Millions of teenagers spend hours each week watching true crime videos on YouTube, drawn in by dramatic retellings of real murders and disappearances. A new study published in ISPCE Bulletin offers some reassurance to worried parents, suggesting that watching more of this content does not appear to make young viewers more fixated on danger and violence.

The research focused on Rotten Mango, one of the most popular true crime channels on YouTube, created by Stephanie Soo and watched by a largely teenage audience. It examined whether frequent viewing was linked to something psychologists call morbid curiosity, defined as a fascination with unpleasant or dangerous topics such as death, violence and the minds of dangerous people.

Conducted by a student researcher at Sewanhaka High School in the United States, the study surveyed 57 participants aged between 13 and 19 who said they regularly watched Rotten Mango. Each completed a validated morbid curiosity questionnaire and reported how often they watched the channel and how frightened the videos made them feel.

Most participants said they watched between one and three episodes a week, suggesting relatively light rather than heavy viewing habits among this age group. Scores on the morbid curiosity scale were mostly in the medium to moderately high range, with many teenagers showing particular interest in understanding the psychology of dangerous individuals.

When the researcher compared viewing frequency with morbid curiosity scores, the link turned out to be weak and statistically insignificant. In other words, teenagers who watched Rotten Mango more often were not meaningfully more curious about morbid topics than those who watched less.

The findings challenge a common assumption that repeated exposure to disturbing content gradually reshapes how young people think. Instead, the study suggests morbid curiosity may already exist as a personality trait that draws certain teenagers towards true crime content in the first place, rather than being something the content itself creates.

Interestingly, the study also found that higher fear ratings after watching videos were associated with higher morbid curiosity scores. This fits with existing psychological theory describing morbid curiosity as a mix of discomfort and fascination, where feeling scared and staying engaged can happen at the same time.

Nearly all participants who named Rotten Mango as their favourite true crime source said they would choose it again over other formats such as podcasts or documentaries, pointing to the channel’s strong storytelling appeal among younger audiences.

The researcher acknowledged limitations, including a small sample size, an overwhelmingly female group of participants, and reliance on self-reported viewing habits. Wider studies with more balanced samples and long-term tracking would help clarify whether these patterns hold true over time.

For now, the study offers a more nuanced picture of adolescent true crime consumption, suggesting curiosity about danger is something many teenagers bring to the content, rather than something YouTube videos instil in them.