Welcome to The Psychology Podcast! In this episode, I talk to Amanda Knox about her wrongful conviction for the murder of Meredith Kercher. Her experience revealed dark truths about the media’s inclination to over sensationalize stories about young women and the glaring human errors in the criminal justice system. We also touch on the topics of trauma, cancel culture, cognitive biases, law, and forensic science. Throughout this episode, I try my best to show the audience the real Amanda Knox, not the version of her that the media has depicted. Along those lines, I give her some of my psychological tests to take, including my test on self-actualization as well as my psychopath test! You won't want to miss this episode.

Bio

Amanda Knox is a journalist, public speaker, and podcaster. From 2007 to 2015, she spent nearly four years in an Italian prison and eight years on trial for a murder she didn’t commit. The controversy over Amanda’s case made international headlines for nearly a decade and thrust her into the spotlight, where she was vilified and shamed, a story told in the 2016 Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary and her New York Times best-selling memoir, Waiting to Be Heard. She now works to shed light on the issues of wrongful conviction, criminal justice reform, truth-seeking, and public shaming, and to inspire people towards empathy and perspective. 

Website: www.amandaknox.com

Twitter: @amandaknox

Topics

00:00:37 Amanda’s pregnancy and privacy

00:02:14 Stories don’t equate to reality

00:06:05 Self-talk as a coping strategy

00:08:51 The true origin of the “Foxy Knoxy” nickname

00:11:05 The intrigue and aversion towards female sexuality

00:18:45 The arrest of Rudy Guede 

00:20:50 Amanda before the tragedy

00:23:37 The infamous kiss between Amanda and Raffaele 

00:26:42 Why do people love scandals?

00:30:26 The misrepresentation of BDSM 

00:33:05 Amanda’s sources of self-actualization

00:42:30 Amanda’s Light Triad Score

00:45:38 Moral Luck

00:49:05 Amanda’s Dark Triad Score

00:51:55 Vulnerable narcissism, imposter syndrome, and healing

00:58:42 The “single victim fallacy”

01:01:29 Innocence puts innocents at risk

01:04:45 The psychology of prosecutor Giuliano Mignini

01:08:56 Itiel Dror’s critique of forensic science

01:15:24 Amanda’s post-traumatic growth