UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #8: (Speaking Italian). Look at it. But does a person who says that really deserve the kind of sneering condemnation that you often see? Hidden Brain explores the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior and questions that lie at the heart of our complex and changing world. But things can be important not just because they're big. This is NPR. VEDANTAM: I love this analogy you have in the book where you mention how, you know, thinking that a word has only one meaning is like looking at a snapshot taken at one point in a person's life and saying this photograph represents the entirety of what this person looks like. The phrase brings an entire world with it - its context, its flavor, its culture. FAQ | Hidden Brain Media Our transcripts are provided by various partners and may contain errors or deviate slightly from the audio. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) I'm willing to get involved. MCWHORTER: Thank you for having me, Shankar. In this favorite 2021 episode, psychologist Adam Grant pushes back against the benefits of certainty, and describes the magic that unfolds when we challenge our own deeply-held beliefs. Let's start with the word literally. Could this affect the way, you know, sexism, conscious or unconscious, operates in our world? VEDANTAM: It took just one week of living in Japan for Jennifer to pick up an important new term. This week, we kick off a month-long series we're calling Happiness 2.0. 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. Hidden Brain: You 2.0: Cultivating Your Purpose on Apple Podcasts 51 min You 2.0: Cultivating Your Purpose Hidden Brain Social Sciences Having a sense of purpose can be a buffer against the challenges we all face at various stages of life. 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. It's natural to want to run away from difficult emotions such as grief, anger and fear. GEACONE-CRUZ: And I ended up living there for 10 years. Transcript The transcript below may be for an earlier version of this episode. As soon as you move the leg, it becomes a different leg. And after listening to you, I realize I might have to finally give in. Languages are not just tools. 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. It's exactly how old English turned into modern English. In the United States, we often praise people with strong convictions, and look down on those who express doubt or hesitation. 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. But what we should teach is not that the good way is logical and the way that you're comfortable doing it is illogical. BORODITSKY: Yeah, that's true. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Right. For more on decision-making, check out our episode on how to make wiser choices. MCWHORTER: Yeah, I really do. Does Legal Education Have Undermining Effects on Law Students? I've always found that a very grating way to ask for something at a store. This takes kids a little while to figure out, and he had all kinds of clever ways to ask these questions. What do you do for christmas with your family? You're not going to do trigonometry. Perceived Partner Responsiveness Minimizes Defensive Reactions to Failure, by Peter A. Caprariello and Harry T. Reis, Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2011. ROB LOWE: (As Chris Traeger) Dr. Harris, you are literally the meanest person I have ever met. This is Hidden Brain. I want everybody to have the fun I'm having. And some people would say it's a lot more because it's, you know, irrecoverable and not reduplicated elsewhere. And it sounds a little bit abrupt and grabby like you're going to get something instead of being given. Please note that your continued use of the RadioPublic services following the posting of such changes will be deemed an acceptance of this update. It might irritate you slightly to hear somebody say something like, I need less books instead of fewer books. These relationships can help you feel cared for and connected. Go behind the scenes, see what Shankar is reading and find more useful resources and links. And so even though I insist that there is no scientific basis for rejecting some new word or some new meaning or some new construction, I certainly have my visceral biases. You have to do it in order to fit into the culture and to speak the language. Sometimes, life can feel like being stuck on a treadmill. Stay with us. I'm Shankar Vedantam. Language as it evolved was just talking to an extent that can be very hard for we literate people to imagine. Hidden Brain - You 2.0: Cultivating Your Purpose Hidden Brain Aug 2, 2021 You 2.0: Cultivating Your Purpose Play 51 min playlist_add Having a sense of purpose can be a buffer against the. She shows how our conversational styles can cause We all know casual sex isn't about love. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #6: (Speaking foreign language). MCWHORTER: It's a matter of fashion, pure and simple. VEDANTAM: Around the world, we often hear that many languages are dying, and there are a few megalanguages that are growing and expanding in all kinds of ways. That's how much cultural heritage is lost. Copyright Hidden Brain Media | Privacy Policy, direct support to Hidden Brain by making a gift on our Patreon page, sponsorship opportunities on Hidden Brain. VEDANTAM: So this begs the question, if you were to put languages on something of a spectrum, where you have, you know, languages like Spanish or Hindi where nouns are gendered and languages like English where many nouns are not gendered but pronouns are gendered, and on the other end of the spectrum, you have languages like Finnish or Persian where you can have a conversation about someone without actually mentioning their gender, it would seem surprising if this did not translate, at some level, into the way people thought about gender in their daily activities, in terms of thinking about maybe even who can do what in the workplace. VEDANTAM: I understand there's been some work looking at children and that children who speak certain languages are actually quicker to identify gender and their own gender than children who are learning other languages in other cultures. And if that is true, then the educated person can look down on people who say Billy and me went to the store or who are using literally, quote, unquote, "wrong" and condemn them in the kinds of terms that once were ordinary for condemning black people or women or what have you. They give us a sense that the meanings of words are fixed, when in fact they're not. Because were a small team, we dont have a publicly-available list of every piece of music that we use. Many of us believe that hard work and persistence are the key to achieving our goals. BORODITSKY: And when they were trying to act like Wednesday, they would act like a woman BORODITSKY: Which accords with grammatical gender in Russian. Many of us rush through our lives, chasing goals and just trying to get everything done. And, of course, you always have to wonder, well, could it be that speakers of these different languages are actually seeing different kinds of bridges? My big fat greek wedding, an american woman of greek ancestry falls in love with a very vanilla, american man. Copyright 2023 Steno. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking foreign language). Everyone wants to be loved and appreciated. And that is an example of a simple feature of language - number words - acting as a transformative stepping stone to a whole domain of knowledge. So we've done a lot of studies looking at how speakers of Spanish and German and Russian actually think about objects that have opposite grammatical genders. Parents and peers influence our major life choices. Of course, you also can't experience anything outside of time. One study that I love is a study that asked monolingual speakers of Italian and German and also bilingual speakers of Italian and German to give reasons for why things are the grammatical genders that they are. Please do not republish our logo, name or content digitally or distribute to more than 10 people without written permission. VEDANTAM: Lera Boroditsky is a cognitive science professor at the University of California, San Diego. VEDANTAM: For more HIDDEN BRAIN, you can find us on Facebook and Twitter. Lots of languages make a distinction between things that are accidents and things that are intentional actions. Language was talk. And so I was trying to keep track of which way is which. Hidden Brain: The Easiest Person to Fool on Apple Podcasts So act like Monday. Happiness 2.0: The Reset Button. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. Evaluating Changes in Motivation, Values, and Well-being, by Kennon M. Sheldon and Lawrence S. Krieger, Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 2004. No matter how hard you try to feel happier, you end up back where. MCWHORTER: Language is a parade, and nobody sits at a parade wishing that everybody would stand still. UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (Speaking foreign language). Maybe they like the same kinds of food, or enjoy the same hobbies. Think back to the last time someone convinced you to do something you didn't want to do, or to spend money you didn't want to spend. VEDANTAM: My guest today is - well, why don't I let her introduce herself? Relationships 2.0: What Makes Relationships Thrive | Hidden Brain Media Lera is a cognitive science professor at the University of California, San Diego. I'm Shankar Vedantam. Today, we explore the many facets of this idea. Our transcripts are provided by various partners and may contain errors or deviate slightly from the audio. But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy that's all around us. But what happens when these feelings catch up with us? Reframing Your Reality: Part 1 | Hidden Brain Media The dictionary says both uses are correct. VEDANTAM: If you're bilingual or you're learning a new language, you get what Jennifer, experienced - the joy of discovering a phrase that helps you perfectly encapsulate a. feeling or an experience. this is hidden brain I'm Shankar Vedantam in the classic TV series Star Trek Mister Spock has a foolproof technique for accurately reading the thoughts and feelings of others the Vulcan mind I am Spock you James our minds are moving closer most most here are kind of hard we have new technology that gives us direct access to the minds of others so MCWHORTER: Yes, Shankar, that's exactly it. She once visited an aboriginal community in northern Australia and found the language they spoke forced her mind to work in new ways. But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy that's all around us. VEDANTAM: There are phrases in every language that are deeply evocative and often, untranslatable. FDA blocks human trials for Neuralink brain implants. People do need to be taught what the socially acceptable forms are. VEDANTAM: Would it be possible to use what we have learned about how words and languages evolve to potentially write what a dictionary might look like in 50 years or a hundred years? 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. What Makes Lawyers Happy? No matter how hard you try to feel happier, you end up back where you started. The transcript below may be for an earlier version of this episode. Stay with us. podcast pages. (Speaking Japanese). I know-uh (ph) is there, or something along the lines of babe-uh (ph). But, if you dig a little deeper, you may find that they share much more: they might make the same amount of money as you, or share the, We all have to make certain choices in life, such as where to live and how to earn a living. So there are these wonderful studies by Alexander Giora where he asked kids learning Finnish, English and Hebrew as their first languages basically, are you a boy or a girl? 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 I just think that it's something we need to check ourselves for. In the United States, we often praise people with strong convictions, and look down on those who express doubt or hesitation. But they can also steer us in directions that leave us deeply unsatisfied. That's what it's all about. If a transcript is available, you'll see a Transcript button which expands to reveal the full transcript. podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9rd1djMGxoZg==, open.spotify.com/show/20Gf4IAauFrfj7RBkjcWxh. And it really is an illusion that what language is, is something that sits still. If you, grew up speaking a language other than English, you probably reach for words in your. to describe the world. If you are a podcaster, the best way to manage your podcasts on Listen Notes is by claiming your Listen Notes 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. If you can speak more than one language, does this mean that you're also simultaneously and constantly shifting in your mind between different worldviews? You can find the transcript for most episodes of Hidden Brain on our website. And if you teach them that forks go with women, they start to think that forks are more feminine. I saw this bird's-eye view, and I was this little red dot. L. Gable, et. And so he suggested it might be the case that the arbitrarily assigned grammatical genders are actually changing the way people think about these days of the week and maybe all kinds of other things that are named by nouns. Lera is a cognitive science professor at the University of California, San Diego. We don't want to be like that. And, I mean, just in terms of even sounds changing and the way that you put words together changing bit by bit, and there's never been a language that didn't do that. Hidden Brain - KQED | News, Radio, Podcasts, TV So LOL was an internet abbreviation meaning laugh out loud or laughing out loud, but LOL in common usage today doesn't necessarily mean hysterical laughter. They shape our place in it. We recommend movies or books to a friend. And I did that. In this month's Radio Replay, we ask whether the structure of the languages we speak can change the way we see the world. al, Group Decision and Negotiation, 2008. If you're just joining us, I'm talking to John McWhorter. But time doesn't have to flow with respect to the body. MCWHORTER: Yeah. Copyright Hidden Brain Media | Privacy Policy, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Dont Know, Refusing to Apologize can have Psychological Benefits, The Effects of Conflict Types, Dimensions, and Emergent States on Group Outcomes, Social Functionalist Frameworks for Judgment and Choice: Intuitive Politicians, Theologians, and Prosecutors, Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams, The Effective Negotiator Part 1: The Behavior of Successful Negotiators, The Effective Negotiator Part 2: Planning for Negotiations, Read the latest from the Hidden Brain Newsletter. VEDANTAM: John McWhorter, thank you so much for joining me on HIDDEN BRAIN today. When we come back, I'm going to ask you about why languages change and whether there are hidden rules that shape why some words are more likely to evolve than others. But what happens when these feelings catch up with us? Can I get some chicken? We talk with psychologist Iris Mauss, who explains why happiness can seem more elusive the harder we chase it, and what we can do instead to build a lasting sense of contentment. But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy thats all around us. Our transcripts are provided by various partners and may contain errors or deviate slightly from the audio. 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. So when I ask you to, say, imagine a man walking down the street, well, in your imagery, you're going to have some details completed and some will be left out. VEDANTAM: This episode of HIDDEN BRAIN was produced by Rhaina Cohen, Maggie Penman and Thomas Lu with help from Renee Klahr, Jenny Schmidt, Parth Shah and Chloe Connelly. Whats going on here? (SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "PARKS AND RECREATION"). I just don't want to do it. Many of us rush through our days, weeks, and lives, chasing goals, and just trying to get everything done. You know, it's Lady Liberty and Lady Justice. Hidden Brain Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships. And they suggest that differences across languages do, in fact, predict some of these measures of gender equality across countries. BORODITSKY: Well, I think it's a terrible tragedy. That hadn't started then. So to go back to the example we were just talking about - people who don't use words like left and right - when I gave those picture stories to Kuuk Thaayorre speakers, who use north, south, east and west, they organized the cards from east to west. Many people have this intuition that, oh, I could never learn that; I could never survive in a community like this. You-uh (ph). When the con was exposed, its victims defended the con artists. If you're bilingual or multilingual, you may have noticed that different languages make you stretch in different ways. Having a sense of purpose can be a buffer against the challenges we all face at various stages of life. In The Air We Breathe . Which pile do you go in, right? But if you seed a watermelon, nobody assumes that you're taking seeds and putting them in the watermelon, you're taking them out. We use a lot of music on the show! You can find all Hidden Brain episodes on our website. It's not necessarily may I please have, but may I have, I'll have, but not can I get a. I find it just vulgar for reasons that as you can see I can't even do what I would call defending. John, you've noted that humans have been using language for a very long time, but for most of that time language has been about talking. They are ways of seeing the world. We also look at how. Hidden Brain | Hidden Brain Media Which I think is probably important with the reality that this edifice that you're teaching is constantly crumbling. And they asked me all kinds of questions about them. You couldn't have predicted this I know-uh move-uh (ph). After claiming your Listen Notes podcast pages, you will be able to: Respond to listener comments on Listen Notes, Use speech-to-text techniques to transcribe your show and And you can just - it rolls off the tongue, and you can just throw it out. It's not something that you typically go out trying to do intentionally. Evaluating Changes in Motivation, Values, and Well-being, Goal Striving, Need Satisfaction, and Longitudinal Well-being: The Self-Concordance Model, Personal Strivings: An Approach to Personality and Subjective Well-being, Read the latest from the Hidden Brain Newsletter. But is that true when it comes to the pursuit of happiness? For example, he might take a bunch of pictures of boys and girls and sort them and say, OK, this is a boy. He's also the author of the book, "Words On The Move: Why English Won't - And Can't - Sit Still (Like, Literally).". I just don't want to do it. They believe that their language reflects the true structure of the world. What techniques did that person use to persuade you? But I find that people now usually use the word to mean very soon, as in we're going to board the plane momentarily. And I was telling this person about someone I knew back in America. So that, again, is a huge difference. When language was like that, of course it changed a lot - fast - because once you said it, it was gone. So when the perfect woman started writing him letters, it seemed too good to be true. So even if I'm speaking English, the distinctions that I've learned in speaking Russian, for example, are still active in my mind to some extent, but they're more active if I'm actually speaking Russian. If a transcript is available, youll see a Transcript button which expands to reveal the full transcript. 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. It takes, GEACONE-CRUZ: It's this phrase that describes something between I can't be, bothered or I don't want to do it or I recognize the incredible effort that goes into. Opening scene of Lady Bird Flight attendant Steven Slater slides from a plane after quitting Transcript Podcast: Subscribe to the Hidden Brain Podcast on your favorite podcast player so you never miss an episode. The size of this effect really quite surprised me because I would have thought at the outset that, you know, artists are these iconoclasts. You're not going to do any of the things that are seen as a foundation of our technological society. 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. Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships. If you're studying a new language, you might discover these phrases not. VEDANTAM: The word chair is feminine in Italian. Of course, if you can't keep track of exactly seven, you can't count. Hidden Brain Feb 23, 2023 Happiness 2.0: Surprising Sources of Joy Sometimes, life can feel like being stuck on a treadmill. Purpose can also boost our health and longevity. 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. Elon Musk's brain chips, starvation in Somalia and Greek anguish Mistakes and errors are what turned Latin into French. It's inherent. If you take literally in what we can think of as its earliest meaning, the earliest meaning known to us is by the letter. Today in our Happiness 2.0 series, we revisit a favorite episode from 2020. Hidden Brain Claim By Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam Podcasts RSS Web PODCAST SEARCH EPISODES COMMUNITY PODCASTER EDIT SHARE Listen Score LS 84 Global Rank TOP 0.01% ABOUT THIS PODCAST Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships. So I think that nobody would say that they don't think language should change. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: (Speaking foreign language). And it's not just about how we think about time. And one day, I was walking along, and I was just staring at the ground. And so somebody will say, well, who was it who you thought was going to give you this present? al (Eds. They often feel angry about it, and you think this anger is actually telling. What Do You Do When Things Go Right? But we have plenty of words like that in English where it doesn't bother us at all. Hidden Brain - You 2.0: Cultivating Your Purpose - Google Podcasts But it's a lovely example of how language can guide you to discover something about the world that might take you longer to discover if you didn't have that information in language. This week, in the final . And if you can enjoy it as a parade instead of wondering why people keep walking instead of just sitting on chairs and blowing on their tubas and not moving, then you have more fun. VEDANTAM: How the languages we speak shape the way we think and why the words we use are always in flux. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking foreign language). Later things are on the right. It seems kind of elliptical, like, would it be possible that I obtained? Accuracy and availability may vary. He says there are things we can do to make sure our choices align with our deepest values. Imagine this. Psychologist Ken Sheldon studies the science of figuring out what you want. But if he just bumped into the table, and it happened to fall off the table and break, and it was an accident, then you might be more likely to say, the flute broke, or the flute broke itself, or it so happened to Sam that the flute broke. BORODITSKY: I had this wonderful opportunity to work with my colleague Alice Gaby in this community called Pormpuraaw in - on Cape York. Shankar Vedantam, host of the popular podcast "Hidden Brain" has been reporting on human behavior for decades. How does that sound now? This week, we kick off a month-long series we're calling Happiness 2.0. How come you aren't exactly the way you were 10 years ago? And as soon as I saw that happen, I thought, oh, this makes it so much easier. Listen on the Reuters app. And the way you speak right is not by speaking the way that people around you in your life speak, but by speaking the way the language is as it sits there all nice and pretty on that piece of paper where its reality exists. VEDANTAM: Many of us have dictionaries at home or at work, John. The Effective Negotiator Part 1: The Behavior of Successful Negotiators and The Effective Negotiator Part 2: Planning for Negotiations, by Neil Rackham and John Carlisle, Journal of European Industrial Training, 1978. It's natural to want to run away from difficult emotions such as grief, anger and fear. It turns out, as you point out, that in common usage, literally literally means the opposite of literally. This week, in the fourth and final installment of our Happiness 2.0 series, psychologist Dacher Keltner describes . 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. Take the word bridge - if it's feminine in your language, you're more likely to say that bridges are beautiful and elegant.