Stuart Ritchie vs. transgender people

Stuart Ritchie is a Scottish psychologist and anti-transgender activist. Ritchie and Tom Chivers host the anti-trans podcast Science Fictions.

Ritchie frequently logrolls for other anti-trans activists, including, Steven Pinker, Razib Khan, Michael Shermer, and Jesse Singal.

Ritchie has written for several anti-trans publications, including UnHerd and Quillette.

Background

Stuart James Ritchie was born in 1988. Ritchie attended The University of Edinburgh, earning a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree (2010), and a doctorate there (2014), followed by postdoctoral work. In 2018 Ritchie was appointed as a lecturer at King’s College London.

Ritchie is author of the 2020 book Science Fictions: Exposing Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype in Science.

Podcast

In July 2023, Ritchie and Tom Chivers launched The Studies Show, a podcast on controversial scientific issues. The podcast was rebranded in September 2025 as Science Fictions. Episodes include:

An episode on “psychological sex differences” (July 2025)
A live episode with Jesse Singal (May 2025)
An episode on sex-segregated competitive sport (December 2024)
An episode promoting the anti-trans Cass Review (April 2024)
An episode on “male and female brains” (January 2024)

References

Francois, Jotie (March 23, 2025). Stuart Ritchie is a blithering idiot. Medium https://medium.com/@jotiefrancois/stuart-ritchie-is-a-blithering-idiot-7e11cbbaf8a8

Smith, Rory (June 13, 2018). IQ scores are falling and have been for decades. CNN https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/13/health/falling-iq-scores-study-intl/index.html

Onwuemezi, Natasha (June 8, 2018). Bodley Head signs ‘Freakonomics-style’ peer-reviews exposé. The Bookseller https://www.thebookseller.com/news/bodley-head-signs-freakonomics-style-peer-reviews-expose-800746

Mundasad, Smitha (4 August 2014). Visual process ‘key for sharp mind.’ BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/health-28639875

Anti-trans coverage

Lewis, Helen (June 18, 2023). The Feminists Insisting That Women Are Built Differently. The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/06/reactionary-feminism-differences-between-sexes/674447/

Singal, Jesse (February 7, 2023). The New, Highly Touted Study On Hormones For Transgender Teens Doesn’t Really Tell Us Much Of Anything. Singal-Minded https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/the-new-highly-touted-study-on-hormones

Singal, Jesse (April 6, 2017). Here’s the Biggest Study Yet on the Differences Between Male and Female Brains. The Cut https://www.thecut.com/2017/04/heres-the-biggest-study-yet-on-sex-based-brain-differences.html

Selected writing by Ritchie

Ritchie, Stuart (January 12, 2023). Why it seems we’re getting worse at science. i https://inews.co.uk/news/why-it-seems-were-getting-worse-at-science-2080892

Ritchie, Stuart (July 30, 2021). Testosterone by Carole Hooven review — faster, higher and angrier. The Times https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/testosterone-by-carole-hooven-review-pdm5rvvjk

Ritchie, S. J., Cox, S. R., Shen, X., Lombardo, M. V., Reus, L. M., Alloza, C., Harris, M. A., Alderson, H. L., Hunter, S., Neilson, E., Liewald, D. C. M., Auyeung, B., Whalley, H. C., Lawrie, S. M., Gale, C. R., Bastin, M. E., McIntosh, A. M., & Deary, I. J. (2018). Sex Differences in the Adult Human Brain: Evidence from 5216 UK Biobank Participants. Cerebral Cortex, 28(8), 2959–2975. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhy109

Ritchie, Stuart (March 21, 2017). Cordelia Fine’s “Testosterone Rex” — A Review. Quillette https://quillette.com/2017/03/21/cordelia-fines-testosterone-rex-a-review/

Books

Ritchie, Stuart (2020). Science Fictions: Exposing Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype in Science. Metropolitan Books, ISBN 978-1250222695

Ritchie, Stuart (2015). Intelligence: All That Matters. Teach Yourself, ISBN 978-1444791877

Media

Science Fictions with Tom Chivers and Stuart Ritchie (November 26, 2025). Unpaywalled: Jonathan Haidt vs. social media. https://sciencefictionspod.substack.com/p/unpaywalled-jonathan-haidt-vs-social

The Studies Show with Tom Chivers and Stuart Ritchie (July 7, 2025). Paid-only Episode 21: Psychological sex differences. https://sciencefictionspod.substack.com/p/paid-only-episode-21-psychological

The Studies Show with Tom Chivers, Stuart Ritchie, and Jesse Singal (May 12, 2025). Paid-only Episode 20: The Studies Show LIVE with Jesse Singal. https://sciencefictionspod.substack.com/p/paid-only-episode-20-the-studies

The Studies Show with Tom Chivers and Stuart Ritchie (December 30, 2024). Un-paywalled: Youth gender medicine & the Cass Review. https://sciencefictionspod.substack.com/p/un-paywalled-youth-gender-medicine

The Studies Show with Tom Chivers and Stuart Ritchie (December 9, 2024). Paid-only Episode 15: Sex and sport: The battle of the sexes. Or is it “genders”? https://sciencefictionspod.substack.com/p/paid-only-episode-15-sex-and-sport

The Studies Show with Tom Chivers and Stuart Ritchie (September 16, 2024). Paid-only Episode 12: Jonathan Haidt vs. social media. https://sciencefictionspod.substack.com/p/paid-only-episode-12-jonathan-haidt

The Studies Show with Tom Chivers and Stuart Ritchie (August 26, 2024). Episode 47: The 25 year old brain. https://sciencefictionspod.substack.com/p/episode-47-the-25-year-old-brain

The Studies Show with Tom Chivers and Stuart Ritchie (August 19, 2024). Paid-only Episode 11: Sex education. https://sciencefictionspod.substack.com/p/paid-only-episode-11-sex-education

The Studies Show with Tom Chivers and Stuart Ritchie (April 23, 2024). Paid-only Episode 7: Youth gender medicine & the Cass Review. https://www.thestudiesshowpod.com/p/paid-only-episode-7-youth-gender

The Studies Show with Tom Chivers and Stuart Ritchie (January 22, 2024). Paid-only Episode 4: Male and female brains. https://sciencefictionspod.substack.com/p/paid-only-episode-4-male-and-female

The Studies Show with Tom Chivers and Stuart Ritchie (December 4, 2023). Episode 19: Science and politics. https://sciencefictionspod.substack.com/p/episode-19-science-and-politics

The Spectator Out Loud with Stuart Ritchie, Mary Wakefield and Toby Young (January 7, 2023). Stuart Ritchie, Mary Wakefield and Toby Young. https://spectator.com/podcast/stuart-ritchie-mary-wakefield-and-toby-young/

Chris Williamson with Stuart Ritchie (October 3, 2022). Why Is Behavioural Genetics A Hated Science? – Dr Stuart Ritchie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9whfr05zLQ

UniTrento Centro Interdipartimentale Mente Cervello (July 6, 2022). Stuart Ritchie – What’s wrong with scientific papers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRxVobXrw6Y

The Swift Half with Snowdon with Chris Snowdon and Stuart Ritchie (August 19, 2021). The Swift Half with Snowdon ft. Stuart Ritchie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxCQxnbmNJQ

Oxford Union with Steven Pinker and Stuart Ritchie (June 24, 2021). Steven Pinker in conversation with Stuart Ritchie | Full Q&A | Oxford Union Web Series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JG_Fm4ue9bA

RIOT Science Club with Stuart Ritchie (March 8, 2021). Dr Stuart Ritchie | Psychology in a crisis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D42d9d9Eijw

cafeculturene with Stuart Ritchie and Oliver Traldi (October 28, 2020). Science Fictions: Exposing Fraud, Bias, Negligence & Hype in Science (Stuart Ritchie, Oliver Traldi). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwtVTyfE_2k

Razib Khan’s Unsupervised Learning with Razib Khan and Stuart Ritchie (October 17, 2022). Stuart Ritchie: Bad science, Good science and Behavior Genetics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZScCQmF3rs

Skeptic with Michael Shermer and Stuart Ritchie (August 31, 2020). Michael Shermer/Stuart Ritchie—How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6abrUN823gY

RIOT Science Club with Stuart Ritchie (June 11, 2020). Dr Stuart Ritchie | Scientific fraud and misconduct | King’s Open Research Conference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp4Suz5cJeY

The Institute of Art and Ideas with Daphna Joel, Stuart Ritchie, and Barry Barnes (January 21, 2020). Does biological sex exist? | Daphna Joel, Stuart Ritchie, Barry Barnes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSS1BGOS7rM