Being Well with Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson Is Self-Help a Cult? The Attention Economy and Slippery Slope of "Woo"
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Jan 19, 2026 
In this thought-provoking discussion, Dr. Rick Hanson, a clinical psychologist and author known for his insights on well-being, joins Forrest to delve into the shadows of self-help. They explore how the attention economy fosters overclaiming and misinformation. Rick warns of the dangers of authority manufactured in the digital era while addressing the risks of pseudoscience becoming mainstream. The duo also shares practical criteria for evaluating personal-growth claims and emphasizes the importance of scientific rigor in a landscape riddled with 'cultish' dynamics.
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Attention Economy Distorts Truth
- The attention economy rewards big, confident claims and penalizes nuanced, conditional science-based messages.
- That incentive pushes creators toward overclaiming, building personalities, and selling silver-bullet solutions.
Manufactured Authority Drives Reach
- Makers manufacture authority with alarmist, grandiose titles and social proof to boost clicks and influence.
- That constructed authority exploits fear, negativity bias, and the Death of Expertise tendency.
Cults' Features Appear In Self-Help
- Cult-like features (control, thought-stoppers, charismatic authority, totalizing ideology) appear in some self-help spaces.
- Having cultish elements doesn't make a practice inherently evil, but it raises flags to scrutinize.
