Missing White Woman Syndrome: Psychiatrists and Societal Bias

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The missing person case of Gabby Petito transfixed the nation in the fall of 2021 and has remained in the public eye with a recent Netflix documentary. Petito was 22 when she left Florida in July 2021 to travel across the country in a van with her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie. She posted frequently on social media about her trip, attempting to become a #vanlife influencer. Her disappearance in August 2021 sparked national attention, with frequent and extensive coverage from major news networks as well as social media creators posting theories and live updates. A homicide victim, Petito’s body was found in September 2021. Weeks later, Laundrie’s body was found, with the manner of death deemed to be suicide, alongside a notebook with an admission of murder.¹ The February 2025 Netflix special was listed as 1 of the top 10 most-watched shows, and internet content related to the case has been reignited, indicating that the case continues to capture our collective attention.

Gabby Petito

This case, and the media and public attention brought to this case, exemplify what is known as Missing White Woman Syndrome (MWWS). The term was first proposed by journalist Gwen Ifill in 2004 to refer to the bias in media, in which young, attractive, White women are predominantly featured in news coverage compared with women of color. MWWS remains underresearched; while literature exists outlining and defining the concept, including a featured article in the New York Times,² there is not scientific data examining the impact of the phenomenon more widely. Importantly, MWWS has implications for psychiatrists.

Lauren Smith-Fields

There are several parallels between Petito’s story and that of Lauren Smith-Fields, a 23-year-old Black woman found deceased in December 2021.³ Her death was ruled to be an accidental overdose; police initially cleared her date from suspicion but later opened a criminal investigation. Many, including Smith-Field’s family, have argued that the police’s investigation was inadequate: failing to collect evidence at the scene of the death, insufficiently questioning her date, and failing to consider that Smith-Fields, who was not known to use drugs, may have been drugged by her date and murdered.³ Despite the circumstances, Smith-Fields’ case did not garner anywhere near the amount of attention from the media and the public as Petito.

Laci Peterson

Petito and Smith-Fields are only the most recent examples of this phenomenon. We can look back at the case of Laci Peterson, an attractive 8.5-month pregnant young wife who disappeared on Christmas Eve 2002. Her husband, Scott Peterson, appeared calm when questioned and said he had been fishing when she disappeared. Her story was followed closely by the national news. Scott Peterson called his paramour, Amber Frey (whom he told previously that he was a widower), from a candlelight vigil for Laci Peterson.⁴ Laci Peterson’s body was eventually found, having washed ashore. When Scott Peterson was apprehended, he had dyed his hair, and his car had several mobile phones, lots of money, camping equipment, and Viagra.⁴ Perhaps if Laci Peterson had not been so prominently featured in the media, Frey would not have known about the case; Frey’s awareness of the case and subsequent contact with the police resulted in her critical role in its solution.

We can also find examples of this phenomenon in fiction. Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl was a bestselling novel that became a critically acclaimed film highlighting some important considerations about MWWS.⁵ Amy Dunne, the beautiful young White protagonist and titular Gone Girl, goes missing, and her husband Nick is the obvious suspect. However, in a midstory twist, we learn that Amy has faked her disappearance to punish Nick for an affair. Amy is superficially charming, cold, and calculating, without remorse. Bogutskya described, “No antiheroine has ever been more of a Rorschach test for morality than her.”⁶ This refers to MWWS as well, which the story helped show only goes along with 1 specific narrative, a “gendered binary of victimhood”⁷—not the narrative in this story, where “missing women only matter when they are beautiful, rich, and White.”

Media Bias

These cases exemplify the attention paid to missing women when they are young, conventionally attractive, higher socioeconomic status, and White. Attention persists even though women of color are more likely to be reported missing.⁸ When Black women are covered as victims of violence, they are more likely to be portrayed using stereotypical tropes, such as the “oversexed Jezebel,” and other negative descriptors, which may have the effect of victim-blaming and mitigating perpetrator responsibility.⁹ One-third of White women who are missing will have media coverage, including photos of themselves with their families, in contrast to less than one-sixth of missing Indigenous women.¹⁰ Coverage of a missing person with a photo may impact public perception in several ways, such as humanizing the victim and building public empathy. This disproportionate coverage may lead to the misperception that White women are more at risk.

Implications for Psychiatrists

As psychiatrists, we must be particularly aware of bias and the potential implications for our assessments of patients. Diagnostically, it is well-established that Black and Hispanic patients are significantly more likely to be labeled with a psychotic disorder compared with White patients.¹¹ Many explanations exist for these discrepant diagnostic patterns, including the subjective nature of psychiatric symptom interpretation and the clinicians' application of diagnostic criteria differently to individual races.

Similarly, psychiatrists and mental health clinicians should be aware of the potential impact of the MWWS phenomenon on patients. Patients who feel forgotten, dismissed, or ignored because they do not fit society’s construct of important or newsworthy should be heard. This is not limited to news coverage of crime victims; negative media portrayals of mental illness have been linked to lower self-esteem in individuals experiencing mental illness, along with decreases in both help-seeking behaviors and adherence to treatment.¹² Being heard means we, as psychiatrists and mental health clinicians, are aware and inquire with our patients about the potential impacts of media misrepresentation on their well-being.

Outside of our clinical work, psychiatrists have a role in advocating for equitable and accurate media depictions of individuals, especially those who allude to or reference mental health issues. The Petito case highlighted societal misperceptions of intimate partner violence (IPV). For example, a recent 16-state study found that among IPV-related fatalities, those of minority ethnicity died 9 or more years younger on average than their White counterparts.¹³ Young or old, White or Black, single or married, women or men can be victims of IPV, and we should remain diligent in screening all kinds of patients, despite media-driven biases that may unconsciously influence our clinical practice. Importantly, a large percentage of women exposed to IPV both deny or withhold disclosure of IPV.¹⁴ The Peterson case raised questions about feticide, when killing a pregnant woman. Pregnancy is not a safe time in violent relationships, despite myths to the contrary. Feticide may occur related to a lack of desire to be a father, a desire to end the relationship, and to avoid paying child support.¹⁵ Among cases of pregnancy-associated intimate partner homicide, Black women have rates that are 3 times higher than White and Hispanic women.¹⁶ Sharing this professional knowledge can combat the effects of biased media coverage.

Concluding Thoughts

Exposure to media, including potentially biased media coverage of a high-profile event, is inevitable in the 21st century. As recently noted in the Psychiatric Times, media has become more polarized and is contributing to mental health challenges in the American population.¹⁷ Media literacy, or the ability to critically access and evaluate communication, is the path to truth. A meta-analysis evaluating 51 varied, heterogeneous media literacy interventions illustrated that all these interventions positively impacted audiences’ awareness of media influence and their ability to evaluate media critically.¹⁸ Even without completing a formal media program, awareness of media bias and its potential impact on our own perceptions and our patients is paramount.

We are all susceptible to bias. While bias, including bias perpetuated by media coverage of an event, may be inevitable, acting on such bias is not.¹⁹ Bias interruption requires a willingness to critically evaluate external information and our own conclusions and admit our initial impressions may have been wrong. Only with such endeavors can we strive towards equitable treatment of all.

Dr Tastenhoye is a forensic child and adolescent psychiatrist, and an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UC Davis. Dr Hatters Friedman is the Phillip J. Resnick Professor of Forensic Psychiatry; professor of psychiatry, reproductive biology, and pediatrics; and adjunct professor of law at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She served as editor of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry volume Family Murder: Pathologies of Love and Hate, which won the Manfred S. Guttmacher Award. Dr Ross is a forensic and reproductive psychiatrist who provides evaluations and consultation for issues in the interface of psychiatry and the law. Dr Sorrentino is the medical director at the Institution for Sexual Wellness and assistant professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She is also a forensic psychiatrist with expertise in the evaluation and treatment of individuals with paraphilias. Dr Kruse is a forensic child and adolescent psychiatrist, and a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan.

References

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