Psych Unhinged

The Streisand effect is what happens when an attempt to suppress information ends up spreading it further. And the true story behind its name involves Barbra Streisand, a photograph of her home and a $50 million lawsuit that backfired spectacularly. This week on Psych Unhinged, we unpack the psychology behind the Streisand effect. From toddler experiments, forbidden fruit theory , banned books to...

What if the government built a gaydar machine. They claimed it could tell if you were gay just by looking into your eyes? During the Cold War, Canada did exactly that. They built a device that measured your pupils, your sweat, your heartbeat to tell if you were gay. So did it work? And does it even matter? Because what came with it was far worse. A decades-long campaign to hunt down, interrogate,...

Before Tarzan and Mowgli...there was Victor. In the winter of 1800, a boy emerged from the forests of southern France. He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t explain where he came from. But he would become the center of science’s most controversial “forbidden experiment.” This week on Psych Unhinged , we dig into the story of Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron. Was he really raised in the wild? Or was someth...

This episode dives into the shaky foundations of the bystander effect: A theory born from a misreported tragedy and built on flawed experiments. We uncover what really happened the night Kitty was killed, how the myth of 38 silent witnesses spread like wildfire, and how it all led to the creation of 911 emergency number. *Trigger Warning: This episode discusses themes of violence and Sexual assaul...

They were tied up, threatened, and trapped in a vault for six days. So why did they defend their captors? This episode unravels the true story behind Stockholm Syndrome—and the uncomfortable truth that’s been buried for decades. What if the hostages weren’t confused… but calculated? And what if the real danger wasn’t inside the vault—but outside it? You think you know this story. Think again. *Tri...

Welcome to Psych Unhinged — the podcast that uncovers the controversial origins of psychology’s most iconic phenomena. From the unethical roots of Stockholm Syndrome, to the lie that created the Bystander Effect, and the unbelievable true story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron — We expose the twisted and the downright bizarre truths behind the stories that psychology tried to forget. Subscribe to Psych...