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VEDANTAM: I'm Shankar Vedantam. This is HIDDEN BRAIN. 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 Long before she began researching languages as a professor, foreign languages loomed large in her life. Today in our Happiness 2.0 series, we revisit a favorite episode from 2020. 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. What a cynical thing to say, but that doesn't mean that it might not be true. So maybe they're saying bridges are beautiful and elegant, not because they're grammatically feminine in the language, but because the bridges they have are, in fact, more beautiful and elegant. Because it was. VEDANTAM: (Laughter) All right, I think it might be time for me to confess one of my pet peeves. Why researchers should think real-world: A conceptual rationale, by Harry T. Reis, in Handbook of Research Methods for Studying Daily Life, 2012. So that's an example of how languages and cultures construct how we use space to organize time, to organize this very abstract thing that's otherwise kind of hard to get our hands on and think about. We talk with psychologist Iris Mauss, who explains why happiness Why do some companies become household names, while others flame out? 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. 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. I decided it was very important for me to learn English because I had always been a very verbal kid, and I'd - was always the person who recited poems in front of the school and, you know, led assemblies and things like that. 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. 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. 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. : A Data-Driven Prescription to Redefine Professional Success, Does Legal Education Have Undermining Effects on Law Students? 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. But time doesn't have to flow with respect to the body. In the final episode of our Relationships 2.0 series, psychologistHarry Reis says theres another ingredient to successful relationships thats every bit as important as love. As you're going about your day, you likely interact with family, friends and coworkers. Language is something that's spoken, and spoken language especially always keeps changing. Whats going on here? So the word for the is different for women than for men, and it's also different for forks versus spoons and things like that. What techniques did that person use to persuade you? (Speaking Japanese). This is Hidden Brain. 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. 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. Follow on Apple, Google or Spotify. There are signs it's getting even harder. Growing up, I understood this word to mean for a very short time, as in John McWhorter was momentarily surprised. But actually, it's something that's not so hard to learn. Well, that's an incredibly large set of things, so that's a very broad effect of language. 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. : The Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Benefits of Sharing Positive Events, Perceived Partner Responsiveness as an Organizing Construct in the Study of Intimacy and Closeness, Read the latest from the Hidden Brain Newsletter. Many of us believe that hard work and persistence are the key to achieving our goals. Hidden Brain. Which I think is probably important with the reality that this edifice that you're teaching is constantly crumbling. Newsletter: Go behind the scenes, see what Shankar is reading and find more useful resources and links. Of course, you also can't experience anything outside of time. But also, I started wondering, is it possible that my friend here was imagining a person without a gender for this whole time that we've been talking about them, right? Maybe they like the same kinds of food, or enjoy the same hobbies. Psychologist Ken Sheldon studies the science of figuring out what you want. Thank you for helping to keep the podcast database up to date. You know, lots of people blow off steam about something they think is wrong, but very few people are willing to get involved and do something about it. VEDANTAM: I understand that if you're in a picnic with someone from this community and you notice an ant climbing up someone's left leg, it wouldn't make a lot of sense to tell that person, look, there's an ant on your left leg. GEACONE-CRUZ: It's a Sunday afternoon, and it's raining outside. I'm Shankar Vedantam. But if you prefer life - the unpredictability of life - then living language in many ways are much more fun. 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. Researcher Elizabeth Dunn helps us map out the unexpected ways we can find joy and happiness in our everyday lives. podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9rd1djMGxoZg==, open.spotify.com/show/20Gf4IAauFrfj7RBkjcWxh. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. There's not a bigger difference you could find than 100 percent of the measurement space. 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. Today, we explore the many facets of this idea. We're speaking today with cognitive science professor Lera Boroditsky about language. This week, we continue our look at the science of influence with psychologist Robert Cialdini, and explore how these techniques can be used for both good and evil. something, even though it shouldn't be so much of an effort. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #11: (Speaking Russian). If you liked . You can also connect directly with our sponsorship representative by emailing [emailprotected]. Shankar Vedantam: This is Hidden Brain. They're supposed to be painting something very personal. 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. But is that true when it comes to the pursuit of happiness? 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. There was no way of transcribing an approximation of what people said and nobody would have thought of doing it. You're not going to do trigonometry. This week, we launch the first of a two-part mini-series on the scie, If you think about the people in your life, it's likely that they share a lot in common with you. If you grew up speaking a language other than English, you probably reach for words in your native tongue without even thinking about it. 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? You also see huge differences in other domains like number. So if the word for death was masculine in your language, you were likely to paint death as a man. And then question 21 was, is this person a man or a woman? BORODITSKY: Well, I think it's a terrible tragedy. This week on Hidden Brain, we revisit a favorite episode exploring what this culture means Jesse always wanted to fall in love. FDA blocks human trials for Neuralink brain implants. - so one skull but two different minds, and you shift from one to the other. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) If you're so upset about it, maybe you can think of a way to help her. This week, we kick off a month-long series we're calling Happiness 2.0. Social Functionalist Frameworks for Judgment and Choice: Intuitive Politicians, Theologians, and Prosecutors, by Philip Tetlock, Psychology Review, 2002. Sometimes, life can feel like being stuck on a treadmill. Dictionaries are wonderful things, but they create an illusion that there's such thing as a language that stands still, when really it's the nature of human language to change. It's exactly how old English turned into modern English. 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).". That is the direction of writing in Hebrew and Arabic, going from right to left. And I don't think any of us are thinking that it's a shame that we're not using the language of Beowulf. They're more likely to say, well, it's a formal property of the language. Toward Understanding Understanding:The Importance of Feeling Understood in Relationships, by Harry Reis, Edward P. Lemay Jr, and Catrin Finkenauer, Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2017. Lera said there's still a lot of research to be done on this. 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. And it really is an illusion that what language is, is something that sits still. Language as it evolved was just talking to an extent that can be very hard for we literate people to imagine. 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. Stay with us. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #8: (Speaking Italian). 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. Newsletter: BORODITSKY: I spoke really terrible Indonesian at the time, so I was trying to practice. VEDANTAM: I understand that there's also been studies looking at how artists who speak different languages might paint differently depending on how their languages categorize, you know, concepts like a mountain or death. And as soon as I saw that happen, I thought, oh, this makes it so much easier. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Right. The phrase brings an entire world with it - its context, its flavor, its culture. You would never know, for example, that - give you an example I've actually been thinking about. It's never going to. I think that it's better to think of language as a parade that either you're watching, or frankly, that you're in, especially because the people are never going to stand still. Researcher Elizabeth Dunn helps us map out the unexpected ways we can find joy and happiness in our everyday lives. 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. BORODITSKY: And when they were trying to act like Wednesday, they would act like a woman BORODITSKY: Which accords with grammatical gender in Russian. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: (Speaking foreign language). They are ways of seeing the world. We'll also look at how languages evolve, and why we're sometimes resistant to those changes. 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. 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. 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. 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. You may also use the Hidden Brain name in invitations sent to a small group of personal contacts for such purposes as a listening club or discussion forum. Many of us believe that hard work and persistence are the key to achieving our goals. But it's so hard to feel that partly because our brains are on writing, as I say in the book. This week, we kick off a month-long series we're calling Happiness 2.0. It's not something that you typically go out trying to do intentionally. VEDANTAM: There are phrases in every language that are deeply evocative and often, untranslatable. out. 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. 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. Perceived Responses to Capitalization Attempts are Influenced by Self-Esteem and Relationship Threat, by Shannon M. Smith & Harry Reis, Personal Relationships, 2012. But I don't think that it's always clear to us that language has to change in that things are going to come in that we're going to hear as intrusions or as irritating or as mistakes, despite the fact that that's how you get from, say, old Persian to modern Persian. Well, if you have a word like that and if it's an intensifier of that kind, you can almost guess that literally is going to come to mean something more like just really. Today in our Happiness 2.0 series, we revisit a favorite episode from 2020. Many of us rush through our days, weeks, and lives, chasing goals, and just trying to get everything done. Our transcripts are provided by various partners and may contain errors or deviate slightly from the audio. Are the spoken origins of language one reason that words so often seem to be on the move? BORODITSKY: That's a wonderful question. Well never sell your personal information. How to Foster Perceived Partner Responsiveness: High-Quality LIstening is Key, Perceived Partner Responsiveness Scale (PPRS), Toward Understanding Understanding:The Importance of Feeling Understood in Relationships, Perceived Responses to Capitalization Attempts are Influenced by Self-Esteem and Relationship Threat, Perceived Partner Responsiveness Minimizes Defensive Reactions to Failure, Assessing the Seeds of Relationship Decay: Using Implicit Evaluations to Detect the Early Stages of Disillusionment. (SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "PARKS AND RECREATION"). It has to do with the word momentarily. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. But if I give that same story to a Hebrew or an Arabic speaker, they would organize it from right to left. This week, we kick off a month-long series we're calling Happiness 2.0. It can be almost counterintuitive to listen to how much giggling and laughing you do in ordinary - actually rather plain exchanges with people. It's natural to want to run away from difficult emotions such as grief, anger and fear. A free podcast app for iPhone and Android, Download episodes while on WiFi to listen without using mobile data, Stream podcast episodes without waiting for a download, Queue episodes to create a personal continuous playlist, Web embed players designed to convert visitors to listeners in the RadioPublic apps for iPhone and Android, Capture listener activity with affinity scores, Measure your promotional campaigns and integrate with Google and Facebook analytics, Deliver timely Calls To Action, including email acquistion for your mailing list, Share exactly the right moment in an episode via text, email, and social media, Tip and transfer funds directly to podcastsers, Earn money for qualified plays in the RadioPublic apps with Paid Listens. Imagine you meet somebody, they're 39 and you take their picture. And so, for example, can I get a hamburger? : The Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Benefits of Sharing Positive Events, Shelly. Imagine this. It's never happened. Because were a small team, we dont have a publicly-available list of every piece of music that we use. There's been a little bit of research from economists actually looking at this. For more on decision-making, check out our episode on how to make wiser choices. Happiness 2.0: The Only Way Out Is Through. But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy thats all around us. And after listening to you, I realize I might have to finally give in. The transcript below may be for an earlier version of this episode. 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. Which pile do you go in, right? So it's, VEDANTAM: The moment she heard it, Jennifer realized mendokusai was incredibly. And this is NPR. You can't smell or taste time. Trusted by 5,200 companies and developers. But what happens when these feelings catch up with us? UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking foreign language). And we looked at every personification and allegory in Artstor and asked, does the language that you speak matter for how you paint death, depending on whether the word death is masculine or feminine in your language? VEDANTAM: If you have teenagers or work closely with young people, chances are you'll be mystified by their conversations or even annoyed. 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. 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. Purpose can also boost our health and longevity. I saw this bird's-eye view, and I was this little red dot. He. Writing has come along relatively recently. Yes! In The Air We Breathe . Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships. For more of our Relationships 2.0 series, check out one of our most popular episodes ever about why marriages are so hard. You can search for the episode or browse all episodes on our Archive Page. BORODITSKY: I had this wonderful opportunity to work with my colleague Alice Gaby in this community called Pormpuraaw in - on Cape York. Purpose can also boost our health and longevity. 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. Each language comprises the ideas that have been worked out in a culture over thousands of generations, and that is an incredible amount of cultural heritage and complexity of thought that disappears whenever a language dies. But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy that's all around us. Listen on the Reuters app. Purpose can also boost our health and longevity. This is NPR. I've always found that a very grating way to ask for something at a store. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #6: (Speaking foreign language). 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. 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. Imagine this. My big fat greek wedding, an american woman of greek ancestry falls in love with a very vanilla, american man. 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. For example, if you take seeds and put them in the ground, that's one thing. But does a person who says that really deserve the kind of sneering condemnation that you often see? Whereas speakers of a language like Spanish might not be quite as good at remembering who did it when it's an accident, but they're better at remembering that it was an accident. This week, a story about a con with a twist. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #16: Not figuratively, it's literally MCWHORTER: Yeah. What do you do for christmas with your family? And it's not just about how we think about time. Read the episode transcript. 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 something, even though it shouldn't be so much of an effort. 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. Subscribe to the Hidden Brain Podcast on your favorite podcast player so you never miss an episode. So in English, I might say that Sam (ph) broke the flute. So for example, grammatical gender - because grammatical gender applies to all nouns in your language, that means that language is shaping the way you think about everything that can be named by a noun.