We convince a colleague to take a different tactic at work. But actually, that's exactly how people in those communities come to stay oriented - is that they learn it, (laughter) right? native tongue without even thinking about it. So it's easy to think, oh, I could imagine someone without thinking explicitly about what they're wearing. Sometimes you just have to suck it up. In this favorite episode from 2021, Cornell University psychologist Anthony Burrow explains why purpose isnt something to be found its something we can develop from within. If you prefer to listen through a podcast app, here are links to our podcast on Apple, Spotify, and Stitcher. So earlier things are on the left. In the United States, we often praise people with strong convictions, and look down on those who express doubt or hesitation. So some languages don't have number words. VEDANTAM: It took just one week of living in Japan for Jennifer to pick up an important, VEDANTAM: There isn't a straightforward translation of this phrase in English. So we did an analysis of images in Artstor. But does a person who says that really deserve the kind of sneering condemnation that you often see? Happiness 2.0: The Only Way Out Is Through. VEDANTAM: I'm Shankar Vedantam. If you take literally in what we can think of as its earliest meaning, the earliest meaning known to us is by the letter. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: (Speaking foreign language). 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. 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. 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. When language was like that, of course it changed a lot - fast - because once you said it, it was gone. 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 Transcript Speaker 1 00:00:00 this is hidden brain. So you might say, there's an ant on your northwest leg. If it is the first time you login, a new account will be created automatically. You would give a different description to mark that it was not intentional. So in terms of the size of differences, there are certainly effects that are really, really big. It might irritate you slightly to hear somebody say something like, I need less books instead of fewer books. (LAUGHTER) VEDANTAM: In the English-speaking world, she goes by Lera Boroditsky. It's too high. Official Website Airs on: SUN 7pm-8pm 55:27 Happiness 2.0: The Reset Button Feb 27 Many of us rush through our lives, chasing goals and just trying to get everything done. You know, there's no left leg or right leg. You would never know, for example, that - give you an example I've actually been thinking about. 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. In this month's Radio Replay, we ask whether the structure of the languages we speak can change the way we see the world. Psychologist Ken Sheldon studies the science of figuring out what you want. BORODITSKY: And when they were trying to act like Wednesday, they would act like a woman BORODITSKY: Which accords with grammatical gender in Russian. It can be almost counterintuitive to listen to how much giggling and laughing you do in ordinary - actually rather plain exchanges with people. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #3: (Speaking foreign language). Listen on the Reuters app. 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 that can blind us to a very simple source of joy that's all around us. I just don't want to do it. And as you point out, it's not just that people feel that a word is being misused. Languages are not just tools to describe the world. VEDANTAM: John McWhorter, thank you so much for joining me on HIDDEN BRAIN today. Well, that's an incredibly large set of things, so that's a very broad effect of language. And if it was feminine, then you're likely to paint death as a woman. It's natural to want to run away from difficult emotions such as grief, anger and fear. * Data source: directly measured on Listen Notes. And they suggest that differences across languages do, in fact, predict some of these measures of gender equality across countries. 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. So it's mendokusai. Those sorts things tend to start with women. This is Hidden Brain. The categorization that language provides to you becomes real, becomes psychologically real. And you can even teach people to have a little bit of fun with the artifice. VEDANTAM: Languages seem to have different ways of communicating agency. BORODITSKY: Well, there may not be a word for left to refer to a left leg. In English, actually, quite weirdly, we can even say things like, I broke my arm. Whats going on here? You can't smell or taste time. If you, grew up speaking a language other than English, you probably reach for words in your. Sometimes, life can feel like being stuck on a treadmill. And you say that dictionaries in some ways paint an unrealistic portrait of a language. If you're like most people, you probably abandoned those resolutions within a few weeks. Well never sell your personal information. If you're bilingual or multilingual, you may have noticed that different languages make you stretch in different ways. Interpersonal Chemistry: What Is It, How Does It Emerge, and How Does it Operate? MCWHORTER: Exactly. 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. We don't want to be like that. Perceived Partner Responsiveness Minimizes Defensive Reactions to Failure, by Peter A. Caprariello and Harry T. Reis, Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2011. 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. And a girl goes in this pile. They shape our place in it. And all of a sudden, I noticed that there was a new window that had popped up in my mind, and it was like a little bird's-eye view of the landscape that I was walking through, and I was a little red dot that was moving across the landscape. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #9: (Speaking German). 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. He didn't like that people were shortening the words. I'm Shankar Vedantam. This week, a story about a con with a twist. But what most people mean is that there'll be slang, that there'll be new words for new things and that some of those words will probably come from other languages. According to neuroscientists who study laughter, it turns out that chuckles and giggles often aren't a response to humorthey're a response to people. But if you prefer life - the unpredictability of life - then living language in many ways are much more fun. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #16: Not figuratively, it's literally MCWHORTER: Yeah. That's what it's all about. The phrase brings an entire world with it - its context, its flavor, its culture. 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. Or feel like you and your spouse sometimes speak different languages? And maybe the convenience store or the shop is really not that far away. If a transcript is available, youll see a Transcript button which expands to reveal the full transcript. There's a way of speaking right. This week on Hidden Brain, psychologist Adam Grant describes the magic th something, even though it shouldn't be so much of an effort. Imagine you meet somebody, they're 39 and you take their picture. VEDANTAM: It took just one week of living in Japan for Jennifer to pick up an important new term. He's also the author of the book, "Words On The Move: Why English Won't - And Can't - Sit Still (Like, Literally).". But is that true when it comes to the pursuit of happiness? But they can also steer us in directions that leave us deeply unsatisfied. You can search for the episode or browse all episodes on our Archive Page. So they've compared gender equality, gender parity norms from the World Health Organization, which ranks countries on how equal access to education, how equal pay is, how equal representation in government is across the genders. All rights reserved. It Takes Two: The Interpersonal Nature of Empathic Accuracy, What Do You Do When Things Go Right? Many of us rush through our days, weeks, and lives, chasing goals, and just trying to get everything done. But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy that's all around us. Having a sense of purpose can be a buffer against the challenges we all face at various stages of life. In the second episode of our "Relationships 2.0" series, psychologist Do you ever struggle to communicate with your mom? It goes in this pile. Maybe they like the same kinds of food, or enjoy the same hobbies. BORODITSKY: Well, I think it's a terrible tragedy. But she told me a story about a conversation she had with a native speaker of Indonesian. Perceived Partner Responsiveness Scale (PPRS), by Harry T. Reis et. But it turns out humans can stay oriented really, really well, provided that their language and culture requires them to keep track of this information. No matter how hard you try to feel happier, you end up back where you started. They're supposed to be painting something very personal. 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. 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. They give us a sense that the meanings of words are fixed, when in fact they're not. Sociologist Lisa Wade believes the pervasive hookup culture on campuses today is different from that faced by previous generations. And then if you are going to be that elliptical, why use the casual word get? Shankar Vedantam, host of the popular podcast "Hidden Brain" has been reporting on human behavior for decades. 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. This week, we're going to bring you a conversation I had in front of a live audience with Richard Thaler, taped on Halloween at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington, D. Richard is a professor of behavioral sciences and economics at the University of Chicago and is a well-known author. SHANKAR VEDANTAM, HOST:This is HIDDEN BRAIN. We use a lot of music on the show! But what if there's a whole category of people in your life whose impact is overlooked? We love the idea of Hidden Brain helping to spark discussions in your community. We also look at how. Because were a small team, we dont have a publicly-available list of every piece of music that we use. Our transcripts are provided by various partners and may contain errors or deviate slightly from the audio. 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. And I don't think any of us are thinking that it's a shame that we're not using the language of Beowulf. Sometimes, life can feel like being stuck on a treadmill. L. Gable, et. What techniques did that person use to persuade you? Imagine this. So for example, if Sam grabbed a hammer and struck the flute in anger, that would be one description, like, Sam broke the flute. I've always found that a very grating way to ask for something at a store. And you've conducted experiments that explore how different conceptions of time in different languages shape the way we think about the world and shape the way we think about stories. It has to do with the word momentarily. 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. Freely Determined: What the New Psychology of the Self Teaches Us About How to Live, by Kennon M. Sheldon, 2022. He's a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University and the author of the book "Words On The Move: Why English Won't - And Can't - Sit Still (Like, Literally).". I saw this bird's-eye view, and I was this little red dot. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: (Speaking foreign language). - so one skull but two different minds, and you shift from one to the other. Assessing the Seeds of Relationship Decay: Using Implicit Evaluations to Detect the Early Stages of Disillusionment, by Soonhee Lee, Ronald D. Rogge, and Harry T. Reis, Psychological Science, 2010. As you're going about your day, you likely interact with family, friends and coworkers. It's testament to the incredible ingenuity and complexity of the human mind that all of these different perspectives on the world have been invented. This week, we kick off a month-long series we're calling Happiness 2.0. Our transcripts are provided by various partners and may contain errors or deviate slightly from the audio. I just don't want to do it. Could this affect the way, you know, sexism, conscious or unconscious, operates in our world? Look at it. For more of our Relationships 2.0 series, check out one of our most popular episodes ever about why marriages are so hard. Does a speaker of a language, like Spanish, who has to assign gender to so many things, end up seeing the world as more gendered? If I give you a bunch of pictures to lay out and say this is telling you some kind of story and you - and they're disorganized, when an English speaker organizes those pictures, they'll organize them from left to right. JENNIFER GEACONE-CRUZ: My name is Jennifer Geacone-Cruz. But things can be important not just because they're big. I want everybody to have the fun I'm having. You can't touch time. Languages are not just tools. Goal Striving, Need Satisfaction, and Longitudinal Well-being: The Self-Concordance Model, by Kennon M. Sheldon and Andrew J. Elliot, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1999. And one day, I was walking along, and I was just staring at the ground. If you liked . BORODITSKY: One thing that we've noticed is this idea of time, of course, is very highly constructed by our minds and our brains. It is a great, free way to engage the podcast community and increase the visibility of your podcasts. BORODITSKY: Yeah, that's true. VEDANTAM: I asked Lera how describing the word chair or the word bridge as masculine or feminine changes the way that speakers of different languages think about those concepts. There was no way of transcribing an approximation of what people said and nobody would have thought of doing it. I said, you know, this weird thing happened. Which pile do you go in, right? If you dont see any jobs posted there, feel free to send your resume and cover letter to [emailprotected] and well keep your materials on hand for future openings on the show. BORODITSKY: It's certainly possible. When she was 12, her family came to the United States from the Soviet Union. If the language stayed the way it was, it would be like a pressed flower in a book or, as I say, I think it would be like some inflatable doll rather than a person. How to Foster Perceived Partner Responsiveness: High-Quality LIstening is Key, by Guy Itzchakov, Harry Reis, and Netta Weinstein, Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2021. So the question for us has been, how do we build these ideas? How else would you do it? I'm Shankar Vedanta. All sponsorship opportunities on Hidden Brain are managed by SXM Media. Transcript - How language shapes the way we think by Lera Boroditsky.docx, The Singapore Quality Award requires organisations to show outstanding results, The following lots of Commodity Z were available for sale during the year, b The authors identify 5 types of misinformation in the abstract but discuss 7, 17 Chow N Asian value and aged care Geriatr Gerontol Int 20044521 5 18 Chow NWS, Writing Results and Discussion Example.docx, A 6 month old infant weighing 15 lb is admitted with a diagnosis of dehydration, ng_Question_-_Assessment_1_-_Proposing_Evidence-Based_Change.doc, The Social Security checks the Government sends to grandmothers are considered A, 03 If a covered member participates on the clients attest engagement or is an, AURETR143 Student Assessment - Theory v1.1.docx.