It's just how I feel. How else would you do it? I think it's a really fascinating question for future research. This is NPR. 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. All rights reserved. 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. And to our surprise, 78 percent of the time, we could predict the gender of the personification based on the grammatical gender of the noun in the artist's native language. But if I give that same story to a Hebrew or an Arabic speaker, they would organize it from right to left. And one thing that we've noticed is that around the world, people rely on space to organize time. 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. Our team includes Laura Kwerel, Adhiti Bandlamudi and our supervising producer Tara Boyle. Imagine this. I know-uh (ph) is there, or something along the lines of babe-uh (ph). UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Speaking foreign language). 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. Course Hero is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university. 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. No matter how hard you try to feel happier, you end up back where you started. 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). And maybe the convenience store or the shop is really not that far away. If a transcript is available, you'll see a Transcript button which expands to reveal the full transcript. But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy that's all around us. Accuracy and availability may vary. You can find all Hidden Brain episodes on our website. That kind of detail may not appear. Perceived Partner Responsiveness Minimizes Defensive Reactions to Failure, by Peter A. Caprariello and Harry T. Reis, Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2011. And so somebody says something literally, somebody takes a point literally. The transcript below may be for an earlier version of this episode. They're more likely to see through this little game that language has played on them. You're not going to do any of the things that are seen as a foundation of our technological society. MCWHORTER: Exactly. 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. And so what that means is if someone was sitting facing south, they would lay out the story from left to right. The fun example I give my students is imagine playing the hokey pokey in a language like this. Many of us believe that hard work and persistence are the key to achieving our goals. 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. 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. But does a person who says that really deserve the kind of sneering condemnation that you often see? He. 00:51:58 - We all have to make certain choices in life, such as where to live and how to earn a living. It's natural to want to run away from difficult emotions such as grief, anger and fear. . 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. Researcher Elizabeth Dunn helps us map out the unexpected ways we can find joy and happiness in our everyday lives. And so even though I insist that there is no scientific basis for rejecting some new word or some new meaning or some new construction, I certainly have my visceral biases. 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. VEDANTAM: If you have teenagers or work closely with young people, chances are you'll be mystified by their conversations or even annoyed. 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. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #9: (Speaking German). Sometimes, life can feel like being stuck on a treadmill. So in English, I might say that Sam (ph) broke the flute. But it's so hard to feel that partly because our brains are on writing, as I say in the book. 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. Flight attendant Steven Slater slides from a plane after quitting. We all have to make certain choices in life, such as where to live and how to earn a living. And you say that dictionaries in some ways paint an unrealistic portrait of a language. If you still cant find the episode, try looking through our most recent shows on our homepage. This week, a story about a con with a twist. Today in our Happiness 2.0 series, we revisit a favorite episode from 2020. Our transcripts are provided by various partners and may contain errors or deviate slightly from the audio. 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. 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. This week on Hidden Brain, we revisit a favorite episode exploring what this culture means Jesse always wanted to fall in love. edit transcripts, Improve the presence of your podcasts, e.g., self-service, If you share your Listen Notes page and at-mention. Today, we explore the many facets of this idea. In this week's My Unsung Hero, Sarah Feldman thanks someone for their gift more than 20 years ago. If you're bilingual or multilingual, you may have noticed that different languages make you stretch in different ways. (SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "PARKS AND RECREATION"). Physicist Richard Feynman once said, "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool." One way we fool ourselves is by imagining we know more than we do; we think we are experts. The only question was in which way. I'm Shankar Vedantam. It's never happened. Everyone wants to be loved and appreciated. 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. But if they were sitting facing north, they would lay out the story from right to left. It Takes Two: The Interpersonal Nature of Empathic Accuracy, by Jamil Zaki, Niall Bolger, Kevin Ochsner, Psychological Science, 2008. Lera is a cognitive science professor at the University of California, San Diego. But what happens when these feelings catch up with us? Languages are not just tools. The phrase brings an entire world with it - its context, its flavor, its culture. So these speakers have internalized this idea from their language, and they believe that it's right. It is the very fabric, the very core of your experience. So act like Monday. 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. VEDANTAM: Time is another concept that is also central to the way we see and describe the world. And if it was feminine, then you're likely to paint death as a woman. I'm Shankar Vedantam. Researcher Elizabeth Dunn helps us map out Having a sense of purpose can be a buffer against the challenges we all face at various stages of life. But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy that's all around us. But, you know, John, something gnaws at me every time I hear the word used wrong. But if you prefer life - the unpredictability of life - then living language in many ways are much more fun. You can't touch time. Hidden Brain Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam Science 4.6 36K Ratings; Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships. You have to do it in order to fit into the culture and to speak the language. And what he found was kids who were learning Hebrew - this is a language that has a lot of gender loading in it - figured out whether they were a boy or a girl about a year sooner than kids learning Finnish, which doesn't have a lot of gender marking in the language. Lots of languages make a distinction between things that are accidents and things that are intentional actions. 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? The phrase brings an entire world with it - its context, its flavor, its culture. But things can be important not just because they're big. 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. But what if there's a whole category of people in your life whose impact is overlooked? UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #10: (Speaking Russian). That's what it's all about. If you are able, we strongly encourage you to listen to the audio, which includes emotion and emphasis that's not on the page. Each generation hears things and interprets things slightly differently from the previous one. So you might say, there's an ant on your northwest leg. BORODITSKY: And when they were trying to act like Wednesday, they would act like a woman BORODITSKY: Which accords with grammatical gender in Russian. 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. VEDANTAM: There are phrases in every language that are deeply evocative and often untranslatable. Many of us rush through our days, weeks, and lives, chasing goals, and just trying to get everything done. I'm . podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9rd1djMGxoZg==, open.spotify.com/show/20Gf4IAauFrfj7RBkjcWxh. What a cynical thing to say, but that doesn't mean that it might not be true. The Effects of Conflict Types, Dimensions, and Emergent States on Group Outcomes, by Karen Jehn et. And it sounds a little bit abrupt and grabby like you're going to get something instead of being given. 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. al, Group Decision and Negotiation, 2008. But I think that we should learn not to listen to people using natural language as committing errors because there's no such thing as making a mistake in your language if a critical mass of other people speaking your language are doing the same thing. 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. 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. Long before she began researching languages as a professor, foreign languages loomed large in her life. 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. (Speaking Japanese). BORODITSKY: Yeah. Copyright Hidden Brain Media | Privacy Policy, Read the latest from the Hidden Brain Newsletter. But what if it's not even about lust? If you prefer to listen through a podcast app, here are links to our podcast on Apple, Spotify, and Stitcher. But it is a completely crucial part of the human experience. In a lot of languages, there isn't. And dead languages never change, and some of us might prefer those. 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. 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. Stay with us. For example, he might take a bunch of pictures of boys and girls and sort them and say, OK, this is a boy. Podcasters use the RadioPublic listener relationship platform to build lasting connections with fans. : A Data-Driven Prescription to Redefine Professional Success, by Lawrence S. Krieger and Kennon M. Sheldon, George Washington Law Review, 2015. I just don't want to do it. UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (Speaking foreign language). 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. Many of us believe that hard work and persistence are the key to achieving our goals. And in fact, speakers of languages like this have been shown to orient extremely well - much better than we used to think humans could. MCWHORTER: Yeah, I really do. 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. Shankar Vedantam: This is Hidden Brain. VEDANTAM: For more HIDDEN BRAIN, you can find us on Facebook and Twitter. But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy that's all around us. You also see huge differences in other domains like number. And a girl goes in this pile. GEACONE-CRUZ: And you're at home in your pajamas, all nice and cuddly and maybe, watching Netflix or something. Welcome to HIDDEN BRAIN. And I would really guess that in a few decades men will be doing it, too. And after listening to you, I realize I might have to finally give in.