The Monster Study

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More

The episode details the infamous 'Monster Study' conducted in 1939 at the University of Iowa by speech pathologist Wendell Johnson and graduate student Mary Tudor.

Key takeaways

• Wendell Johnson hypothesized stuttering was learned through environmental labeling, prompting the 1939 orphanage experiment.
• Graduate student Mary Tudor led the intervention at the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home, splitting children into positive and negative reinforcement groups.

Main topics

• The Monster Study / 1939 psychology experiment
• Wendell Johnson and Mary Tudor's research methods

Notable quotes

"Stuttering often begins not in the child's mouth, but in the parent's ear."

Conclusion

The episode serves as a stark historical reminder of why modern research ethics require

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) In 1939, researchers at a prominent American university began an experiment involving children at an orphanage in Iowa. The children were divided into groups, subjected to very different forms of speech therapy, and in some cases told that something was wrong with the way they spoke. The study was never formally published, and for decades, few people outside a small academic circle knew what had happened. Learn more about the Monster Study. one of the most controversial experiments in the history of psychology, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Speaker 1 (0:45) Do you ever climb into bed ready to sleep, only to have your mind start racing the moment your head hits the pillow? Thoughts bouncing around, replaying the day, or jumping ahead to tomorrow? That is exactly why Catherine Nicolai created Nothing Much Happens. Each episode is a gentle, cozy bedtime story where, well, nothing much happens. No drama, no tension, nothing you need to follow closely. Just soft narration, calming repetition, and soothing sensory details designed to help your mind slow down and your body relax. It's not about entertainment, it's about rest. And millions of listeners around the world use it every night to quiet their thoughts and finally fall asleep. If you've ever struggled to shut your brain off at night, this might be exactly what you've been missing. You can listen to Nothing Much Happens wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes are every Monday and Thursday. Speaker 1 (1:37) One of the most controversial experiments ever conducted in psychology took place in 1939 at the University of Iowa, led by researcher Wendell Johnson. Born in 1906 in Kansas, Johnson grew up as the youngest child of Swedish immigrants on a farm. Around the age of five or six, Johnson developed a stutter, which caused him to be sent to schools to try to fix his speech impediment. Despite his speech impediment, Johnson was a force in everyday life. He was the captain of multiple sports teams at his school, president of his high school class, and valid Victorian. After graduating, he spent two years at a local college before attending the University of Iowa. Johnson is considered one of the earliest and most influential speech pathologists. He dedicated his life to researching stuttering and trying to find its cause and a cure. He was the first to introduce general semantics into the field of speech pathology. His data remains the largest collection of scientific information on stuttering onset and fundamentally changed how stuttering research is approached and taught. However, today he is probably best known for a controversial study he conducted in 1939. Johnson proposed that studying is a learned behavior, not a biological one. This idea came from his own childhood experiences. He stated, quote, Stuttering often begins not in the child's mouth, but in the parent's ear. If he could prove the hypothesis, it would have massive implications for speech therapy and, of course, his career. To conduct the experiment, in 1938, Johnson recruited one of his graduate students, Mary Tudor, as his assistant. They decided to conduct the experiment at the Iowa Soldier's Orphan's Home in May of 1939. The experiment aimed to induce stuttering in non-stuttering children. They believed that they could do this by telling the children that they stuttered. For children who already stuttered, they believed they