As soon as you move the leg, it becomes a different leg. But as Bob Cialdini set out to discover the keys to influence and persuasion, he decided to follow the instincts of his childhood. How does that sound now? Subscribe: iOS | Android | Spotify | RSS | Amazon | Stitcher Latest Episodes: Happiness 2.0: The Reset Button Hidden Brain Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships. But if you prefer life - the unpredictability of life - then living language in many ways are much more fun. Subscribe to the Hidden Brain Podcast on your favorite podcast player so you never miss an episode. It turns out, as you point out, that in common usage, literally literally means the opposite of literally. Who Do You Want To Be? | Hidden Brain Media You 2.0: How to Open Your Mind | Hidden Brain Media BORODITSKY: I spoke really terrible Indonesian at the time, so I was trying to practice. We call this language Gumbuzi. Many of us rush through our lives, chasing goals and just trying to get everything done. 437 Episodes Produced by Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam Website. And it ended up becoming less a direct reflection of hearty laughter than an indication of the kind of almost subconscious laughter that we do in any kind of conversation that's meant as friendly. But is that true when it comes to the pursuit of happiness? It's as if you saw a person - I'm not going to say at 4 because then the person is growing up, and if I use that analogy then it seems like I'm saying that language grows up or it moves toward something or it develops. Happiness 2.0: The Reset Button. Purpose can also boost our health and longevity. We don't want to be like that. Today, we explore the many facets of this idea. And then 10 years later when they're 49, you say, well, that picture of you at 39 is what you really are and whatever's happened to you since then is some sort of disaster or something that shouldn't have happened. So for example, English speakers, because they're very likely to say, he did it or someone did it, they are very good at remembering who did it, even if it's an accident. We're speaking today with cognitive science professor Lera Boroditsky about language. Of course, you also can't experience anything outside of time. The size of this effect really quite surprised me because I would have thought at the outset that, you know, artists are these iconoclasts. And so to address that question, what we do is we bring English speakers into the lab, and we teach them grammatical genders in a new language that we invent. Those sorts things tend to start with women. MCWHORTER: Yeah. Later things are on the right. And so somebody says something literally, somebody takes a point literally. And I can't help surmising that part of it is that the educated American has been taught and often well that you're not supposed to look down on people because of gender, because of race, because of ability. The fact is that language change can always go in one of many directions, there's a chance element to it. And there are consequences for how people think about events, what they notice when they see accidents. I'm shankar Vedantam in the 2002 rom com. And so I set myself the goal that I would learn English in a year, and I wouldn't speak Russian to anyone for that whole first year. And MIT linguist Ken Hale, who's a renowned linguist, said that every time a language dies, it's the equivalent of a bomb being dropped on the Louvre. Cholera and malnourishment await Somalis fleeing . But if they were sitting facing north, they would lay out the story from right to left. When she was 12, her family came to the United States from the Soviet Union. To request permission, please send an email to [emailprotected]. You know, there's no left leg or right leg. It should just be, here is the natural way, then there's some things that you're supposed to do in public because that's the way it is, whether it's fair or not. GEACONE-CRUZ: It's a Sunday afternoon, and it's raining outside. Of course, if you can't keep track of exactly seven, you can't count. Thank you! Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships. And we teach them, for example, to say that bridges and apples and all kinds of other things have the same prefix as women. This week on Hidden Brain, psychologist Adam Grant describes the magic th And so for me, that question was born in that conversation of are there some languages where it's easier to imagine a person without their characteristics of gender filled in? I think language can certainly be a contributor into the complex system of our thinking about gender. There's a way of speaking right. If you prefer to listen through a podcast app, here are links to our podcast on Apple, Spotify, and Stitcher. The fun example I give my students is imagine playing the hokey pokey in a language like this. What we think of today as a word undergoing some odd development or people using some new construction is exactly how Latin turned into French. Our transcripts are provided by various partners and may contain errors or deviate slightly from the audio. No matter how hard you try to feel happier, you end up back where. This week, in the second installment of our Happiness 2.0 series, psychologist Todd Kashdan looks at the relationship between distress and happiness, and ho, Many of us believe that hard work and persistence are the key to achieving our goals. Women under about 30 in the United States, when they're excited or they're trying to underline a point, putting uh at the end of things. Copyright 2018 NPR. This week, we revisit a favorite episode from 2021, bringing you two stories about how easy it can be to believe in a false reality even when the facts dont back us up. How To Breathe Correctly For Optimal Health, Mood, Learning And then when I turned, this little window stayed locked on the landscape, but it turned in my mind's eye. So I think it's something that is quite easy for humans to learn if you just have a reason to want to do it. And this is NPR. So - but if I understand correctly, I would be completely at sea if I visited this aboriginal community in Australia because I have often absolutely no idea where I am or where I'm going. All of these are very subjective things. So that, again, is a huge difference. If you're studying a new language, you might discover these phrases not. When we come back, we dig further into the way that gender works in different languages and the pervasive effects that words can play in our lives. al (Eds. So it's easy to think, oh, I could imagine someone without thinking explicitly about what they're wearing. I think that the tone that many people use when they're complaining that somebody says Billy and me went to the store is a little bit incommensurate with the significance of the issue. And if people heard the sounds a little differently and produced them a little differently, if there were new meanings of words - very quickly whatever the original meaning was wouldn't be remembered. VEDANTAM: One of the points you make in the book of course is that the evolution of words and their meanings is what gives us this flowering of hundreds or thousands of languages. And then he would take a Polaroid of the kid and say, well, this is you. This week, in the final installment of our Happiness 2.0 series, psychologist Dacher Keltner describes what happens when we stop to sav, Sometimes, life can feel like being stuck on a treadmill. You would give a different description to mark that it was not intentional. We use a lot of music on the show! See you next week. Lots of languages make a distinction between things that are accidents and things that are intentional actions. But if I give that same story to a Hebrew or an Arabic speaker, they would organize it from right to left. Watch Your Mouth | Hidden Brain : NPR People who breathe too much put their bodies in a hypoxic state, with not enough oxygen to the brain How breath moves in the body: air comes in through the nose and mouth; the larynx (rigid tube to avoid closing) brings air from the nose and mouth to the lungs Lungs can expand and contract to bring in or expel air But what happens when these feelings catch up with us? Many of us believe that hard work and persistence are the key to achieving our goals. Imagine this. And there are all kinds of interesting, useful, eye-opening ideas that exist in all of the world's languages. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #3: (Speaking foreign language). Podcasters use the RadioPublic listener relationship platform to build lasting connections with fans. No matter how hard you try to feel happier, you end up back where you started. It is the very fabric, the very core of your experience. . UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: (Speaking foreign language). VEDANTAM: One of the ultimate messages I took from your work is that, you know, we can choose to have languages that are alive or languages that are dead. This week on Hidden Brain, we explore how unconscious bias can infect a culture and how a police shooting may say as much about a community as it does about individuals. All sponsorship opportunities on Hidden Brain are managed by SXM Media. But what happens when these feelings catch up with us? It should be thought of as fun. But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy that's all around us. MCWHORTER: It's a matter of fashion, pure and simple. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) I'm willing to get involved. Today in our Happiness 2.0 series, we revisit a favorite episode from 2020. Hidden Brain: The NPR Archive : NPR - NPR.org What turns out to be the case is that it's something in between - that bilinguals don't really turn off the languages they're not using when they're not using them. So it's mendokusai. Everyone wants to be loved and appreciated. And maybe the convenience store or the shop is really not that far away. Put this image on your website to promote the show -, Happiness 2.0: The Only Way Out Is Through, Report inappropriate content or request to remove this page. And a girl goes in this pile. But if you ask bilinguals, who have learned two languages and now they know that some genders disagree across the two languages, they're much less likely to say that it's because chairs are intrinsically masculine. But I understand that in Spanish, this would come out quite differently. This week, in the final . VEDANTAM: Languages seem to have different ways of communicating agency. Lost In Translation- Hidden Brain Podcast Transcript .pdf But what if it's not even about lust? And I would really guess that in a few decades men will be doing it, too. 00:55:27 Hidden Brain Happiness 2.0: The Reset Button Researcher Elizabeth Dunn helps us map out the unexpected ways we can find joy and happiness in our everyday lives. (Speaking Japanese). Hidden Brain Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam Subscribe Visit website Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our. And if the word bridge is masculine in your language, you're more likely to say that bridges are strong and long and towering - these kind of more stereotypically masculine words. In this favorite episode from 2021, Cornell University psychologist Anthony Burrow explains why purpose isnt something to be found its somethi, It's natural to want to run away from difficult emotions such as grief, anger and fear. Hidden Brain Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam Science 4.6 36K Ratings; Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships. VEDANTAM: In the English-speaking world, she goes by Lera Boroditsky. And you suddenly get a craving for potato chips, and you realize that you have none in the kitchen, and there's nothing else you really want to eat. In the United States, we often praise people with strong convictions, and look down on those who express doubt or hesitation. Copyright Hidden Brain Media | Privacy Policy, Read the latest from the Hidden Brain Newsletter. Imagine you meet somebody, they're 39 and you take their picture. In English, actually, quite weirdly, we can even say things like, I broke my arm. BORODITSKY: Well, there may not be a word for left to refer to a left leg. So these speakers have internalized this idea from their language, and they believe that it's right. Hidden Brain: You, But Better on Apple Podcasts 50 min You, But Better Hidden Brain Social Sciences Think about the resolutions you made this year: to quit smoking, eat better, or get more exercise. And when I listen to people having their peeves, I don't think, stop it. How come you aren't exactly the way you were 10 years ago? And I thought, wow, first of all, it would be almost impossible to have a conversation like that in English where you hadn't already revealed the gender of the person because you have to use he or she. So you can't see time. So for example, if Sam grabbed a hammer and struck the flute in anger, that would be one description, like, Sam broke the flute. Or feel like you and your spouse sometimes speak different languages? VEDANTAM: One of the things I found really interesting is that the evolution of words and language is constant. You also see huge differences in other domains like number. The phrase brings an entire world with it - its context, its flavor, its culture. Time now for "My Unsung Hero," our series from the team at Hidden Brain telling the stories of . Does Legal Education Have Undermining Effects on Law Students? The Effects of Conflict Types, Dimensions, and Emergent States on Group Outcomes, by Karen Jehn et. Hidden Brain - Google Podcasts For example, when we started talking about navigation, that's an example where a 5-year-old in a culture that uses words like north, south, east and west can point southeast without hesitation. In this favorite 2021 episode, psychologistAdam Grantpushes back against the benefits of certainty, and describes the magic that unfolds when we challenge our own deeply-held beliefs. ), The Sourcebook of Listening Research: Methodology and Measures, 2018. BORODITSKY: So quite literally, to get past hello, you have to know which way you're heading. Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships. That is exactly why you should say fewer books instead of less books in some situations and, yes, Billy and I went to the store rather than the perfectly natural Billy and me went to the store. Perceived Partner Responsiveness as an Organizing Construct in the Study of Intimacy and Closeness, by Harry T. Reis, et. Researcher Elizabeth Dunn helps us map out Having a sense of purpose can be a buffer against the challenges we all face at various stages of life. No matter how hard you try to feel happier, you end up back where you started. That said, if you hear one or two pieces of music that you really love, feel free to email us at [emailprotected] and well do our best to respond to your request. It's inherent. something, even though it shouldn't be so much of an effort. You can find the transcript for most episodes of Hidden Brain on our website. If you take literally in what we can think of as its earliest meaning, the earliest meaning known to us is by the letter. Imagine how we would sound to them if they could hear us. Purpose can also boost our health and longevity. Whats going on here? And very competent adults of our culture can't do that. She once visited an aboriginal community in northern Australia and found the language they spoke forced her mind to work in new ways. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #10: (Speaking Russian). Maybe they like the same kinds of food, or enjoy the same hobbies. Sometimes you just have to suck it up. al, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2004. VEDANTAM: You make the case that concerns over the misuse of language might actually be one of the last places where people can publicly express prejudice and class differences. I saw this bird's-eye view, and I was this little red dot. BORODITSKY: Yeah. We always knew that certain species of animals had abilities to orient that we thought were better than human, and we always had some biological excuse for why we couldn't do it. Which pile do you go in, right? Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Dont Know, by Adam Grant, 2021. And what we find is that if you teach people that forks go with men grammatically in a language, they start to think of forks as being more masculine. Trusted by 5,200 companies and developers. So you can think about an un-gendered person in the same way that I might think about a person without a specific age or specific height or specific color shirt. But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy thats all around us. As someone who works in media, I often find that people who can write well are often people who know how to think well, so I often equate clarity of writing with clarity of thought. And I kind of sheepishly confessed this to someone there. Physicist Richard Feynman once said, "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool." One way we fool ourselves is by imagining we know more than we do; we think we are experts.