Independent Research Project:

Crime Movies & Gender Preference

Honors 221 B: Evolution and Human Behavior

By Megan Beatty, Molly Brazil and Lily Katz

March 19, 2015

I.

Abstract
Many people enjoy the thrill of reading about crime. Research has shown that, despite

being the less violent sex, women enjoy crime books more than men. The purpose of our study is
to determine if this is also the case for movies. We conducted a survey, asking participants to
choose whether they prefer to watch crime movies or gang/war movies, and whether they prefer
to watch crime movies with or without a specific survival tactic. We hypothesized that a higher
rate of women than men would prefer the crime movies to the gang or war movies, and that a
higher rate of women than men would prefer the crime movie with the survival strategy to the
one without. We found that there was no significant difference within or between genders
regarding preference for crime stories to other violent categories. Additionally, we found that
both genders were more likely to choose the movie with the survival tactic over the one without,
but this result was more dramatic for women.
II.

Introduction
True-crime books have become increasingly popular over the years. Given the large body

of research indicating that men are the more violent sex (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2011), it is
reasonable to assume that they represent a majority of this genres growing readership. But two
psychologists at the University of Illinois challenged this assumption (Vicary & Fraley, 2010).
Researchers Amanda Vicary and Chris Fraley sought to answer the following questions: Do
women like reading about crime more than men? And more importantly, if so, why is this the
case? They found that women, despite being the less violent sex, are more drawn to true-crime
stories, and that there might be an evolutionary explanation for this paradox reading true
accounts of crime, they suggested, can teach women survival strategies.

In light of popular crime shows like Law & Order, and the fact that many young people
today prefer watching TV or movies to reading, we decided to replicate the study using movies
instead of books to determine if the trend is consistent across mediums. Similar to Vicary and
Fraley, we hypothesized that a greater proportion of women than men would prefer crime movies
(kidnapping, rape, murder) to gang or war movies, while men would prefer each genre equally.
Additionally, we hypothesized that a higher rate of women than men would the prefer crime
movie that includes the survival tactic to the one without due to the fitness-relevant nature of the
information. In other words, we believe that women would prefer these movies because they
could potentially learn strategies to help them survive dangerous situations in the future.
III.

Methods
To test our hypotheses, we set up an anonymous survey (Fig. 1) on Survey Monkey, in

which respondents were asked to choose which movies they would prefer after reading two sets
of synopses. The first set included four synopses two about crime (kidnapping, rape, murder)
and two about gang or war violence. Participants were asked to select which two movies they
would most like to watch. The second set included two synopses, both about crime. Participants
were asked to choose between a story that included a survival strategy for example, unlocking
handcuffs with a pin from a watch and one that did not include a survival strategy. All of the
films had female protagonists in order to control for gender. Our predicted results if our
hypothesis is correct and if it is incorrect are illustrated in Figure 2.
IV.

Results
Our results show that a slightly higher proportion of women actually preferred the gang

or war movies to the crime movies, and a slightly higher proportion of men preferred the crime
movies to the gang or war movies, but these results were not significant (Fig. 3). Furthermore,

both genders were more likely to choose the story with the survival technique over the one
without, but there was a larger discrepancy between the two preferences for women (Fig. 4).
V.

Discussion
Our results about survival strategy were similar to the original study in that both genders

preferred the story with the clever trick, but a higher proportion of women than men preferred
the movie with the clever trick to the movie without. Our results differed from the original study
in that women did not prefer crime stories to gang or war stories. In fact, our results about
movie-genre preference were inconclusive. This discrepancy could be due to the fact that we
wrote the synopses ourselves, and lack experience in synopsis writing and marketing. We wanted
to avoid using movies people may had already seen or heard of because that could lead to
personal bias that could confound the actual variables we were testing.
It might have been beneficial to use real movie synopses written by professionals, such as
Law & Order episode descriptions. Additionally, for the survival strategy component, it might
have been beneficial to ask participants to choose between two excerpts from a movie script
instead of our made-up synopses, because our synopses may have been overly detailed. We also
unintentionally set up a forced dichotomy, since it was always the same synopsis that included
the survival strategy. We should have randomly switched off which of the two stories included
the survival strategy to ensure the results reflected survival-strategy preference, and not story
preference in general. Another limitation of our study is that our sample was almost entirely
University of Washington college students ages 18-24, since we distributed it to our friends on
Facebook.

VI.

Figures

Figure 1: The survey questions used on Survey Monkey

1.
2.
3.

4.

Please select the gender you most identify with: Women, Men, Other.
What is your age?
Read the following movie synopses and pick the 2 you would most like to watch:
a. Crime
i.
In The Cellar, a young mother from Portland named Jessica is coming out of the grocery
store when she sees an attractive, friendly-looking man limping toward her. He tells her
he thinks he has broken his foot, and asks if she will drive him to the hospital. She agrees,
but senses something isnt right along the way. As shes about to turn into the hospital,
the man pulls out a knife and tells her to keep driving. The next year is one full of fear,
suspense and suffering, as Jessica is forced to live in the mans cellar among five other
women whom he has also took hostage.
ii.
In A Deadly Secret, Jackie, a lonely mother, has a secret affair with her daughters
teacher when her husband takes a job overseas. A few months into the affair, police find
her body on a nearby riverbank. Her throat is slit, and there are clear signs that she has
been raped. Jackies daughter, Anna, is determined to find out who is responsible. When
she hears rumors that her mom had been sleeping with her history teacher, Anna
confronts him one day after school. The next thing she knows, she is tied up in his trunk
many miles from home.
b. Gang/War
i.
In Justice: The Life of a Female Gangster, a young girl named Justice is raised by her
brother the ringleader of a notorious gang. One night, three rival gang members arrive
at their door, land a shot in her brothers head, and demand that Justice comes with them.
A violent war unfolds between the two gangs as Justice fights for her family and her life.
Where will her dedication lie, and what will she sacrifice to survive?
ii.
In War Torn, Ilene and Cassidy join the U.S. Air Force after their parents perish in the
9/11 terrorist attacks. During a rescue mission in Iraq, their plane is shot down. Both
women are critically injured and trapped under their plane in the middle of the desert.
Time is running short. Who will find them first a terrorist group or their fellow
soldiers?
Which of the following moves would you like to watch?
a. Crime
i.
Wanderlust tells the story of Annie, an adventurous 18-year-old who decides to take a
gap year before college to backpack around Bolivia. Her trip takes a turn for the worse
when she realizes that a strange man is following her to each city she visits. One day
when she comes back from sightseeing, she notices the door to her room is ajar. When
she walks in, the strange man is standing by her bed with a gun. Wanderlust tells the tale
of a young, free spirited woman in the midst of danger, who uses her quick wit,
knowledge, and strong sense of self to survive a deadly situation.
ii.
In Running from Death, Melissa, an athletic young doctor living in New Mexico, is on
her daily morning run through the woods when she hears footsteps behind her. She thinks
nothing of it until she feels someone grab her wrist. A man pulls her off the trail, takes
her to an abandoned shed and handcuffs her to a pipe. He tells her he will return once he
finds the knife he dropped on the trail. Melissa remembers a trick she learned online

how to unlock handcuffs with a pin from a watch. Using this trick, she escapes in the
knick of time, but must find her way back to safety before the man finds her.

Figure 2: We predicted that a greater proportion of women than men would choose the crime
movies over the gang or war movies and that there would be no difference in mens movie
preference (A). Additionally, we predicted that a greater proportion of women than men would
choose the movie with the survival strategy over the one without.

Figure 3: A higher proportion of women chose the gang or war movies over the crime movies,
and a higher proportion of men chose the crime movies over the gang or war movies, but these
results were not significant. While graph above appears significant, it is important to note that
the scale on the y-axis is very small.

Figure 4: Both genders preferred the movie with the survival strategy, but a higher proportion of
women than men preferred the movie with the survival strategy to the movie without.

Literature Cited
Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2011. Homicide Trends in the United States, 1980-2008.
Government report. Web. http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/htus8008.pdf.
Vicary, A., R. Fraley. 2010. Captured by True Crime: Why Are Women Drawn to Tales of Rape,
Murder, and Serial Killers? Social Psychological and Personality Science 1: 81-86.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1948550609355486.