• The University of Iowa
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    The Monster Study

    Conducted in 1939 at the University of Iowa by Wendell Johnson, the Monster Study (dubbed that by Johnson’s peers who were horrified by it) was ostensibly research into stuttering. He took 22 orphaned children and divided them into two groups. One got praise during speech therapy; the other was constantly belittled and told they were stutterers. Many of the kids who received negative therapy suffered psychological effects and some had speech problems the rest of their life. The University of Iowa apologized for the study in 2001.