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. So you might say, there's an ant on your northwest leg. I think it's a really fascinating question for future research. I'm Shankar Vedantam. Copyright 2023 Steno. How do you balance the imperative of teaching correct usage? Maybe it's even less than a hundred meters away, but you just can't bring yourself to even throw your coat on over your pajamas and put your boots on and go outside and walk those hundred meters because somehow it would break the coziness. So for example, you might not imagine the color shirt that he's wearing or the kinds of shoes that he's wearing. al (Eds. All rights reserved. Interpersonal Chemistry: What Is It, How Does It Emerge, and How Does it Operate? Or feel like you and your spouse sometimes speak different languages? If you're a monolingual speaker of one of these languages, you're very likely to say that the word chair is masculine because chairs are, in fact, masculine, right? But it's so hard to feel that partly because our brains are on writing, as I say in the book. JERRY SEINFELD: (As Jerry Seinfeld) The second button literally makes or breaks the shirt. You know, endings are going to tend to drop off. 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. Hidden Brain. All sponsorship opportunities on Hidden Brain are managed by SXM Media. And then question 21 was, is this person a man or a woman? Only a couple hundred languages - or if you want to be conservative about it, a hundred languages - are written in any real way and then there are 6,800 others. And what he noticed was that when people were trying to act like Monday, they would act like a man. Hidden Brain - Transcripts Hidden Brain - Transcripts Subscribe 435 episodes Share Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships. Many of us rush through our lives, chasing goals and just trying to get everything done. Read the episode transcript. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking foreign language). But we have plenty of words like that in English where it doesn't bother us at all. Transcript Speaker 1 00:00:00 this is hidden brain. It's exactly how old English turned into modern English. MCWHORTER: Yes, that's exactly true. 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 LOL starts out as meaning hardy-har-har (ph), but then it becomes something more abstract. He's also the author of the book, "Words On The Move: Why English Won't - And Can't - Sit Still (Like, Literally).". Go behind the scenes, see what Shankar is reading and find more useful resources and links. This week, in the second installment of our Happiness 2.0 series, psychologist Todd Kashdan looks at the relationship between distress and happiness, and how to keep difficult emotions from sabotaging our wellbeing. BORODITSKY: Thank you so much for having me. They know which way is which. But it is a completely crucial part of the human experience. For more of our Relationships 2.0 series, check out one of our most popular episodes ever about why marriages are so hard. Can I get some chicken? MCWHORTER: Exactly. So one possibility for bilinguals would be that they just have two different minds inside - right? The only question was in which way. I know-uh (ph) is there, or something along the lines of babe-uh (ph). 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? Lera said there's still a lot of research to be done on this. The phrase brings an entire world with it - its context, its flavor, its culture. If you, grew up speaking a language other than English, you probably reach for words in your. Go behind the scenes, see what Shankar is reading and find more useful resources and links. VEDANTAM: How the languages we speak shape the way we think and why the words we use are always in flux. But what happens when these feelings catch up with us? : A Data-Driven Prescription to Redefine Professional Success, by Lawrence S. Krieger and Kennon M. Sheldon, George Washington Law Review, 2015. When the con was exposed, its victims defended the con artists. Many of us rush through our days, weeks, and lives, chasing goals, and just trying to get everything done. 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. And we teach them, for example, to say that bridges and apples and all kinds of other things have the same prefix as women. But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy that's all around us. In this month's Radio Replay, we ask whether the structure of the languages we speak can change the way we see the world. : 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. Are the spoken origins of language one reason that words so often seem to be on the move? It's natural to want to run away from difficult emotions such as grief, anger and fear. JENNIFER GEACONE-CRUZ: My name is Jennifer Geacone-Cruz. Sometimes, life can feel like being stuck on a treadmill. But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy thats all around us. 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. Lera, thank you so much for joining me on HIDDEN BRAIN today. "Most of the laughter we produce is purely . That is the most random thing. And very competent adults of our culture can't do that. Welcome to HIDDEN BRAIN. Cholera and malnourishment await Somalis fleeing . Hidden Brain explores the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior and questions that lie at the heart of our complex and changing world. There was no way of transcribing an approximation of what people said and nobody would have thought of doing it. And you can just - it rolls off the tongue, and you can just throw it out. But time doesn't have to flow with respect to the body. That is utterly arbitrary that those little slits in American society look elderly, but for various chance reasons, that's what those slits came to mean, so I started wearing flat-fronted pants. In English, actually, quite weirdly, we can even say things like, I broke my arm. In the United States, we often praise people with strong convictions, and look down on those who express doubt or hesitation. VEDANTAM: The word chair is feminine in Italian. Copyright 2018 NPR. If you're just joining us, I'm talking to John McWhorter. But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy that's all around us. 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. Now I can stay oriented. VEDANTAM: I want to talk in the second half of our conversation about why the meanings of words change, but I want to start by talking about how they change. How else would you do it? But what happens when these feelings catch up with us? Please do not republish our logo, name or content digitally or distribute to more than 10 people without written permission. Personal Strivings: An Approach to Personality and Subjective Well-being, by Robert A. Emmons, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1986. There's not a bigger difference you could find than 100 percent of the measurement space. 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. al, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2004. They are ways of seeing the world. So some languages don't have number words. Everyone wants to be loved and appreciated. But is that true when it comes to the pursuit of happiness? 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. They can be small differences but important in other ways. To request permission, please send an email to [emailprotected]. You know, there's no left leg or right leg. 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. There's been a little bit of research from economists actually looking at this. If you liked . He. What a cynical thing to say, but that doesn't mean that it might not be true. But then you start writing things down and you're in a whole new land because once things are sitting there written on that piece of paper, there's that illusion. 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. The transcript below may be for an earlier version of this episode. 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. That is the direction of writing in Hebrew and Arabic, going from right to left. - so one skull but two different minds, and you shift from one to the other. A brief history of relationship research in social psychology, by Harry T. Reis, in Handbook of the History of Social Psychology, 2011. GEACONE-CRUZ: And I ended up living there for 10 years. 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. podcast pages. UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (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. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) I'm willing to get involved. Many of us rush through our lives, chasing goals and just trying to get everything done. And maybe the convenience store or the shop is really not that far away. Today in our Happiness 2.0 series, we revisit a favorite episode from 2020. And, I mean, really, it sounds exactly like that. Interpersonal Chemistry: What Is It, How Does It Emerge, and How Does it Operate? We couldnt survive without the many public radio stations that support our show and they cant survive without you. Flight attendant Steven Slater slides from a plane after quitting. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #8: (Speaking Italian). They are ways of seeing the world. Shankar Vedantam: This is Hidden Brain. VEDANTAM: Time is another concept that is also central to the way we see and describe the world. 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. Today in our Happiness 2.0 series, we revisit a favorite episode from 2020. 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. So if the word for death was masculine in your language, you were likely to paint death as a man. And it's just too much of an effort, and you can't be bothered to do it, even though it's such a small thing. 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. No matter how hard you try to feel happier, you end up back where you started. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: (Speaking foreign language). * Data source: directly measured on Listen Notes. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #9: (Speaking German). Additional Resources Book: Newsletter: Go behind the scenes, see what Shankar is reading and find more useful resources and links. In this week's My Unsung Hero, Sarah Feldman thanks someone for their gift more than 20 years ago. So that, again, is a huge difference. They give us a sense that the meanings of words are fixed, when in fact they're not. So you have speakers of two different languages look at the same event and come away with different memories of what happened because of the structure of their languages and the way they would normally describe them. 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 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. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Speaking foreign language). Languages are not just tools. Now, many people hear that and they think, well, that's no good because now literally can mean its opposite. Please note that your continued use of the RadioPublic services following the posting of such changes will be deemed an acceptance of this update. 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. It's never going to. You would give a different description to mark that it was not intentional. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. 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. Happiness 2.0: The Only Way Out Is Through. MCWHORTER: You could have fun doing such a thing. Of course, you also can't experience anything outside of time. But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy that's all around us. Those sorts things tend to start with women. Go behind the scenes, see what Shankar is reading and find more useful resources and links. There was no such thing as looking up what it originally meant. 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're not going to do any of the things that are seen as a foundation of our technological society. We talk with psychologist Iris Mauss, who explains why happiness Why do some companies become household names, while others flame out? 437 Episodes Produced by Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam Website. Athletic Scholarships are Negatively Associated with Intrinsic Motivation for Sports, Even Decades Later: Evidence for Long-Term Undermining, by Kennon M. Sheldon and Arlen C. Moller, Motivation Science, 2020. But it's exactly like - it was maybe about 20 years ago that somebody - a girlfriend I had told me that if I wore pants that had little vertical pleats up near the waist, then I was conveying that I was kind of past it. It has to do with the word momentarily. All of the likes and, like, literallies (ph) might sometimes grate on your nerves, but John McWhorter says the problem might be with you, not with the way other people speak. 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. And there are consequences for how people think about events, what they notice when they see accidents. The transcript below may be for an earlier version of this episode. We recommend movies or books to a friend. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Right. Researcher Elizabeth Dunn helps us map out the unexpected ways we can find joy and happiness in our everyday lives. 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. Purpose can also boost our health and longevity. Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Dont Know, by Adam Grant, 2021. 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. FEB 27, 2023; Happiness 2.0: The Reset Button . So when the perfect woman started writing him letters, it seemed too good to be true. Now, in a lot of languages, you can't say that because unless you were crazy, and you went out looking to break your arm, and you succeeded - right? BORODITSKY: And Russian is a language that has grammatical gender, and different days of the week have different genders for some reason. It's part of a general running indication that everything's OK between you and the other person, just like one's expected to smile a little bit in most interactions. If a transcript is available, you'll see a Transcript button which expands to reveal the full transcript. How big are the differences that we're talking about, and how big do you think the implications are for the way we see the world? 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. native tongue without even thinking about it. They believe that their language reflects the true structure of the world. It's inherent. BORODITSKY: Well, there may not be a word for left to refer to a left leg. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) If you're so upset about it, maybe you can think of a way to help her. 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. Special thanks to Adam Cole, who wrote and performed our rendition of "The Hokey Pokey." Take the word bridge - if it's feminine in your language, you're more likely to say that bridges are beautiful and elegant. So I just think that it's something we need to check ourselves for. Toula and Ian's different backgrounds become apparent on one of their very first dates. And one day, I was walking along, and I was just staring at the ground. Language was talk. But as Bob Cialdini set out to discover the keys to influence and persuasion, he decided to follow the instincts of his childhood. So what happens is that once literally comes to feel like it means really, people start using it in figurative constructions such as I was literally dying of thirst. 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. The fun example I give my students is imagine playing the hokey pokey in a language like this. And I would really guess that in a few decades men will be doing it, too. And then when I turned, this little window stayed locked on the landscape, but it turned in my mind's eye. Refusing to Apologize can have Psychological Benefits, by Tyler Okimoto, Michael Wenzel and Kyli Hedrick, European Journal of Social Psychology, 2013. 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. When language was like that, of course it changed a lot - fast - because once you said it, it was gone. That hadn't started then. Of course, eventually, the Finnish kids also figured it out because language isn't the only source of that information, otherwise it would be quite surprising for the Finns to be able to continue to reproduce themselves. This week, we kick off a month-long series we're calling Happiness 2.0. 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?
