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Julia Shaw

Criminal Psychologist and Author; Honorary Research Associate, University College London

Search every verified Julia Shaw interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Julia Shaw, a criminal psychologist and honorary research associate at University College London, has continued to engage in public discussions about criminal psychology, memory, and sexuality. In 2026, she appeared on the podcast "100 Questions," where she discussed topics including the psychology of murderers, psychopaths, and true crime, stating that she does not believe anyone is born evil and that all people are capable of terrible acts. She also spoke on the Instant Genius Podcast about bisexuality, describing it as having an "invisibility problem" and arguing that sexuality is fluid. In a TEDxLondon talk, she presented her research on environmental crime, proposing a psychological profile of offenders based on what she called the "six pillars of environmental crime": ease, impunity, greed, rationalisation, conformity, and desperation. Shaw has also addressed the concept of "evil," arguing that the term is used to dehumanize others and should be reconsidered. In interviews with Lex Fridman, she discussed false memories, describing them as a normal feature of the brain, and expressed concerns about generative AI, calling it "the ultimate false memory machine." She has also spoken about workplace harassment, drawing on her research on witnesses and her co-founded reporting tool Spot, which uses memory science to help employees record incidents. Throughout these appearances, Shaw has emphasized the fallibility of memory, the importance of evidence-based approaches in criminal justice, and the need for nuanced conversations about taboo topics.

Recent appearances

  • I asked a Criminal Psychologist 100 Questions about Murderers & Psychopaths | Dr. Julia Shaw

    July 07, 2026 · 📺 100 Questions with Tom Simons and TommyInnit

    The 100 Questions Patreon is now live! Just head over to   / 100questions   for extended cuts of every episode so far INCLUDING Stephen Fry, Stampy and Professor Brian Cox. Subscribe NOW so you don't miss an episode, with new episodes dropping every Tuesday! Julia Shaw is a German-Canadian criminal psychologist and popular science writer of the books The Memory Illusion: Remembering, Forgetting, and the Science of False Memory, Bi: The Hidden Culture, History and Science of Bisexuality and many more. In this episode we dive into the psychology of evil, why people love true crime, why men co…

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  • Why Bisexuality is Everywhere | Dr Julia Shaw | Instant Genius Podcast

    June 01, 2026 · 📺 BBC Science Focus Magazine

    In June of every year, the LGBTQ+ community across the world comes together to celebrate Pride Month – an annual event that began in 1970 to promote awareness, visibility and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer individuals. In this episode, to coincide with Pride Month, we’re joined by Dr Julia Shaw, a broadcaster, best-selling author and psychologist based at University College London, to talk about the science and history of bisexuality. She tells us about the fascinating historical and scientific origins of the term bisexuality, how studies have found that there ar…

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  • Inside the minds of green criminals | Julia Shaw | TEDxLondon

    March 18, 2026 · 📺 TEDx Talks

    When criminal psychologist, Dr Julia Shaw, combed through thousands of green crime cases she found a common pattern, a psychological profile for the people committing environmental crimes. She calls them the ‘six pillars of environmental crime’: ease, impunity, greed, rationalisation, conformity, and desperation. These pillars can be applied across different types of green crimes, from corporate fraud, to organised crime, to cases of hit men hired to kill environmental defenders. Understanding these pillars, and knocking them down one by one, Dr Shaw explains, is key to catching green crimina…

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  • Why We Need to Rethink Our Concept of Evil | Dr Julia Shaw | Instant Genius Podcast

    February 02, 2026 · 📺 BBC Science Focus Magazine

    If most of us are put on the spot and asked to name acts that we think would define a person as evil, it’s likely our minds would turn to murderers, rapists and war criminals, to name a few. But could it be that this commonly held conception of evil isn’t merely just an oversimplification, but rather a deeply flawed way of viewing the world based on a litany of personal biases, and one that is in dire need of readdressing? In this episode, we’re joined by Dr Julia Shaw, a broadcaster, best-selling author and psychologist based at University College London, to talk about the nature of evil. S…

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  • Are Men More Evil Than Women? Criminal Psychologist Answers Questions | Honesty Box

    November 09, 2025 · 📺 LADbible Stories

    In this episode of Honesty Box, the brilliant Dr Julia Shaw came in to answer your questions on Criminal Psychology. Julia enlightened us on why she chose to work with murderers, corrects misconceptions about 'intelligent' Psychopaths, and reveals who is more 'evil'; Men or Women. Dr Julia Shaw hosts Murder in Mind with Kerry Daynes, currently airing on Sundays at 9pm on the TRUE CRIME channel. Episodes are also available to stream on WATCH FREE UK. https://www.watchfreeuk.co.uk/shows/6... 00:00 Intro 00:29 Criminal Psychologist? 01:10 Why do you do this? 01:46 What skills do you need? 02:3…

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  • Sexuality advice for people from psychologist | Julia Shaw and Lex Fridman

    October 20, 2025 · 📺 Lex Clips

    Lex Fridman Podcast full episode:    • Julia Shaw: Criminal Psychology of Murder,...   Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/cv938... See below for guest bio, links, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. GUEST BIO: Julia Shaw is a criminal psychologist and author who in her books explores human nature, including psychopathy, violent crime, the psychology of evil, police interrogation, false memory manipulation, deception detection, and human sexuality. CONTACT LEX: Feedback - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey A…

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  • Bisexuality explained by psychologist | Julia Shaw and Lex Fridman

    October 20, 2025 · 📺 Lex Clips

    Lex Fridman Podcast full episode:    • Julia Shaw: Criminal Psychology of Murder,...   Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/cv938... See below for guest bio, links, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. GUEST BIO: Julia Shaw is a criminal psychologist and author who in her books explores human nature, including psychopathy, violent crime, the psychology of evil, police interrogation, false memory manipulation, deception detection, and human sexuality. CONTACT LEX: Feedback - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey A…

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  • Are you creepy? - The psychology of creepiness explained | Julia Shaw and Lex Fridman

    October 16, 2025 · 📺 Lex Clips

    Lex Fridman Podcast full episode:    • Julia Shaw: Criminal Psychology of Murder,...   Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/cv936... See below for guest bio, links, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. GUEST BIO: Julia Shaw is a criminal psychologist and author who in her books explores human nature, including psychopathy, violent crime, the psychology of evil, police interrogation, false memory manipulation, deception detection, and human sexuality. CONTACT LEX: Feedback - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey A…

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  • False memories explained by criminal psychologist | Julia Shaw and Lex Fridman

    October 15, 2025 · 📺 Lex Clips

    Lex Fridman Podcast full episode:    • Julia Shaw: Criminal Psychology of Murder,...   Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/cv939... See below for guest bio, links, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. GUEST BIO: Julia Shaw is a criminal psychologist and author who in her books explores human nature, including psychopathy, violent crime, the psychology of evil, police interrogation, false memory manipulation, deception detection, and human sexuality. CONTACT LEX: Feedback - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey A…

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  • Julia Shaw: Criminal Psychology of Murder, Serial Killers, Memory & Sex | Lex Fridman Podcast #483

    October 14, 2025 · 📺 Lex Fridman

    Julia Shaw is a criminal psychologist and author who in her books explores human nature, including psychopathy, violent crime, the psychology of evil, police interrogation, false memory manipulation, deception detection, and human sexuality. Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep483-sb See below for timestamps, transcript, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/julia-shaw-tra... CONTACT LEX: Feedback - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey AMA - submit questions, videos or call-i…

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  • Why Acting Innocent Makes You Look Guilty

    June 08, 2025 · 📺 The Times

    What actually happens inside a high-stakes police interrogation? Dr Julia Shaw, a leading criminal psychologist from University College London, deconstructs the science of investigative interviewing. While the public—and many officers—rely on ""body language"" cues, Dr Shaw explains why these are scientifically unproven and dangerously misleading. This episode explores the thin line between a factual interview and a forced confession, comparing the aggressive tactics of the US system with the evidence-led approach of the UK. Based at University College London, she is also the author of four…

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  • Why do people do bad things? | Dr Julia Shaw

    October 24, 2023 · 📺 UCL Faculty of Brain Sciences

    Dr Julia Shaw is an honorary research associate in UCL’s Division of Psychology and Language Sciences (PALS). She specialises in criminal psychology and is the author of multiple best-selling books. Initially, Shaw studied with the intention of becoming a clinical psychologist, but soon realised the clinical settings simply weren’t for her. She has never looked back. Learn more about Dr Shaw here: www.ucl.ac.uk/brain-sciences/new…ings-dr-julia-shaw And you can purchase her books here: www.drjuliashaw.com/

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Notable quotes

“There is some research on people who write to serial killers in prison or murderers in general. And I think most of the time when you speak to the woman, it is it's exciting for one. You've got something cool to talk about to your friends because a lot of the stuff around true crime and women being interested also ends up being around the community that that can create. But when someone falls in love with a serial ki”

“I don't think anyone is born evil or good. I think that that is an artificial differentiation anyway. And usually we think other people can be evil, but we can't ourselves. And there's this idea that we're inherently good, other people are bad. And not every not all other people, but the people we assign, like criminals, like people who are serial killers, we have this sort of category where we go, they are bad and I”

“I think sexuality is fluid. So, I think that across our lifespans and even in our own way of thinking about even day by day, we can have a different interpretation of who we think or know we are attracted to and and also how that interacts with how we want to live our lives. Because it's one thing to be queer in London in my group right now where I can I can be by and I can live a polyamorous life and I have other fr”

“There is no less in them. We are all capable of terrible things basically at all times but especially when the circumstances align. And so if war breaks out, if you have deprivation, so something happens to you, you get injured, someone else gets injured, you're in this sort of almost survival state, you can very quickly turn to very horrible acts. And we see it happen all the time. And that's important to acknowledg”

“Evil is a word that we use to other people. So we use it to create distance psychologically between ourselves and people who we think are capable of terrible things or have done terrible things. And I think it's a word that we need to stop using. The concept of evil... you can trace it back to its religious connotations of course quite quickly and continued religious connotations. But moving beyond that, you go to th”

“I do not think that you need to be a narcissist to lead a country. I think you can be a normal non-narcissistic person who just understands their limitations and understands their own worth. And again, like obviously if you're the president or prime minister or uh whatever of a country or king of a country, it doesn't mean that you like you can say I mean I'm in charge and that's amazing. That's not narcissism. That'”

The summary and quote tags on this profile are produced with AI assistance from verified, first-person interview transcripts, then checked by our team to confirm the speaker's identity and the accuracy of every quote. See how we verify →