Before you read on, please note that this is absolutely a rant, but I wanted to include some educational content. Learn from my mistakes. I am not going to commit to saying names, but you know who I mean, and you know who you are.
If you still can’t feel my frustration from the title of this article, then let me make this more clear. Screaming and fake surprises are getting old. Investigators need to take back this community. Actual investigators, not ones with a lot of followers.
If you don’t know what I am talking about and curious what I mean, here are some red flags, tropes I guess you can also call them, that I have noticed over the years these fake investigators do to keep the video “entertaining”.
If you make it through the red flags, I’ll provide some of my favorite youtubers I watch and ways to support your local community
🚩There’s always a narrative they’re trying to push.
I cannot stress this one enough and is why it’s the first one of the red flags. They will go into some kind of story as they start their investigation. For example, they’ll use the Estes Method and the person asking questions will start leading into this fantasy equivalent of a “Timmy fell down a well” story, and how they will be there to save the day.
There are some I’ve seen where they would take the narrative a whole level and make the plot last a whole season as if “woah everything’s connected, man“.
🚩Very dependent on (sometimes faulty) ghost hunting equipment
Listen, I get that you want to provide actual evidence and that using tech is essential. Everyone wants to provide proof of the afterlife. If that’s what you are chasing I (personally) don’t think Ghost Hunting is for you. Go dance on TikTok you’ll get more recognition that way. There is a point where this equipment shouldn’t be your go-to all the time.
When there is equipment to be used, they’ll use debunked tech like a Maglite Flashlight, that if you twist it in-between the on/off function it will “give ghosts the ability to manipulate”. This is not a good solution because you can go to a well known NOT haunted location and it will do the exact same thing, which is turn on and off. John Wolfe actually has a video on this very product:
Don’t even get me started on that Panasonic Recorder everyone gets on eBay for $2k+ just because of it’s functions
🚩Bias Thinking
I think it is important to know the different type of biases as you watch these shows because they play a very heavy hand in making your show or video the entertaining part of it. Think of this section of just a giant recipe for making the shit you love to smell.
Confirmation Bias – They look for evidence that supports what they believe and ignore what doesn’t. An old wooden home that settles is what you should expect when a home makes tapping noises but what’s more important is the claims are also tapping so it’s not just the house settling right guys?
Pareidolia (Pattern Recognition Bias) – The human brain is really cool in that it tries to find patterns in things that make sense. This is actually used a lot in marketing. The #1 lesson I got out of my PR class was that people love seeing faces in media. This is often used when people seek out faces in mist or try to make sense of the EVP they just got. This is the one that needs to be in every ghost hunter’s pocket, and when they bring it up in videos, I get confused because it means they are aware of what they are doing, but they fucking do it anyway.
Expectation Bias – You’re prepped to expect the claims, so you are more likely to perceive them. Now, I’ll be honest, my infographics are guilty of this. I am sharing what a lot of people have experienced; however, I want to note that I worded that section as “haunted claims” for a reason, they are simply claims and NOT facts. I am not going to tell you this will happen on your trip. Again with the narrative these shows will follow, they’ll tell you the claims from others, and then set the expectation, “Whoa, this happened to me too, this is definitely haunted.”
Authority Bias – Statements from someone who is an authority figure. If every red flag has sounded like your favorite YouTuber or TV show host, then we could probably call that person you look up to the authority in this. Ed and Lorraine Warren, you or most looked up to and don’t question because they were THE earlier paranormal investigators out there and they had all these huge cases you would trust them when they would say your house was haunted right? Same thing for these youtubers with millions of subscribers too.
Survivorship Bias – Focusing on the stories that get told, not the countless ones that don’t. If this was a recipe, this bias would be the heaviest ingredient needed to make a video for TV. You rarely see the hours of content where they get nothing. Out of the 6-8 hours these youtubers spend there, they edit it down to an hour. You really think it was like that the whole night? I can also guarantee they got nothing, and they spent all this money to be at the location, and they have their camera’s on, they gotta make something happen. (That something is most likely fake).
Anchoring Bias – The first piece of information we get anchors our thinking. Outside of ghosts for a second, you’ll see small town shops that will say “biggest collection of seashells in the world!” How do they know? But you don’t question it and just trust them they have this huge collection of seashells. Same thing goes for these haunted locations. Less on the shows, more so the marketing of these haunted locations. For example, May-Stringer House boasts it is the most haunted house in Florida. The Crescent Hotel was honored in 2025 #1 Most Haunted Hotel in America.
Emotional Bias – Another heavy ingredient in this recipe of slop. This one is strong emotions that shape our perception of reality. The mood setting in the editing with the background music, the monotonous colored night vision that’s used, and jump cuts make for a spookier experience. It’s literally built to scare you. Not only that but the people in the video will also appear to be scared by overreacting (hence the meme).
🚩They NEVER debunk or get defensive over skeptics
It honestly tells me they don’t think with reason. My goal, as someone who loves to investigate, is to be inspired to believe, but always put logic first. When you refer to those who like to debunk “haters,” you are just going to make them troll you more, and you’ve totally lost my respect as an investigator. If you actually cared, you would be debunking or listening to someone else’s logical explanation.
🚩It’s a demon almost every fucking episode 🙄
Has it ever dawned on some of these YouTubers that not everyone believes in Christianity? For example, I don’t believe in demons. Catholicism and other Christian faiths are not the rules of the paranormal to follow. I have my own spiritual path that I love and only use for mental health. I will never use my faith to scare people. It’s just scammy, y’all. Something else with these shows is that they never cover southern hemisphere paranormal locations. Why? Not scary enough? You don’t believe in it?
🚩They don’t do their research and spread misinformation because the narrative is catchier.
This is legit a personal ick for me. As someone who is a novice researcher and gets help with it, I will say it really isn’t that hard to find the information you need that is factual, not heresy.
A great example is the Waverly Hills Sanatorium. It was claimed that a nurse killed herself because she was pregnant. This has been a debunked story that people continue to spread the misinformation because the story is sad, and you feel bad for her. Please do yourself a favor and dig deeper instead of continuously spreading lies.
🚩They’ve come up with their own rules or ideals of how the paranormal works.
Almost every big ego, arrogant prick influencer does this, and it genuinely pisses me off. There are even several haunted locations, that I will not name, that do this. My big question for you is HOW DO YOU KNOW? Tell me how you know this?? Why is this the hill you die on and claim it happens all because your theory worked ONCE. My theory is you should be tested mentally.
🚩Their experiences or stories sound very similar to a book or movie.
I think this is going to be an infographic by itself, outside of the haunted locations, out of curiosity to see whose haunted claims happen to be very similar to entertainment from a book or TV. This one is going to require watching and reading as many haunting/exorcism-based entertainment as I can.
One great example is Annabelle, the infamously haunted doll, which resembles the episode named “Living Doll” from The Twilight Zone. The doll might have been named Talky Tina, but the mom in the episode is named Annabelle. If you know anything about the Warrens, they were very creative people and loved to embellish. Stevi over at Truth or Demons Podcast is a great resource when it comes to the Warrens and debunking their infamous cases.
So are there green flags? I can’t say what I see is perfect. They all do something that falls into the tropes, so don’t go in thinking they are top-notch investigators. I find them genuinely entertaining and have good intentions with an actual interest in the paranormal. Here are some YouTubers I love to watch and why:
I cannot tell you how much I love Amy’s Crypt. Amy and Jarrad do a great job not just trying to debunk, but also have a calmer demeanor than youtubers with higher engagement. The only time they will scream is when a bat or a bird is in the area. They ain’t afraid of no ghost, but they sure are when it comes to things with wings. They also now own The Cage, the historical town lockup in the UK, where they are restoring it so its legacy can live on.
I have respect for Ghost Theory because they do not always have scary music playing in the background. Something about the quiet in their videos is even more eerie than stock spooky music. They also have a great sense of humor in a way that makes them more authentic and relatable.
Mythos is awesome because of his logical nature and how best to use your ghost hunting tools as well as debunking ghost hunting equipment. He does make videos, and a lot braver than me, in actually going after these youtubers who are obviously faking it. He’s also not afraid to share his investigations where he captures nothing, and that is totally okay.
If you don’t like any of the channels I’ve suggested, I say you should do some soul searching into the content you’d really like to see. Your local paranormal investigators could use some engagement love on their social media.
For any haunted locations in your area that are owned by a historical association, more than likely, they are looking for volunteers. Whether that be a tour guide or a docent, you never know. Your haunted community is closer than you think. 👻
If you’ve made it this far, congratulations, you’ve listened to the ramblings of a mad woman. If you see something that I have not covered and would like to add, please leave it in the comments.
Thank you for sticking around. I will be releasing my first infographic middle of September 2025, so keep on the look-out for that.
Happy Haunting and stay safe 💖
Haunted Index 
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