You know, endings are going to tend to drop off. 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. MCWHORTER: No, because LOL was an expression; it was a piece of language, and so you knew that its meaning was going to change. JERRY SEINFELD: (As Jerry Seinfeld) The second button literally makes or breaks the shirt. That hadn't started then. 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).". This week, we kick off a month-long series we're calling Happiness 2.0. Hidden Brain - KQED | News, Radio, Podcasts, TV So I think that nobody would say that they don't think language should change. 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. 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. In The Air We Breathe . 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? 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. Are the spoken origins of language one reason that words so often seem to be on the move? What do you think the implications are - if you buy the idea that languages are a very specific and unique way of seeing the world, of perceiving reality, what are the implications of so many languages disappearing during our time? Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships. You're also not going to do algebra. GEACONE-CRUZ: It's a Sunday afternoon, and it's raining outside. JENNIFER GEACONE-CRUZ: My name is Jennifer Geacone-Cruz. He says that buying into false beliefs, in other words, deluding ourselves can . And to arrive in a new place where you can't tell a joke and can't express an idea - oh, it's just really painful because you feel like your whole self is hiding inside and no one can see it. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. How To Breathe Correctly For Optimal Health, Mood, Learning Something new will have started by then, just like if we listen to people in 1971, they sound odd in that they don't say like as much as we do. MCWHORTER: Yes, Shankar, that's exactly it. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) If you're so upset about it, maybe you can think of a way to help her. You can find the transcript for most episodes of Hidden Brain on our website. 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. I think language can certainly be a contributor into the complex system of our thinking about gender. 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. But I understand that in Spanish, this would come out quite differently. Hidden Brain Host Explains Why We Lie to Ourselves Every Day Researcher Elizabeth Dunn helps us map out the unexpected ways we can find joy and happiness in our everyday lives. And so somebody will say, well, who was it who you thought was going to give you this present? It takes, 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. VEDANTAM: I understand there's been some work looking at children and that children who speak certain languages are actually quicker to identify gender and their own gender than children who are learning other languages in other cultures. We convince a colleague to take a different tactic at work. How does that sound now? 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. 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. Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Dont Know, by Adam Grant, 2021. It goes in this pile. All of these are very subjective things. 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. VEDANTAM: Time is another concept that is also central to the way we see and describe the world. 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. Many of us believe that hard work and persistence are the key to achieving our goals. 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. Thank you for helping to keep the podcast database up to date. This week, we continue our look at the science of influence with psychologist Robert Cialdini, and explore how th, We all exert pressure on each other in ways small and profound. Sometimes, life can feel like being stuck on a treadmill. 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. But she told me a story about a conversation she had with a native speaker of Indonesian. 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. Purpose can also boost our health and longevity. You know, we spend years teaching children about how to use language correctly. I want everybody to have the fun I'm having. 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 has to do with the word momentarily. This is HIDDEN BRAIN. Many of us rush through our days, weeks, and lives, chasing goals, and just trying to get everything done. As you're going about your day, you likely interact with family, friends and coworkers. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #3: (Speaking foreign language). MCWHORTER: Thank you for having me, Shankar. You can search for the episode or browse all episodes on our Archive Page. And so he suggested it might be the case that the arbitrarily assigned grammatical genders are actually changing the way people think about these days of the week and maybe all kinds of other things that are named by nouns. And so language changed just like the clouds in the sky. And so, for example, can I get a hamburger? Mistakes and errors are what turned Latin into French. BORODITSKY: Well, there may not be a word for left to refer to a left leg. Whats going on here? 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. Now I can stay oriented. Which I think is probably important with the reality that this edifice that you're teaching is constantly crumbling. 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. It's natural to want to run away from difficult emotions such as grief, anger and fear. Sociologist Lisa Wade believes the pervasive hookup culture on campuses today is different from that faced by previous generations. MCWHORTER: Yeah, I really do. The fact is that language change can always go in one of many directions, there's a chance element to it. But things can be important not just because they're big. 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. Parents and peers influence our major life choices. Languages are not just tools to describe the world. Our transcripts are provided by various partners and may contain errors or deviate slightly from the audio. 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. Many of us rush through our days, weeks, and lives, chasing goals, and just trying to get everything done. 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. And he started by asking Russian-speaking students to personify days of the week. For more on decision-making, check out our episode on how to make wiser choices. I'm Shankar Vedantam, and you're listening to HIDDEN BRAIN. And then if you are going to be that elliptical, why use the casual word get? 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. We call this language Gumbuzi. native tongue without even thinking about it. VEDANTAM: Lera now tries to understand languages spoken all over the world. He's a defender of language on the move, but I wanted to know if there were things that irritated even him. My big fat greek wedding, an american woman of greek ancestry falls in love with a very vanilla, american man. And we looked at every personification and allegory in Artstor and asked, does the language that you speak matter for how you paint death, depending on whether the word death is masculine or feminine in your language? It's natural to want to run away from difficult emotions such as grief, anger and fear. But as Bob Cialdini set out to discover the keys to influence and persuasion, he decided to follow the instincts of his childhood. Just saying hello was difficult. VEDANTAM: There are phrases in every language that are deeply evocative and often untranslatable. Purpose can also boost our health and longevity. If you still cant find the episode, try looking through our most recent shows on our homepage. 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. 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? You can run experiments in a lab or survey people on the street. So for example, if Sam grabbed a hammer and struck the flute in anger, that would be one description, like, Sam broke the flute. And they suggest that differences across languages do, in fact, predict some of these measures of gender equality across countries. BORODITSKY: Actually, one of the first people to notice or suggest that this might be the case was a Russian linguist, Roman Jakobson. They give us a sense that the meanings of words are fixed, when in fact they're not. MCWHORTER: You could have fun doing such a thing. VEDANTAM: (Laughter) All right, I think it might be time for me to confess one of my pet peeves. Subscribe to the Hidden Brain Podcast on your favorite podcast player so you never miss an episode. And so I set myself the goal that I would learn English in a year, and I wouldn't speak Russian to anyone for that whole first year. Hidden Brain Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships. What techniques did that person use to persuade you? Or feel like you and your spouse sometimes speak different languages? A brief history of relationship research in social psychology, by Harry T. Reis, in Handbook of the History of Social Psychology, 2011. 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. We recommend movies or books to a friend. You can't smell or taste time. But what happens when these feelings catch up with us? In English, actually, quite weirdly, we can even say things like, I broke my arm. But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy thats all around us. We talk with psychologist Iris Mauss, who explains why happiness can seem more elusive the harder we chase it, and what we can do instead to build a lasting sense of contentment. And then he would take a Polaroid of the kid and say, well, this is you. 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. VEDANTAM: Languages seem to have different ways of communicating agency. 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). Newsletter: 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. We'll also look at how languages evolve, and why we're sometimes resistant to those changes. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #9: (Speaking German). 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. Young people have always used language in new and different ways, and it's pretty much always driven older people crazy. Shankar Vedantam, host of the popular podcast "Hidden Brain" has been reporting on human behavior for decades. If you're studying a new language, you might discover these phrases not in your textbooks but when you're hanging out with friends. But somehow they've managed, not just by randomly bumping into each other. Hidden Brain : NPR But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy that's all around us. All episodes of Hidden Brain - Chartable But what happens when these feelings catch up with us? Sometimes, life can feel like being stuck on a treadmill. Hidden Brain (podcast) - Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam - Listen Notes Reframing Your Reality: Part 1 | Hidden Brain Media 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? Special thanks to Adam Cole, who wrote and performed our rendition of "The Hokey Pokey." 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? 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. VEDANTAM: Still don't have a clear picture? 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. 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. MCWHORTER: Exactly. Lera, thank you so much for joining me on HIDDEN BRAIN today. This week on Hidden Brain, psychologist Adam Grant describes the magic th You know, there's no left leg or right leg. VEDANTAM: Lera Boroditsky is a cognitive science professor at the University of California, San Diego. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Who Do You Want To Be? - Hidden Brain (pdcast) | Listen Notes 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 turns out humans can stay oriented really, really well, provided that their language and culture requires them to keep track of this information. Those are quirks of grammar literally in stone. BORODITSKY: Yeah. How to Really Know Another Person - Transcripts If a transcript is available, youll see a Transcript button which expands to reveal the full transcript. I'm Shankar Vedanta. Persuasion: Part 1 - Transcripts But is that true when it comes to the pursuit of happiness? 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 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 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. VEDANTAM: If you're bilingual or you're learning a new language, you get what Jennifer, experienced - the joy of discovering a phrase that helps you perfectly encapsulate a. feeling or an experience. 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. MCWHORTER: Yeah. So in English, I might say that Sam (ph) broke the flute. But might we allow that there's probably a part of all human beings that wants to look down on somebody else. Podcasters use the RadioPublic listener relationship platform to build lasting connections with fans. Happiness 2.0: The Only Way Out Is Through. That's the way words are, too. You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around. You're not going to do trigonometry. Many of us believe that hard work and persistence are the key to achieving our goals. Today in our Happiness 2.0 series, we revisit a favorite episode from 2020. 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. You would give a different description to mark that it was not intentional. I had this cool experience when I was there. 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. John, you've noted that humans have been using language for a very long time, but for most of that time language has been about talking. But can you imagine someone without imagining their gender? (LAUGHTER) VEDANTAM: In the English-speaking world, she goes by Lera Boroditsky. And after listening to you, I realize I might have to finally give in. It's exactly how old English turned into modern English. But the reason that it seems so elusive is because we don't really think about the, quote, unquote, "meaning" of things like our conversation-easing laughter. They shape our place in it. Stay with us. 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. Hidden Brain: You, But Better on Apple Podcasts 50 min You, But Better Hidden Brain Social Sciences Think about the resolutions you made this year: to quit smoking, eat better, or get more exercise. And it really is an illusion that what language is, is something that sits still. Imagine how we would sound to them if they could hear us. How come you aren't exactly the way you were 10 years ago? They can be small differences but important in other ways. And, of course, you always have to wonder, well, could it be that speakers of these different languages are actually seeing different kinds of bridges? Transcript Speaker 1 00:00:00 this is hidden brain. BORODITSKY: I had this wonderful opportunity to work with my colleague Alice Gaby in this community called Pormpuraaw in - on Cape York. VEDANTAM: So I want to talk about a debate that's raged in your field for many years. edit transcripts, Improve the presence of your podcasts, e.g., self-service, If you share your Listen Notes page and at-mention. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Speaking foreign language). Copyright 2018 NPR. For example, if you take seeds and put them in the ground, that's one thing. Newer episodes are unlikely to have a transcript as it takes us a few weeks to process and edit each transcript. And one day, I was walking along, and I was just staring at the ground. What Do You Do When Things Go Right? In this favorite episode from 2021, Cornell University psychologist Anthony Burrow explains why purpose isnt something to be found its something we can develop from within. 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. So LOL starts out as meaning hardy-har-har (ph), but then it becomes something more abstract. Follow on Apple, Google or Spotify. The categorization that language provides to you becomes real, becomes psychologically real. I think that the tone that many people use when they're complaining that somebody says Billy and me went to the store is a little bit incommensurate with the significance of the issue. Many of us rush through our lives, chasing goals and just trying to get everything done. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) I'm willing to get involved. Thank you! But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy that's all around us. But time doesn't have to flow with respect to the body. But I find that people now usually use the word to mean very soon, as in we're going to board the plane momentarily. 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. Who Do You Want To Be? | Hidden Brain Media 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. Flight attendant Steven Slater slides from a plane after quitting. podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9rd1djMGxoZg==, open.spotify.com/show/20Gf4IAauFrfj7RBkjcWxh. 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. If you're just joining us, I'm talking to John McWhorter. So if the word for death was masculine in your language, you were likely to paint death as a man. Evaluating Changes in Motivation, Values, and Well-being, by Kennon M. Sheldon and Lawrence S. Krieger, Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 2004. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #7: (Speaking foreign language). 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 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. It's too high. 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. Today in our Happiness 2.0 series, we revisit a favorite episode from 2020. (Speaking Japanese). Personal Strivings: An Approach to Personality and Subjective Well-being, by Robert A. Emmons, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1986. Take the word bridge - if it's feminine in your language, you're more likely to say that bridges are beautiful and elegant. 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. 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. And you say that dictionaries in some ways paint an unrealistic portrait of a language. I said, you know, this weird thing happened. VEDANTAM: As someone who spends a lot of his time listening to language evolve, John hears a lot of slang. For more of our Relationships 2.0 series, check out one of our most popular episodes ever about why marriages are so hard. So - but if I understand correctly, I would be completely at sea if I visited this aboriginal community in Australia because I have often absolutely no idea where I am or where I'm going. We also look at how. There was no such thing as looking up what it originally meant. This week, a story about a con with a twist. But is that true when it comes to the pursuit of happiness? 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. In The Air We Breathe : NPR If you, grew up speaking a language other than English, you probably reach for words in your. Those sorts things tend to start with women. 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. Imagine this. And a girl goes in this pile.



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