We know that a lot of our communication happens not just through words, but through facial expressions, tone, and body language too. This can cause a researcher to unintentionally influence the person or animal they are examining. There are ways of getting around this-double blind studies are one way-where neither the researcher nor the subject knows if they are in a control or experimental group. But where did our understanding of subtle cues come from? Well, they came from a particularly clever horse. Clever Hans, a horse who took the media by storm in the early 1900s. Clever Hans was wowing the world with his ability to calculate numbers, identify musical tones, and ace any test thrown his way. His trainer, retired school teacher Wilhelm Van Osten, taught this horse as he would have a human child in front of a chalkboard and a counting machine in his backyard for years. Van Osten and the world truly believed Clever Hans was capable of extraordinary things. And he was…it just wasn’t what they had all suspected. Little did they know, they were all being outsmarted by one clever horse.
Leadbelly Part 1: Prodigy
Irena Sendler, the Titanic Engineers, Invisible Hands, and Stubby the War Dog
The Prehistory of Compassion and the Search for Human Happiness
John Robert Fox, Buffalo Soldier
Miep Gies, the Dutch Resistance, and a Girl Who Changed the World
The Elephant Angel of Belfast
A Heroic Goat, an Angry Cat, and a Graveyard Full of Daredevils
The Edmund Fitzgerald
Olympias Part 3: The Rise and Fall of a Legend
Olympias Part 2: Mother of Empire
Olympias Part 1: Witch of Epirus, Mother of Alexander the Great
The First Robot
Why Does Fruitcake Even Exist? Eggnog, Yule Logs, and a Cannibalistic Christmas Troll
The Lost Voyage of Shackleton: The Edge of Human Endurance Part 5 of 5
The Lost Voyage of Shackleton: The Edge of Human Endurance Part 4 of 5
The Lost Voyage of Shackleton: The Edge of Human Endurance Part 3 of 5
Père Lachaise Cemetery: A History of Death in Paris
The Screaming Mummies of Guanajuato and a Horde of Egyptian Cats
The First Monsters
The Lost Voyage of Shackleton: The Edge of Human Endurance Part 2 of 5
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Irish Songs with Ken Murray
History Obscura
Historycal: Words that Shaped the World
The Rest Is History
Lore