Long before she began researching languages as a professor, foreign languages loomed large in her life. Copyright 2018 NPR. And maybe the convenience store or the shop is really not that far away. 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. VEDANTAM: Languages orient us to the world. That's how much cultural heritage is lost. This takes kids a little while to figure out, and he had all kinds of clever ways to ask these questions. 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. edit transcripts, Improve the presence of your podcasts, e.g., self-service, If you share your Listen Notes page and at-mention. 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. Hidden Brain Feb 23, 2023 Happiness 2.0: Surprising Sources of Joy Sometimes, life can feel like being stuck on a treadmill. Follow on Apple, Google or Spotify. You can also connect directly with our sponsorship representative by emailing [emailprotected]. ), The Sourcebook of Listening Research: Methodology and Measures, 2018. Interpersonal Chemistry: What Is It, How Does It Emerge, and How Does it Operate? If you're studying a new language, you might discover these phrases not in your textbooks but when you're hanging out with friends. So the question for us has been, how do we build these ideas? Now I can stay oriented. 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. 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. Many of us believe that hard work and persistence are the key to achieving our goals. VEDANTAM: Languages seem to have different ways of communicating agency. 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. This is a database with millions of art images. 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. I had this cool experience when I was there. 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 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. 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. VEDANTAM: My guest today is - well, why don't I let her introduce herself? No matter how hard you try to feel happier, you end up back where you started. And dead languages never change, and some of us might prefer those. Our team includes Laura Kwerel, Adhiti Bandlamudi and our supervising producer Tara Boyle. 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 Everyone wants to be loved and appreciated. I've always found that a very grating way to ask for something at a store. In this favorite 2021 episode, psychologistAdam Grantpushes back against the benefits of certainty, and describes the magic that unfolds when we challenge our own deeply-held beliefs. And as soon as I saw that happen, I thought, oh, this makes it so much easier. Subscribe: iOS | Android | Spotify | RSS | Amazon | Stitcher Latest Episodes: Happiness 2.0: The Reset Button I'm Shankar Vedantam, and you're listening to HIDDEN BRAIN. There was no such thing as looking up what it originally meant. But is that true when it comes to the pursuit of happiness? 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. I think language can certainly be a contributor into the complex system of our thinking about gender. There's a way of speaking right. 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. MCWHORTER: Those are called contronyms, and literally has become a new contronym. VEDANTAM: There are phrases in every language that are deeply evocative and often untranslatable. Our transcripts are provided by various partners and may contain errors or deviate slightly from the audio. 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. This week, in the second installment of our Happiness 2.0 series, psychologist Todd Kashdan looks at the relationship between distress and happiness, and ho, Many of us believe that hard work and persistence are the key to achieving our goals. 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. 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. Language was talk. The transcript below may be for an earlier version of this episode. 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. 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. The transcript below may be for an earlier version of this episode. 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). It can be almost counterintuitive to listen to how much giggling and laughing you do in ordinary - actually rather plain exchanges with people. Go behind the scenes, see what Shankar is reading and find more useful resources and links. It's inherent. - you would have to say something like, my arm got broken, or it so happened to me that my arm is broken. She once visited an aboriginal community in northern Australia and found the language they spoke forced her mind to work in new ways. And some people would say it's a lot more because it's, you know, irrecoverable and not reduplicated elsewhere. And, I mean, just in terms of even sounds changing and the way that you put words together changing bit by bit, and there's never been a language that didn't do that. Welcome to HIDDEN BRAIN. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Right. This week, a story about a con with a twist. Podcasters use the RadioPublic listener relationship platform to build lasting connections with fans. Lera, thank you so much for joining me on HIDDEN BRAIN today. 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. 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. We'll begin with police shootings of unarmed Black men. You can't know, but you can certainly know that if could listen to people 50 years from now, they'd sound odd. VEDANTAM: Many of us have dictionaries at home or at work, John. Our transcripts are provided by various partners and may contain errors or deviate slightly from the audio. And so language changed just like the clouds in the sky. Researcher Elizabeth Dunn helps us map out the unexpected ways we can find joy and happiness in our everyday lives. What Makes Lawyers Happy? But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy that's all around us. They are ways of seeing the world. In the United States, we often praise people with strong convictions, and look down on those who express doubt or hesitation. Having a sense of purpose can be a buffer against the challenges we all face at various stages of life. And there are consequences for how people think about events, what they notice when they see accidents. Bu You can run experiments in a lab or survey people on the street. Shankar Vedantam, host of the popular podcast "Hidden Brain" has been reporting on human behavior for decades. And it irritates people, but there's a different way of seeing literally. Does Legal Education Have Undermining Effects on Law Students? And so for example, if the word chair is masculine in your language, why is that? We'll be back momentarily. Hidden Brain. And the answer should be, north, northeast in the far distance; how about you? 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. But what happens when these feelings catch up with us? 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. Purpose can also boost our health and longevity. MCWHORTER: Language is a parade, and nobody sits at a parade wishing that everybody would stand still. So to give you a very quick wrap-up is that some effects are big, but even when effects aren't big, they can be interesting or important for other reasons - either because they are very broad or because they apply to things that we think are really important in our culture. Today in our Happiness 2.0 series, we revisit a favorite episode from 2020. And you can even teach people to have a little bit of fun with the artifice. Updated privacy policy: We have made some changes to our Privacy Policy. But what happens when these feelings catch up with us? BORODITSKY: Yeah. You couldn't have predicted this I know-uh move-uh (ph). 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).". 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. But actually, it's something that's not so hard to learn. Growing up, I understood this word to mean for a very short time, as in John McWhorter was momentarily surprised. Later things are on the right. Go behind the scenes, see what Shankar is reading and find more useful resources and links. native tongue without even thinking about it. You can find all Hidden Brain episodes on our website. I want everybody to have the fun I'm having. 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. VEDANTAM: So I want to talk about a debate that's raged in your field for many years. 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: 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. Which I think is probably important with the reality that this edifice that you're teaching is constantly crumbling. MCWHORTER: Yeah, I really do. Hidden Brain explores the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior and questions that lie at the heart of our complex and changing world. 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. 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. : The Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Benefits of Sharing Positive Events, Shelly. Many of us rush through our lives, chasing goals and just trying to get everything done. I just don't want to do it. 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. 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. And you say that dictionaries in some ways paint an unrealistic portrait of a language. Subscribe to the Hidden Brain Podcast on your favorite podcast player so you never miss an episode. And then he would take a Polaroid of the kid and say, well, this is you. How else would you do it? 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. 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. But, you know, John, something gnaws at me every time I hear the word used wrong. And maybe the convenience store or the shop is really not that far away. In the final episode of our "Mind Reading 2.0" series, we bring back one of our favorite conversations, with linguist Deborah Tannen. VEDANTAM: How the languages we speak shape the way we think and why the words we use are always in flux. Sometimes you just have to suck it up. But is that true when it comes to the pursuit of happiness? Today, we explore the many facets of this idea. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Speaking foreign language). Lera said there's still a lot of research to be done on this. So in English, I might say that Sam (ph) broke the flute. It's natural to want to run away from difficult emotions such as grief, anger and fear. VEDANTAM: Lera Boroditsky is a cognitive science professor at the University of California, San Diego. If you are able, we strongly encourage you to listen to the audio, which includes emotion and emphasis that's not on the page. We're speaking today with cognitive science professor Lera Boroditsky about language. 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. He. And one thing that we've noticed is that around the world, people rely on space to organize time. Course Hero is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university. 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.