Are the People Clicking on Jesse Ridgway Part of the Reason He Won’t Stop?

About this episode

The episode explores the psychological dynamics between Jesse Ridgway and his audience, examining how their engagement fuels his behavior.

Every click validates the behavior. Every comment fuels the next stunt. Every share tells Jesse Ridgway’s brain that what he’s doing is working. Seventeen million people saw his pregnancy announcement. If Jesse is sick, the audience is the IV drip. Research shows that expressing outrage online fires the same dopamine reward pathways as direct social validation — and like any drug, you build a tolerance. You need something more extreme to feel the same hit. Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott looks at the audience side of the Jesse Ridgway equation. Why people with real problems in their own lives choose to spend emotional energy on a stranger’s manufactured drama. Why the real-or-fake gray zone makes the content more addictive, not less. And whether the millions of people engaging with Jesse Ridgway are co-dependent in the cycle — supplying him the attention his brain demands, guaranteeing that the next stunt will be worse than the last. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel…

People in this episode

Guest: Shavaun Scott

Topics covered

• online behavior
• social media
• psychology
• audience engagement
• addiction

Keywords

• Jesse Ridgway
• psychology
• audience
• social media
• addiction
• outrage
• drama

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