Explaining aversion to true crime documentaries: why do audiences refuse to watch them?

Despite the widespread fascination with media content, scholarly attention often overlooks aversion, refusal, or resistance to it. This qualitative study explores the rejection of True Crime documentaries (TCD) by examining viewers in Colombia and Singapore, identifying reasons for refusal and exploring perceived effects. Results show that emotional distress is a common factor explaining refusal to TCDs. Notably, differences emerge between the two samples: Singaporean participants dislike TCDs due to a cultural disconnect tied to their low murder rate, and they lack precise notions about TCD effects. In contrast, Colombians cite the need to escape everyday violence and avoid glorifying criminals. These findings suggest that cultural context, including murder rates, influences viewers' aversion to TCDs, underscoring the importance for TV managers to consider localization in global content distribution decisions.