al, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2004. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: (Speaking foreign language). 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. If you still cant find the episode, try looking through our most recent shows on our homepage. 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. MCWHORTER: Oh, yeah, I'm a human being. Which I think is probably important with the reality that this edifice that you're teaching is constantly crumbling. It seems kind of elliptical, like, would it be possible that I obtained? I just don't want to do it. In many languages, nouns are gendered. What a cynical thing to say, but that doesn't mean that it might not be true. 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. Why researchers should think real-world: A conceptual rationale, by Harry T. Reis, in Handbook of Research Methods for Studying Daily Life, 2012. For example, when we started talking about navigation, that's an example where a 5-year-old in a culture that uses words like north, south, east and west can point southeast without hesitation. Imagine you meet somebody, they're 39 and you take their picture. That kind of detail may not appear. The phrase brings an entire world with it - its context, its flavor, its culture. For more of our Relationships 2.0 series, check out one of our most popular episodes ever about why marriages are so hard. Let's start with the word literally. Lera said there's still a lot of research to be done on this. In this month's Radio Replay, we ask whether the structure of the languages we speak can change the way we see the world. 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. Lost In Translation- Hidden Brain Podcast Transcript .pdf So you can't see time. And as you point out, it's not just that people feel that a word is being misused. Hidden Brain: You 2.0: Cultivating Your Purpose on Apple Podcasts All episodes of Hidden Brain - Chartable Purpose can also boost our health and longevity. 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. 5.3 Misbehaving Hidden Brain NPR - HOURLY NEWS DONATE < Predictably There's a way of speaking right. 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 for example, if Sam grabbed a hammer and struck the flute in anger, that would be one description, like, Sam broke the flute. And so somebody will say, well, who was it who you thought was going to give you this present? al (Eds. "Most of the laughter we produce is purely . You know, we spend years teaching children about how to use language correctly. 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. You can't know, but you can certainly know that if could listen to people 50 years from now, they'd sound odd. And dead languages never change, and some of us might prefer those. Long before she began researching languages as a professor, foreign languages loomed large in her life. How do certain memes go viral? So maybe they're saying bridges are beautiful and elegant, not because they're grammatically feminine in the language, but because the bridges they have are, in fact, more beautiful and elegant. But is that true when it comes to the pursuit of happiness? When language was like that, of course it changed a lot - fast - because once you said it, it was gone. It's natural to want to run away from difficult emotions such as grief, anger and fear. I know-uh (ph) is there, or something along the lines of babe-uh (ph). I'm shankar Vedantam in the 2002 rom com. 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? 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. But they can also steer us in directions that leave us deeply unsatisfied. Everyone wants to be loved and appreciated. 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. 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. It's exactly how old English turned into modern English. The fact is that language change can always go in one of many directions, there's a chance element to it. The transcript below may be for an earlier version of this episode. I've always found that a very grating way to ask for something at a store. 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. It's natural to want to run away from difficult emotions such as grief, anger and fear. So it's mendokusai. VEDANTAM: John McWhorter, thank you so much for joining me on HIDDEN BRAIN today. 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. Hidden Brain (podcast) - Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam - Listen Notes VEDANTAM: This episode of HIDDEN BRAIN was produced by Rhaina Cohen, Maggie Penman and Thomas Lu with help from Renee Klahr, Jenny Schmidt, Parth Shah and Chloe Connelly. How else would you do it? VEDANTAM: If languages are shaped by the way people see the world, but they also shape how people see the world, what does this mean for people who are bilingual? Interpersonal Chemistry: What Is It, How Does It Emerge, and How Does it Operate? BORODITSKY: Thank you so much for having me. And what he noticed was that when people were trying to act like Monday, they would act like a man. And if they were facing east, they would make the cards come toward them, toward the body. Sociologist Lisa Wade believes the pervasive hookup culture on campuses today is different from that faced by previous generations. Just saying hello was difficult. That's the way words are, too. 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. 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. Now, many people hear that and they think, well, that's no good because now literally can mean its opposite. It Takes Two: The Interpersonal Nature of Empathic Accuracy, by Jamil Zaki, Niall Bolger, Kevin Ochsner, Psychological Science, 2008. You can't smell or taste time. And so I was trying to keep track of which way is which. VEDANTAM: Well, that's kind of you, Lera. 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 Because it was. Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships. Young people have always used language in new and different ways, and it's pretty much always driven older people crazy. 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. Hidden Brain. That said, if you hear one or two pieces of music that you really love, feel free to email us at [emailprotected] and well do our best to respond to your request. In the second episode of our "Relationships 2.0" series, psychologist Do you ever struggle to communicate with your mom? 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. Well, that's an incredibly large set of things, so that's a very broad effect of language. Decoding Emotions - Transcripts And I was telling this person about someone I knew back in America. Purpose can also boost our health and longevity. GEACONE-CRUZ: It describes this feeling so perfectly in such a wonderfully packaged, encapsulated way. Many of us believe that hard work and persistence are the key to achieving our goals. And one thing that we've noticed is that around the world, people rely on space to organize time. The Effects of Conflict Types, Dimensions, and Emergent States on Group Outcomes, by Karen Jehn et. 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. But that can blind us to a very simple source of joy thats all around us. Who Do You Want To Be? - Hidden Brain (pdcast) | Listen Notes MCWHORTER: Those are called contronyms, and literally has become a new contronym. And they said, well, of course. MCWHORTER: You could have fun doing such a thing. * Data source: directly measured on Listen Notes. But what if it's not even about lust? 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. As you're going about your day, you likely interact with family, friends and coworkers. Purpose can also boost our health and longevity. That hadn't started then. So the question for us has been, how do we build these ideas? But is that true when it comes to the pursuit of happiness? 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. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: (Speaking foreign language). Imagine this. You would never know, for example, that - give you an example I've actually been thinking about. Time now for "My Unsung Hero," our series from the team at Hidden Brain telling the stories of . If you prefer to listen through a podcast app, here are links to our podcast on Apple, Spotify, and Stitcher. Maybe they like the same kinds of food, or enjoy the same hobbies.