 Welcome back to another video in our Supernatural Psychology series. Previously, we discussed why people believe in ghosts and why people love serial killers. Today, I wanted to cover the very interesting psychology around why many of us won't live in a house where murders took place. Also, before we get started, I wanted to say welcome to everyone coming over from the horror community. My beautiful girlfriend Tristan recently got me into horror, and now I see why she loves the community so much as well. You're all awesome. I hope you've been enjoying some of the other psychology and critical thinking content I make, and if you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. So, I want to start out by asking you if you would live in a house where a murder took place. I'm also curious as to why or why not, and feel free to leave a comment down below with your reasons of why or why you wouldn't live in a murder house. I've wanted to make this video for a while after reading some books on the supernatural and psychology. If you remember from our serial killer video, we discussed essentialism, and the psychology behind essentialism actually has a lot to do with why many of us wouldn't want to live in a house where murders took place. For those of you who need a refresher on essentialism, it's our belief that various objects or things have an essence to them. For example, we discussed the studies around why people would or wouldn't buy items from a serial killer. People believe that this sort of evil essence is transferred with the item that was owned by the serial killer. On the opposite end of the spectrum, this is also why people spend so much money at celebrity auctions just for items that were once owned by a celebrity. In this video, we're going to discuss a couple really interesting subjects behind real scenarios about some of these houses where actual murders took place. Like many of you, I'm really interested in true crime, but when looking at the psychology of our culture, I find the topic even more interesting. One of the stories we're going to discuss is the demolition of a house where murders took place, and we're also going to discuss some laws around these murder houses. Those of you familiar with the channel know that we use critical thinking in an effort to improve our emotional intelligence and overall well-being. Understanding some of the ways our mind works can help us pause and be skeptical about various situations we come across in daily life. Personally, critical thinking has helped me a lot with my own mental health, and it's one of the reasons I love rational, emotive behavioral therapy so much. But, aside from the psychology around essentialism, there's one other major reason people won't live in a murder house, which is the belief in the paranormal. While it may seem as though essentialism and belief in the paranormal are the same thing, they aren't. When it comes to the paranormal, this is a belief that ghosts or spirits may be inhabiting the house which there's no scientific evidence for. On the other hand, there's essentialism where it's more about the feeling we get in our gut that something has an essence to it. Like paranormal activity, there's no evidence that something like a house has an essence to it, but we can have a psychological response to our belief in that essence. As we've discussed in other videos, the placebo effect is very real, and our body has very real responses to what we believe. But, what we have no evidence for is ghosts or spirits. In some future videos for the supernatural psychology series, I'll cover some of the bad science around things like EVPs and Ouija boards and all that kind of stuff. As you'll see in this first section of this video, our essentialism around murder houses are quite irrational, and people will go to great lengths to ease the minds of the people in that community. Between 1978 and 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer murdered 17 young men and cannibalized them. When he was caught, the police found skulls, a human head, and hearts in his refrigerator. There was even a torso in his freezer. So, would you live in Jeffrey Dahmer's old apartment? What about the apartment next door? Would you even live in the same complex that was associated with these murders? After he was caught, many of his neighbors vacated, and within a year of Dahmer's arrest, the entire complex was demolished and turned into a vacant lot. This is the power of essentialism, and Dahmer's house isn't the only one to be demolished. The one that I find the most interesting is the house of the English serial killer Fred West. If you remember from the last video, we discussed how Dr. Bruce Hood asked the question if someone would wear the cardigan of Fred West, and due to essentialism, many people wouldn't. Fred West and his wife kidnapped, tortured, and brutally murdered 10 young women between the years of 1971 and 1987. After murdering the victims, Fred West dismembered the bodies and would bury them in either the cellar or the garden. From the outside, Fred and his wife Rose looked like a normal, happily married couple with children, but behind closed doors, they were committing these terrible murders. On multiple occasions, they even threatened to kill their own children if the children were to ever speak up about what was actually happening in that house. What happened to the house is interesting because I think it really shows how strong the psychology of essentialism can be. In the guest article for The Guardian, Bruce Hood wrote the following. The house at 25 Cromwell Street, Glaucaster, is no longer there. In October 1996, the City Council ordered the removal of all physical traces of the West's home where young girls were tortured and murdered by Fred and Rosemary. Fred had used his builder skills to conceal the bodies at the three-story family home. Nick, a 50-something landlord who owned other houses in the street, told me the council had removed every last brick. These were crushed into dust and scattered across a landfill site in unmarked locations. Now, I'm no contractor, but I can only imagine the money that it cost to demolish an apartment complex or crush and scatter bricks. Our personal supernatural psychology has real-world financial effects, and it even affects entire industries. According to redfin.com, here are some of the state-specific requirements about disclosing a death in a home. In California, sellers must reveal if a death in a home has occurred any time in the past three years, including death by natural causes, although certain types of deaths, like those from AIDS, cannot be disclosed. And if a buyer comes out and asks about a death that occurred at any time even longer than three years ago, the seller is required to provide a truthful response. In Alaska and South Dakota, murders or suicides must be disclosed only if they happen within the last year. In other states, the laws are less black and white. A seller may need to disclose the information only if a buyer asks. To understand the death in a home disclosure regulations in your area, you should get in touch with your local real estate agent. Again, we're all here to improve our critical thinking. There are so many motions we go through on a regular basis without second-guessing them. Murder houses are extremely interesting because as rational and logical as we think we are, our culture conforms around supernatural beliefs. It's one thing to have to disclose if a house doesn't pass an inspection because it's contaminated by mold or another danger to your health, but a death is something completely different. So in the final section of this video, we're going to ask why learning about any of this stuff even matters. For most of my life, I was depressed, anxious, and miserable. My own mental health issues led me to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol. I had a skewed perception of the world and I couldn't even recognize the irrationality of my own thinking. Aside from slowly killing myself with drugs and alcohol, I was constantly angry. I was so self-centered and egotistical that I thought the whole world would wake up in the morning and think about various ways to screw me over. Even if you can't relate to my exact experience, you can relate to irrational thoughts screwing up your day. When we're out in public, we get self-conscious thinking complete strangers are looking or laughing at us, but in reality, we're not that important. We get angry and upset about the people who love us the most because our mental filter tells us they were insulting or disrespecting us. On a regular basis, we make major decisions when it comes to our careers or love life, and oftentimes it's based off of a lack of clarity. So what does any of this have to do with murderhouses and supernatural psychology? Critical thinking, skepticism, and curiosity are the key to humbling ourselves. Many of the cognitive biases that we struggle with are solely there to protect our ego and self-image. We all think we're better, smarter, and more rational than most people, and this is perfectly shown in studies around the better-than-average effect. Our egos tell us that we're right more than we're wrong, and the Dunning-Kruger effect makes us believe we're smarter than we actually are. But, as intelligent and rational as we think we are, we wouldn't live in a murderhouse based on supernatural beliefs. We'll end with a little thought experiment. Let's say you bought or rented a new home that you absolutely loved. You're living in this home for six months and it's phenomenal. There are no issues with the home and nothing out of the ordinary has happened, but one day a friend sends you a link from a news article saying three people were brutally murdered in your home years ago. If you're like many people, you'd be a little scared, but you might even be upset. The fact that your renting agent or realtor didn't disclose this to you may feel like they abused your trust. Would you call and complain and try to get that person in trouble? Would you move? If you were going to move, how much do you think it would cost in moving expenses? Would you take the company to court to pay for your moving costs? If so, these are all based on supernatural beliefs. But, I guess the good news is that if you wouldn't mind living in a murderhouse, you have a great opportunity to haggle the price. So, at the end of the day, the next time you're arguing with someone in your life, take a step back and take a breath. In this moment of clarity, realize that we often believe things for no rational reason. When we can pause for even a moment, we can begin critically thinking and become skeptical of our own thoughts. By practicing these tools, by simply thinking about our irrationality about murderhouses, we'll get into the habit of using these skills in our daily lives. Alright everybody, thank you once again for making it all the way through one of these video essays. I was really excited to make this video because it's such an interesting topic. And kind of like I said, we just need to get in the habit of practicing critical thinking, especially when it comes to our own thoughts and our own irrationality. Like, I do this too. I do this too. I like to think I'm the smartest, most rational, logical person out there. But every moment, I just need to pause and be like, Chris, you fall for the same weird things that other people do. And I can take a step back most of the time and say, hmm, Chris, maybe this is one of those times you're being irrational, and maybe it's time to calm it down a little bit. But anyways, earlier in the video, I mentioned one of my favorite forms of therapy, which is REBT, Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy. If you want to give it a try, or if you want to try therapy at all, check out BetterHelp Online Therapy. It's a therapy service that I personally use. And during the crazy times that we're in right now, online therapy is a perfect option. So down in the description and in the pinned comment of all my videos, there's an affiliate link. All that means is that you get affordable online therapy. A little bit comes back, supports the channel. Alright, but anyways, again, down in the comments, let me know. Would you live in a murder house? My beautiful girlfriend, Tristan, says she would because we'd probably get a deal on it. And I'm debating on whether or not I would. And God, if you like this supernatural psychology series, I have so many other videos. I have like a whole list of videos. Like, it's going to be interesting, interesting what we cover. But anyways, I'm going to go. I got to go. So if you like this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And a huge thank you to everybody who supports the channel on Patreon, as well as everybody who supports the channel by buying my books at therewirestall.com or by getting merch from the merch store. You're all awesome. Alright, thanks again for watching. I'll see you next time.