hidden brain transcript
So I think it's an incredible tragedy that we're losing all of this linguistic diversity, all of this cultural diversity because it is human heritage. BORODITSKY: And when they were trying to act like Wednesday, they would act like a woman BORODITSKY: Which accords with grammatical gender in Russian. But it is a completely crucial part of the human experience. In the United States, we often praise people with strong convictions, and look down on those who express doubt or hesitation. BORODITSKY: That's a wonderful question. Maybe they like the same kinds of food, or enjoy the same hobbies. The fun example I give my students is imagine playing the hokey pokey in a language like this. This is a database with millions of art images. L. Gable, et. Just saying hello was difficult. 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. ADAM COLE, BYLINE: (Singing) You put your southwest leg in, and you shake it all about. These relationships can help you feel cared for and connected. It's exactly how old English turned into modern English. This week, we kick off a month-long series we're calling Happiness 2.0. But what I am thinking is, you should realize that even if you don't like it, there's nothing wrong with it in the long run because, for example, Jonathan Swift didn't like it that people were saying kissed instead of kiss-ed (ph) and rebuked instead of rebuk-ed (ph). Parents and peers influence our major life choices. Time now for "My Unsung Hero," our series from the team at Hidden Brain telling the stories of . BORODITSKY: Well, I think it's a terrible tragedy. But things can be important not just because they're big. But if you prefer life - the unpredictability of life - then living language in many ways are much more fun. But might we allow that there's probably a part of all human beings that wants to look down on somebody else. We love the idea of Hidden Brain helping to spark discussions in your community. You can support Hidden Brain indirectly by giving to your local NPR station, or you can provide direct support to Hidden Brain by making a gift on our Patreon page. VEDANTAM: One of the things I found really interesting is that the evolution of words and language is constant. Today's episode was the first in our You 2.0 series, which runs all this month. And if you don't have a word for exactly seven, it actually becomes very, very hard to keep track of exactly seven. Languages are not just tools. Going the Distance on the Pacific Crest Trail: The Vital Role of Identified Motivation, by Kennon M. Sheldon, Motivation Science, 2020. That's how much cultural heritage is lost. So it's, VEDANTAM: The moment she heard it, Jennifer realized mendokusai was incredibly. 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. 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. al, Group Decision and Negotiation, 2008. 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. And in fact, speakers of languages like this have been shown to orient extremely well - much better than we used to think humans could. She once visited an aboriginal community in northern Australia and found the language they spoke forced her mind to work in new ways. 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. It is a great, free way to engage the podcast community and increase the visibility of your podcasts. Many of us believe that hard work and persistence are the key to achieving our goals. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #3: (Speaking foreign language). 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. Rightly Crossing the Rubicon: Evaluating Goal Self-Concordance Prior to Selection Helps People Choose More Intrinsic Goals, by Kennon M. Sheldon, Mike Prentice, and Evgeny Osin, Journal of Research in Personality, 2019. Or feel like you and your spouse sometimes speak different languages? 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. You couldn't have predicted this I know-uh move-uh (ph). 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. And I was telling this person about someone I knew back in America. There are many scholars who would say, look, yes, you do see small differences between speakers of different languages, but these differences are not really significant; they're really small. Lera is a cognitive science professor at the University of California, San Diego. Whats going on here? UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #16: Not figuratively, it's literally MCWHORTER: Yeah. Subscribe to the Hidden Brain Podcast on your favorite podcast player so you never miss an episode. 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. Course Hero is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university. It's natural to want to run away from difficult emotions such as grief, anger and fear. Whats going on here? al, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2004. Parents and peers influence our major life choices. I just don't want to do it. People do need to be taught what the socially acceptable forms are. And there are all kinds of interesting, useful, eye-opening ideas that exist in all of the world's languages. And if you teach them that forks go with women, they start to think that forks are more feminine. Everyone wants to be loved and appreciated. So that's a measurement difference of 100 percent of performance. So there are some differences that are as big as you can possibly measure. 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 But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy that's all around us. He. Yes! VEDANTAM: Jennifer moved to Japan for graduate school. We couldnt survive without the many public radio stations that support our show and they cant survive without you. How does that sound now? ROB LOWE: (As Chris Traeger) Dr. Harris, you are literally the meanest person I have ever met. A brief history of relationship research in social psychology, by Harry T. Reis, in Handbook of the History of Social Psychology, 2011. Purpose can also boost our health and longevity. Many of us rush through our lives, chasing goals and just trying to get everything done. Freely Determined: What the New Psychology of the Self Teaches Us About How to Live, by Kennon M. Sheldon, 2022. As soon as you move the leg, it becomes a different leg. 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. VEDANTAM: Well, that's kind of you, Lera. 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. I'm Shankar Vedantam. Please do not republish our logo, name or content digitally or distribute to more than 10 people without written permission. But time doesn't have to flow with respect to the body. It's natural to want to run away from difficult emotions such as grief, anger and fear. Could this affect the way, you know, sexism, conscious or unconscious, operates in our world? So some languages don't have number words. If you grew up speaking a language other than English, you probably reach for words in your native tongue without even thinking about it. 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? VEDANTAM: Languages seem to have different ways of communicating agency. There's a lowlier part of our nature that grammar allows us to vent in the absence of other ways to do it that have not been available for some decades for a lot of us. This week, in the final installment of our Happiness 2.0 series, psychologist Dacher Keltner describes what happens when we stop to savor the beauty in nature, art, or simply the moral courage of those around us. 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. VEDANTAM: Lera Boroditsky is a cognitive science professor at the University of California, San Diego. That's what it's all about. Hidden Brain. We'll also look at how languages evolve, and why we're sometimes resistant to those changes. 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. GEACONE-CRUZ: It describes this feeling so perfectly in such a wonderfully packaged, encapsulated way. They shape our place in it. VEDANTAM: If you have teenagers or work closely with young people, chances are you'll be mystified by their conversations or even annoyed. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Right. Long before she began researching languages as a professor, foreign languages loomed large in her life. But if I give that same story to a Hebrew or an Arabic speaker, they would organize it from right to left. We call this language Gumbuzi. But actually, it's something that's not so hard to learn. 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. They are ways of seeing the world. Later things are on the right. I just don't want to do it. 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. VEDANTAM: Our conversation made me wonder about what this means on a larger scale. I'm Shankar Vedantam. No matter how hard you try to feel happier, you end up back where you started. Copyright Hidden Brain Media | Privacy Policy, direct support to Hidden Brain by making a gift on our Patreon page, sponsorship opportunities on Hidden Brain. That is the direction of writing in Hebrew and Arabic, going from right to left. 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. BORODITSKY: One thing that we've noticed is this idea of time, of course, is very highly constructed by our minds and our brains. Today, we explore the many facets of this idea. Thank you for helping to keep the podcast database up to date. VEDANTAM: Many of us have dictionaries at home or at work, John. Perceived Responses to Capitalization Attempts are Influenced by Self-Esteem and Relationship Threat, by Shannon M. Smith & Harry Reis, Personal Relationships, 2012. native tongue without even thinking about it. : A Data-Driven Prescription to Redefine Professional Success, by Lawrence S. Krieger and Kennon M. Sheldon, George Washington Law Review, 2015. I'm shankar Vedantam in the 2002 rom com. You would give a different description to mark that it was not intentional. : The Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Benefits of Sharing Positive Events, Shelly. See you next week. So we did an analysis of images in Artstor. Having a sense of purpose can be a buffer against the challenges we all face at various stages of life. Many of us rush through our days, weeks, and lives, chasing goals, and just trying to get everything done. Researcher Elizabeth Dunn helps us map out the unexpected ways we can find joy and happiness in our everyday lives. And the answer should be, north, northeast in the far distance; how about you? Please note that your continued use of the RadioPublic services following the posting of such changes will be deemed an acceptance of this update. In the United States, we often praise people with strong convictions, and look down on those who express doubt or hesitation. 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. 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. You have to do it in order to fit into the culture and to speak the language. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #9: (Speaking German). You know, I was trying to stay oriented because people were treating me like I was pretty stupid for not being oriented, and that hurt. We talk with psychologist Iris Mauss, who explains why happiness can seem more el, When we want something very badly, it can be hard to see warning signs that might be obvious to other people. VEDANTAM: The moment she heard it, Jennifer realized mendokusai was incredibly useful. So when the perfect woman started writing him letters, it seemed too good to be true. It goes in this pile. If you prefer to listen through a podcast app, here are links to our podcast on Apple, Spotify, and Stitcher. And it really is an illusion that what language is, is something that sits still. And maybe the convenience store or the shop is really not that far away. There's been a little bit of research from economists actually looking at this. So if the word for death was masculine in your language, you were likely to paint death as a man. They give us a sense that the meanings of words are fixed, when in fact they're not. So for example, if Sam grabbed a hammer and struck the flute in anger, that would be one description, like, Sam broke the flute. Thank you! So bilinguals are kind of this in-between case where they can't quite turn off their other languages, but they become more prominent, more salient when you are actually speaking the language or surrounded by the language. 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. BORODITSKY: The way to say my name properly in Russian is (speaking foreign language), so I don't make people say that. That kind of detail may not appear. VEDANTAM: Languages orient us to the world. But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy that's all around us. Go behind the scenes, see what Shankar is reading and find more useful resources and links. 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. In this month's Radio Replay, we ask whether the structure of the languages we speak can change the way we see the world. 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. You know, endings are going to tend to drop off. 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. If you're studying a new language, you might discover these phrases not. This is Hidden Brain. MCWHORTER: Language is a parade, and nobody sits at a parade wishing that everybody would stand still. For more of our Relationships 2.0 series, check out one of our most popular episodes ever about why marriages are so hard. But as Bob Cialdini set out to discover the keys to influence and persuasion, he decided to follow the instincts of his childhood. So I think that nobody would say that they don't think language should change. The transcript below may be for an earlier version of this episode. 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. MCWHORTER: Yes, Shankar, that's exactly it. Perceived Partner Responsiveness as an Organizing Construct in the Study of Intimacy and Closeness, by Harry T. Reis, et. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Cholera and malnourishment await Somalis fleeing . This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. They are ways of seeing the world. I'm Shankar Vedantam. And so somebody will say, well, who was it who you thought was going to give you this present? BORODITSKY: I spoke really terrible Indonesian at the time, so I was trying to practice. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking foreign language). GEACONE-CRUZ: It describes this feeling so perfectly in such a wonderfully packaged, encapsulated way, and you can just - it rolls off the tongue, and you can just throw it. It has to do with the word momentarily. 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. If you're like most people, you probably abandoned those resolutions within a few weeks. You would never know, for example, that - give you an example I've actually been thinking about. VEDANTAM: Jennifer moved to Japan for graduate school. VEDANTAM: Still don't have a clear picture? 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. It turns out, as you point out, that in common usage, literally literally means the opposite of literally. This is HIDDEN BRAIN. Copyright Hidden Brain Media | Privacy Policy, Freely Determined: What the New Psychology of the Self Teaches Us About How to Live, Going the Distance on the Pacific Crest Trail: The Vital Role of Identified Motivation, Athletic Scholarships are Negatively Associated with Intrinsic Motivation for Sports, Even Decades Later: Evidence for Long-Term Undermining, Rightly Crossing the Rubicon: Evaluating Goal Self-Concordance Prior to Selection Helps People Choose More Intrinsic Goals, What Makes Lawyers Happy? There was no such thing as looking up what it originally meant. Imagine this. Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships. You can run experiments in a lab or survey people on the street. VEDANTAM: Time is another concept that is also central to the way we see and describe the world.
