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. 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. In a lot of languages, there isn't. VEDANTAM: Languages orient us to the world. But is that true when it comes to the pursuit of happiness? It can be almost counterintuitive to listen to how much giggling and laughing you do in ordinary - actually rather plain exchanges with people. So it's mendokusai. VEDANTAM: So all this raises a really interesting question. But time doesn't have to flow with respect to the body. BORODITSKY: My family is Jewish, and we left as refugees. This is a database with millions of art images. This takes kids a little while to figure out, and he had all kinds of clever ways to ask these questions. Today in our Happiness 2.0 series, we revisit a favorite episode from 2020. 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. 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).". Listen on the Reuters app. Updated privacy policy: We have made some changes to our Privacy Policy. BORODITSKY: The way to say my name properly in Russian is (speaking foreign language), so I don't make people say that. And some people would say it's a lot more because it's, you know, irrecoverable and not reduplicated elsewhere. No matter how hard you try to feel happier, you end up back where you started. 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. The size of this effect really quite surprised me because I would have thought at the outset that, you know, artists are these iconoclasts. Our team includes Laura Kwerel, Adhiti Bandlamudi and our supervising producer Tara Boyle. al, Group Decision and Negotiation, 2008. Time now for "My Unsung Hero," our series from the team at Hidden Brain telling the stories of . We call this language Gumbuzi. But, in fact, they were reflecting this little quirk of grammar, this little quirk of their language and in some cases, you know, carving those quirks of grammar into stone because when you look at statues that we have around - of liberty and justice and things like this - they have gender. 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. 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. He. Of course that's how you BORODITSKY: And so what was remarkable for me was that my brain figured out a really good solution to the problem after a week of trying, right? So it's easy to think, oh, I could imagine someone without thinking explicitly about what they're wearing. The fact is that language change can always go in one of many directions, there's a chance element to it. VEDANTAM: Jennifer moved to Japan for graduate school. BORODITSKY: Yeah, that's true. And then if you are going to be that elliptical, why use the casual word get? VEDANTAM: One of the things I found really interesting is that the evolution of words and language is constant. And you say that dictionaries in some ways paint an unrealistic portrait of a language. 00:51:58 - We all have to make certain choices in life, such as where to live and how to earn a living. 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. So I think that nobody would say that they don't think language should change. Lera is a cognitive science professor at the University of California, San Diego. If you grew up speaking a language other than English, you probably reach for words in your native tongue without even thinking about it. Researcher Elizabeth Dunn helps us map out the unexpected ways we can find joy and happiness in our everyday lives. If you prefer to listen through a podcast app, here are links to our podcast on Apple, Spotify, and Stitcher. Freely Determined: What the New Psychology of the Self Teaches Us About How to Live, by Kennon M. Sheldon, 2022. BORODITSKY: Yeah. How come you aren't exactly the way you were 10 years ago? 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. 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. Purpose can also boost our health and longevity. And this is NPR. Lost In Translation- Hidden Brain Podcast Transcript .pdf My Unsung Hero: A belated thank you : NPR Today, we explore the many facets of this idea. You would never know, for example, that - give you an example I've actually been thinking about. She once visited an aboriginal community in northern Australia and found the language they spoke forced her mind to work in new ways. VEDANTAM: So I find that I'm often directionally and navigationally challenged when I'm driving around, and I often get my east-west mixed up with my left-right for reasons I have never been able to fathom. So some languages don't have number words. Psychologist Ken Sheldon studies the science of figuring out what you want. native tongue without even thinking about it. Copyright 2023 Steno. You couldn't have predicted this I know-uh move-uh (ph). In the final episode of our "Mind Reading 2.0" series, we bring back one of our favorite conversations, with linguist Deborah Tannen. Transcript The transcript below may be for an earlier version of this episode. And if you teach them that forks go with women, they start to think that forks are more feminine. I just don't want to do it. Marcus Butt/Getty Images/Ikon Images Hidden Brain Why Nobody Feels Rich by Shankar Vedantam , Parth Shah , Tara Boyle , Rhaina Cohen September 14, 2020 If you've ever flown in economy class. Hidden Brain. 4.62. Are the spoken origins of language one reason that words so often seem to be on the move? Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Dont Know, by Adam Grant, 2021. 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. : 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. You're not going to do trigonometry. As soon as you move the leg, it becomes a different leg. VEDANTAM: One of the points you make in the book of course is that the evolution of words and their meanings is what gives us this flowering of hundreds or thousands of languages. 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. BORODITSKY: It's certainly possible. Now I can stay oriented. There are different ways to be a psychologist. VEDANTAM: There are phrases in every language that are deeply evocative and often, untranslatable. 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. GEACONE-CRUZ: And I ended up living there for 10 years. Subscribe to the Hidden Brain Podcast on your favorite podcast player so you never miss an episode. Many of us rush through our lives, chasing goals and just trying to get everything done. VEDANTAM: You make the case that concerns over the misuse of language might actually be one of the last places where people can publicly express prejudice and class differences. 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. You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around. So you might say, there's an ant on your northwest leg. MCWHORTER: You could have fun doing such a thing. He didn't like that people were shortening the words. Growing up, I understood this word to mean for a very short time, as in John McWhorter was momentarily surprised. Yes! MCWHORTER: Language is a parade, and nobody sits at a parade wishing that everybody would stand still. And what's cool about languages, like the languages spoken in Pormpuraaw, is that they don't use words like left and right, and instead, everything is placed in cardinal directions like north, south, east and west. If you missed it, 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. Our transcripts are provided by various partners and may contain errors or deviate slightly from the audio. Hidden Brain 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. If you, grew up speaking a language other than English, you probably reach for words in your. 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. The only question was in which way. This week, in the fourth and final installment of our Happiness 2.0 series, psychologist Dacher Keltner describes . It's just how I feel. 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. But as Bob Cialdini set out to discover the keys to influence and persuasion, he decided to follow the instincts of his childhood. al, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2004. Hidden Brain | Hidden Brain Media It's too high. But what if it's not even about lust? That's what it's all about. 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. (Speaking Japanese). BORODITSKY: Actually, one of the first people to notice or suggest that this might be the case was a Russian linguist, Roman Jakobson. GEACONE-CRUZ: And you're at home in your pajamas, all nice and cuddly and maybe watching Netflix or something. Stay with us. 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. Sometimes you just have to suck it up. Maybe it's, even less than 100 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, 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. It has to do with the word momentarily. 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. Purpose can also boost our health and longevity. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. When language was like that, of course it changed a lot - fast - because once you said it, it was gone. 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. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: (Speaking foreign language). Parents and peers influence our major life choices. Because were a small team, we dont have a publicly-available list of every piece of music that we use. 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. Subscribe: iOS | Android | Spotify | RSS | Amazon | Stitcher Latest Episodes: Happiness 2.0: The Reset Button But if you seed a watermelon, nobody assumes that you're taking seeds and putting them in the watermelon, you're taking them out. It Takes Two: The Interpersonal Nature of Empathic Accuracy, What Do You Do When Things Go Right? What Do You Do When Things Go Right? Not without written permission. But might we allow that there's probably a part of all human beings that wants to look down on somebody else. 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. Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships. 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. Another possibility is that it's a fully integrated mind, and it just incorporates ideas and distinctions from both languages or from many languages if you speak more than two. It might irritate you slightly to hear somebody say something like, I need less books instead of fewer books. And I did that. 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. Copyright Hidden Brain Media | Privacy Policy, direct support to Hidden Brain by making a gift on our Patreon page, sponsorship opportunities on Hidden Brain. 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. Our transcripts are provided by various partners and may contain errors or deviate slightly from the audio. - so one skull but two different minds, and you shift from one to the other. 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. And they have correlated this with gender features in the language, just like the ones you were talking about. Young people have always used language in new and different ways, and it's pretty much always driven older people crazy. John is a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University. Today in our Happiness 2.0 series, we revisit a favorite episode from 2020. And it's not just about how we think about time. So in terms of the size of differences, there are certainly effects that are really, really big. Hidden Brain: You 2.0: Cultivating Your Purpose on Apple Podcasts Look at it. Today in our Happiness 2.0 series, we revisit a favorite episode from 2020. In many languages, nouns are gendered. 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. GEACONE-CRUZ: It's a Sunday afternoon, and it's raining outside. That is the direction of writing in Hebrew and Arabic, going from right to left. There's a way of speaking right. Lera, thank you so much for joining me on HIDDEN BRAIN today. Elon Musk's brain chips, starvation in Somalia and Greek anguish You know, endings are going to tend to drop off. And they said, well, of course. We post open positions (including internships) on our jobs page. Language is something that's spoken, and spoken language especially always keeps changing. VEDANTAM: Languages seem to have different ways of communicating agency. But what happens when these feelings catch up with us? But what we should teach is not that the good way is logical and the way that you're comfortable doing it is illogical. And as odd as that sounds, I can guarantee you if you watch any TV show with women under a certain age or if you just go out on an American street and listen, you'll find that that's a new kind of exclamatory particle. ), Handbook of Closeness and Intimacy, 2004. I've always found that a very grating way to ask for something at a store. The categorization that language provides to you becomes real, becomes psychologically real. 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. 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. 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. VEDANTAM: Lera Boroditsky is a cognitive science professor at the University of California, San Diego. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #16: Not figuratively, it's literally MCWHORTER: Yeah. Today in our Happiness 2.0 series, we revisit a favorite episode from 2020. You can search for the episode or browse all episodes on our Archive Page. If you're studying a new language, you might discover these phrases not. It's not something that you typically go out trying to do intentionally. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #7: (Speaking foreign language). 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. Flight attendant Steven Slater slides from a plane after quitting. There's been a little bit of research from economists actually looking at this. They can be small differences but important in other ways. Hidden Brain Host Explains Why We Lie to Ourselves Every Day 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. If you're bilingual or multilingual, you may have noticed that different languages make you stretch in different ways. And as soon as I saw that happen, I thought, oh, this makes it so much easier. And they asked me all kinds of questions about them. A brief history of relationship research in social psychology, by Harry T. Reis, in Handbook of the History of Social Psychology, 2011. Many of us believe that hard work and persistence are the key to achieving our goals. And then he would take a Polaroid of the kid and say, well, this is you. He says that buying into false beliefs, in other words, deluding ourselves can . And you can just - it rolls off the tongue, and you can just throw it out. 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. And so somebody says something literally, somebody takes a point literally. to describe the world. 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. And why do some social movements take off and spread, while others fizzle? Imagine how we would sound to them if they could hear us. But can you imagine someone without imagining their gender? GEACONE-CRUZ: It describes this feeling so perfectly in such a wonderfully packaged, encapsulated way. 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. So that, again, is a huge difference. We can't help, as literate people, thinking that the real language is something that sits still with letters written all nice and pretty on a page that can exist for hundreds of years, but that's not what language has ever been. MCWHORTER: No, because LOL was an expression; it was a piece of language, and so you knew that its meaning was going to change. So there are some differences that are as big as you can possibly measure. It seems kind of elliptical, like, would it be possible that I obtained? And if you don't have a word for exactly seven, it actually becomes very, very hard to keep track of exactly seven. And so language changed just like the clouds in the sky. This week, in the fourth and final installment of our Happiness 2.0 series, psychologist Dacher 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. 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. But I find that people now usually use the word to mean very soon, as in we're going to board the plane momentarily. All episodes of Hidden Brain - Chartable Hidden Brain Episodes Happiness 2.0: The Reset Button Many of us rush through our lives, chasing goals and just trying to get everything done. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #8: (Speaking Italian). It's natural to want to run away from difficult emotions such as grief, anger and fear. VEDANTAM: As someone who spends a lot of his time listening to language evolve, John hears a lot of slang. Today in our Happiness 2.0 series, we revisit a favorite episode from 2020. But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy thats all around us. Decoding Emotions - Transcripts We'd say, oh, well, we don't have magnets in our beaks or in our scales or whatever. 437 Episodes Produced by Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam Website. LERA BORODITSKY: The categorization that language provides to you becomes real - becomes psychologically real. Happiness 2.0: The Reset Button. They're more likely to say, well, it's a formal property of the language. GEACONE-CRUZ: It's a Sunday afternoon, and it's raining outside. Follow on Apple, Google or Spotify. VEDANTAM: So I want to talk about a debate that's raged in your field for many years. 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. podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9rd1djMGxoZg==, open.spotify.com/show/20Gf4IAauFrfj7RBkjcWxh. And one day, I was walking along, and I was just staring at the ground. Lots of languages make a distinction between things that are accidents and things that are intentional actions.