . Obviously I joke , but I would . It would significantly , significantly , it would probably minorly improve my life .

Speaker 1 10:22

And that is where we get on to the true mental health of true crime , unsolved crimes in particular . Now , this is an unsolved crime . There are other ones , serial podcast . If you listen to the first episode , first series , sorry that one is all about Hayme Lin Hay , something like that , and I can't remember the guy but it was her boyfriend or ex-boyfriend and it's just a really good story . It's really well told , it's really in-depth podcast , but obviously it's unsolved . I mean , they've convicted the ex-boyfriend but it's not technically unsolved . But he says he didn't do it and lots of people think you know , there's no evidence to say that he actually did it , apart from he was her ex-boyfriend . So it's like , can you really convict him on evidence ? That like doesn't really link up . Uh , there are many others , but those are the two that come to mind .

Speaker 1 11:30

Oh , a recent one that's come out is , again , not really technically unsolved , because the police have solved it in inverted commas , but nobody thinks it's right is if you watch Making a Murderer on Netflix , it's a Stephen Avery series . Basically it's three seasons . I believe I watched all of them , I binge watched them , and I ended up being really sad by the end because I thought there was going to be a conclusion and there wasn't and I was like , oh , it really bothered me inside . I was not happy about it . So that is probably the biggest problem with unsolved crime documentaries is the lack of conclusion .

Speaker 1 12:12

I think as humans and again I talked about this in the last episode as humans we love a conflict and resolution . We love a conclusion . We love to know that . You know our brains go okay , this , mean this , and then it lead to this and then that is end and we have learned our lesson . Perfect , fire , burn , do not touch again lesson . So If we don't have a lesson from it or like a conclusion , it's a little bit unsatisfying . And what do we love more ? What do we what ? What don't we love more than satisfaction ? Everyone loves satisfaction . It's like . It's like smelling a beautiful meal and then not getting to eat it . It's like , oh , that was all like smelling a beautiful meal and then not getting to eat it . It's like , oh , that was , or like smelling a beautiful meal and then it being crap and you're like that was really unsatisfying . So our significant need for conclusion is not fulfilled in unsolved crimes . Now we can fulfill them in our own minds and go well , I think this happened , so that's probably the end right . And if they've got somebody that they've convicted where you can kind of feel a little bit more settled about that , you can go well , they've got someone , so it's sort of solved in the ones there are .

Speaker 1 13:34

There is a series on Netflix again , I watch too much Netflix who doesn't called Unsolved Mysteries . I believe it's not murders , it's mysteries , and that one I had to stop watching . I genuinely couldn't cope because there was sorry , there was no indication in the end of who it might be . It was just like unknown . It wasn't like yeah , we've got a conviction , but we don't think it's , but like it might not be them . Um , and it's solved in inverted commas . It was like now we have no idea , absolutely no idea . And then it was like oh well , this is really upsetting . So I had to stop watching it and I honestly don't know what psychopaths can watch .

The Impact of Unsolved Crimes

Speaker 1 14:21

Unsolved murdery , unsolved mysteries brain not working today because I can't it . Just it really fucks with me , to be quite honest , like I don't feel happy in life and that's that's pretty easy for me to achieve , so I don't need something else that's making me not happy in life . So take away the the non-happy things . Hopefully my mental health will improve . I think so .

Speaker 1 14:53

Sometimes there has been like studies and things that have shown that it has led to cognitive overstimulation and people become obsessed , like there is unsolved crime obsession where people go I need to find out the answer and there are like online sleuths that's what they call them that become . I feel like this is really overexposed , but I don't quite know what to do about it . Um , half of it's going to be overexposed , but I don't quite know what to do about it . Half of it's going to be overexposed and half it's going to be like OK , great , that looks much better , but it's going to be quite upsetting for the first half of the video . Sorry , sorry , I didn't sort it out .

Speaker 1 15:36

There are people that go on these online forums and like literally become obsessed with uh , the case , and they are literally they . They call them armchair detectives armchair , so they will sit at home and they just become obsessed . And there was another one , oh , I forgot , um , have you watched ? Uh , don't fuck with cats . Like you need to watch . That is wild , because there are these people that literally they all team up together and they become obsessed with who is this person that fucks with cats ? And then they find out who it is . Okay , that was a spoiler . I'm really sorry . They find out who it is and then they get him and that is pretty satisfying . That is a great documentary actually Pretty horrible because he abuses animals online , which is like and videos it , which is pretty upsetting .

Speaker 1 16:30

But justice is served , so it doesn't matter . Well , it does matter . Well , I shouldn't have said that it does matter , because I love animals , but justice is served , so he can't do it to anymore . It's really awful what he does . I won't spoil that , because that is , um , something to behold in in hell . It's really awful . So the Paul Kittens if you , I'm not going to go into it here , but if you want to go and watch that , then I would recommend because it's a nice conclusion .

Speaker 1 17:02

So if we don't get a conclusion , we become obsessed , and obsession with things is generally never a good idea , unless you're like trying to become the best at a sport , and then you kind of need to be a bit obsessed with it . Or you're trying to become the best like mathematician or chess player , and then the only people that really succeed are the people who are in love with it or obsessed , or really really really talented and a bit obsessed . So you need to be like super dedicated . So people that become obsessed , they are like one extreme . Do you need to become obsessed with something that necessarily doesn't really affect you ? It's questionable , but if that's what you like in life , go for it . You might find the answer .

Speaker 1 17:44

However , what it has been shown , what has been shown , is that our minds take in what we think matters , as in what evidence we think is is um going to lean in our favor and we ignore the stuff that conflicts it and we go no , that that doesn't fit with my narrative of this person committing the crime . Therefore , I'm going to ignore it , and that is I don't know what it's called . I'm going to call it a cognitive bias . Yes , that's what it's called , that's what I've written down a cognitive bias where we go , nah , um , I think it's this person , and that doesn't actually fit the evidence , doesn't fit with my narrative , so I'm going to ignore it .

Speaker 1 18:27

So these kind of armchair detectives can be a little bit dangerous because they aren't trained to ignore certain things and a bit like when you Google something medicine related , lots of people go , oh , I googled it and it told me I had cancer . And it's like , yeah , because google doesn't know what it can ignore , what symptoms it can ignore and are probably due to other things and not due to cancer , and what it should pay attention to . And that is what humans are for . We may have our own cognitive bias as doctors , but we basically go okay , yes , you might be tired all the time , that is that could be a symptom of cancer , but I don't think it is in your case because of this , this and this . And the computer won't pick up on that unless it specifically asks them . But you know , we as humans are trained to . So if your iron is low or if you don't sleep very well because you've got PTSD , or you've got children , like three young children or triplets or something , do you know what I mean ? Like those kind of things that Google may not quite understand , because realistically , realistically , you put anything into google and ask it if you have cancer and it will say yes , I have yellow fingernails . Do I have cancer ? Probably , who knows ? My skin is green . Am I an ogre or do I have cancer , probably cancer . I don't know what would make your skin go green cancer-wise , but there we go .

Speaker 1 20:02

There have been instances of cases that , in particular in America now they publicise , sometimes live , their trials online which is crazy and on TV and it means that lots of external people can get involved . That definitely sways how the verdict goes . I would say , like you can't ignore that kind of external noise . If you're the jury Now , obviously you're making the decision as a group . But if you go home and other people are talking about it and they go , oh , I'm not sure and you're not supposed to listen to it . But come on , you're a human and like life revolve , like life is going on around you . You can't just ignore people talking and the news and um , you might see glances of newspapers , of uh , of like , let's say , the Amber Heard and Johnny Depp trial , which , again , not unsolved , but is a prime example , and there have been other ones , I'm trying to think of some , but I would say in particular , the Amber Heard and Johnny Depp trial is probably one of the most notable recent cases , especially because they are celebrities and I would say that the the media definitely swayed it , so I guess it was unsolved at the time , right .

Speaker 1 21:24

So the other thing is that often these unsolved crimes the media brings the unsolved crime back to the surface , and that can be a good thing If we don't know who did it . Great , it can could lead to unsolved , uh , could lead to wrongful convictions of these unsolved crimes , because again people are going to get their biases and go down narratives that they think make sense or they want to make sense . You know , it's like , for example , the yshire Ripper . He was just like kind of a normal guy , had a wife , he just lived in a house , he did normal things . No one thought it was him . Now , if that was unsolved , people might not think it was him because they go well , no , he's a , he's like a normal guy , whereas there's a guy , another guy , who could be a suspect or oh , it's like floating around , it could be him , but it's , he's like a loner and he lives out in the woods and he owns loads of guns and he um goes and shoots wild animals and like eats them . I don't know , you're probably gonna think it's him like , more likely than peter suckl , who is like regular , boring old person . No , he wasn't old , regular , regular old Joe around the corner . Like nobody thought it was him because he wasn't that weird . Maybe he was , but not obviously . So it's really how you like paint these pictures as well .

Speaker 1 22:57

I would say one of the biggest concerns about unsolved crimes is the effect that it has on people's psyche . Now , do you , especially if a like , if a crime's far away , like if it's in america , I'm not really like thinking about it sitting here . But if it's in bristol and it's like , uh , loads of you know there's a serial killer on the loose and nobody knows who it is , and you're like , oh god , that kind of that's like near to me , right ? So if it's unsolved , there could be a lot of unease in the community and anxiety , and we don't need more of that . We don't need more anxiety , do we ? Nah ? So that may change people's behavior , it may change people's mental health , but it may also lead people to think like we need to try and find this person . And we need to just try and find someone so that our brains have something to go okay , it's solved , we can carry on with our lives .

Speaker 1 23:58

The murderer is off the streets and actually , for the police , as long as they've got someone who they've gone this is quite common in wrongful conviction cases is the police want the case solved . So in particular in the like Stephen Avery one where I personally think he was framed , and the the serial podcast one , they wanted someone to scapegoat . They found that person . Whether it was right or wrong , I don't know . Obviously I'm being presented information on TV like that could be biasing me either way , and I'm not sat watching the jury . I'm not sat in the jury . So do I know ? Truly Probably not . But in my head it did feel like , oh , they wanted a conviction , so they latched on to someone and went down that road and that could happen . You know , if there is an unsolved crime , especially in the local community , people are going to want to solve it , and it doesn't necessarily matter if it's the right person , as long as there is some sense of conclusion .

Speaker 1 25:07

And the other thing is having not having a crime solved . It makes you lose your trust in the criminal justice system a little bit , doesn't it ? You're like , oh , they don't have anyone . At least if they have someone , you've got something to go . Well , it probably is them , but they have . You know . They're just saying it's not them in your brain . That kind of works a bit better now . On another note , lots of um I don't want to say lots . Some unsolved crimes have been solved due to online detectives , um , armchair detectives , uh , new , new dna evidence as well , which we didn't have maybe like 50 years ago . You know mapping of the genome , etc . That is a relatively new thing , like within the last 50 years . So cases have been solved because of that .

Speaker 1 26:01

Now , do I think obsession with true crime is therefore beneficial or negative for a person ? I think it very much depends on the person . For me it just didn't work . I was like I can't continue like this . I will watch the wrongful convictions ones , because in my head I can kind of the decision is is it them or is it not them ? They are not technically unsolved . I can go is it them , is it not them ? That's the answer . For me it's not like well , it could be bloody , anyone it's yes or no , was it them ? The thing with the unsolved crimes for me is well , it could be bloody , anyone it's yes or no , was it them ? The thing with the unsolved crimes for me is , again , like I said earlier , I just can't cope with the fact that I don't know who the bloody hell it is at all Like whatsoever , like it could be anyone . They haven't even got a suspect and that's what concerns me .

Speaker 1 26:58

If you can deal with that uncertainty , you go for it . Guys , do what makes you happy , but you have to be aware that if you start getting obsessed with it , or it takes up your life ie obsession or it starts making you unhappy or you start getting a lack of satisfaction in your life , stop , redirect your life somewhere else . Um , that's why I like working in A&E . There's a , there's a sense of resolution on the wards . It's like this ongoing cascade of ever going , ever going , ongoing , everlasting problems . A&e . I go right , that's the problem . Me fixie , or me not fixie , and me refers to somebody else , and they fixie , and then it's not my problem after that . I kind of like that , which is why my brain doesn't work for unsolved cases . So if you like the ongoing , protracted drama of not knowing , you go for it . Hun , you go for it .

Speaker 1 28:04

But your mental health may take a negative decline because of it , but maybe not . You know , it really depends on the kind of person you are . Anyway , guys , as I said last time , uh , the , what are ? What are the upcoming episodes ? Again , I want to do high protein diet . I want to do um , oh , I might do , you know , I might do low pressure new year's resolutions , because it is new year coming up and I always feel like everyone makes these resolutions that they're never going to stick to . Why don't we come up with ones that are like a bit more realistic ? So , low pressure new year's resolutions that sounds like a great idea to me . Do I even want new year's resolutions ? I don't know , because sometimes the fact that I have something to aim for like pushes me away from it . It's like this weird backwards psychology because I'm like , it's like a self sabotage . I think , anyway , we can get into my again ongoing negative personality traits in the next episode .

Speaker 1 29:05

Gossip OMG , I really want to cover that one because I'm obsessed with gossip , can't cope . And stretch marks I just add to my list as I think of them on the go , if you want a little bit of health well-being with a scientific touch , but also kind of casual like . There are podcasts like mine , but they're not as casual . Mine's more of a conversation . It's not like I sit here and script it all out . Some people might like that , some people might not . Some of it is a bit like . You know , there's a , there's a baseline script , but no more than that , because I struggle with the podcasts that are like

Podcast Ramblings and Feedback Encouragement

Speaker 1 29:44

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Speaker 1 29:44

One day in a residential town in North America , sally went on a trip to meet her husband . Next and it's like oh Christ , please stop . So mine's semi-improvised anyway , guys , gotta love and leave ya , gotta go back to the christmas . You know , fanatics , what , what am I trying to say there ? Antics , my brain is like not quite working today . I don't know what's happened . Antics , fanatics , frantics , frantic antics , frantics . Okay , anyway , um , if you liked it , please tune in for more and give it a like and stuff . I also have fan mail on my podcast uh page . I think you can go on through there , or maybe it's through Spotify as well , if you listen on Spotify . But have a look on my podcast page and you can send me some messages and say you know , maybe don't say dawn your shit , because that would really ruin my new year . But you know , leave some constructive feedback or some positive stuff , or you know , I can take negative feedback if it's constructive . But there we go . Okay , bye , kiss on the little head , I still blow .