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CrowdScience: What is brainwashing?

Discussion & Talk

What is brainwashing?

01/12/2023 GMT

BBC World Service - CrowdScience, What is brainwashing?

Is it possible to control someone’s mind?

What is brainwashing? Presenter Caroline Steel finds out if controlling somebody’s mind is actually possible.

*Warning* This episode includes references to suicide. 

When listener Ben heard about a Kenyan “starvation cult” in the news, he wondered whether the members 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).

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