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CrowdScience, CrowdScience, What is brainwashing?

CrowdScience

CrowdScience

What is brainwashing?

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December 1, 2023

37 minutes

Available for over a year

*Warning* This episode includes references to suicide.

When listener Ben heard about a Kenyan “starvation cult” in the news, he wondered whether the of this group had been brainwashed. Is it possible to control someone’s mind?

In this episode presenter Caroline Steel learns how easily people can be influenced. She hears what it’s like to be part of a cult, and gets to the bottom of a decades-long debate: does brainwashing exist? And, if so, how does it work?

Presenter: Caroline Steel

Producer: Florian Bohr

Editor: Richard Collings

Production Co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris

Studio Managers: Donald McDonald and Emma Harth

Featuring:

Anthony Pratkanis, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz

Alexandra Stein, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Sussex

Eileen Barker, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, London School of Economics

(Image: Washing a brain. Credit: Cemile Bingol / Getty Images).