Hidden Brain

just by luck I was helping my parents clean their basement in Cheshire, Connecticut and I stumbled upon an old course book of my sister's. It was called The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker.

It was called The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker.

It was remarkable for me to learn about just how complex our minds were and just what was required in order for us to have our day-to-day experiences.

And so it really whet my appetite for learning more about the mind and for exploring in more depth kind of the brilliance of the brain.

And just by luck, I was helping my parents clean their basement in Cheshire, Connecticut. And I stumbled upon an old course book of my sister's. It was called The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker.

If you read the back of your book, it explains how to be a tiger mother.

There's a long list of things you didn't allow your children to do.

They were never allowed to attend a sleepover, have a play date, be in a school play, complain about not being in a school play, watch TV or play computer games, choose their own extracurricular activities, get any grade less than an A, not be the number one student in every subject except gym and drama, play any instrument other than the piano or violin, not play the piano or violin.

Well, it sounds tongue in cheek to me, but it doesn't sound so extreme.

And you know, when I talk to a lot of immigrants or immigrants' kids, they find it hysterical. They know that it's poking fun a little bit, but it really captures some truth.

This could be revolutionary You have to change the way you think about parenting because Amy Chua ignited a firestorm by sharing the surprising details of her strict parenting methods in the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

Amy Chua ignited a firestorm by sharing the surprising details of her strict parenting methods in the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.

Amy Chua ignited a firestorm by sharing the surprising details of her strict parenting methods in the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.

Mom, Amy Chua ignited a firestorm by sharing the surprising details of her strict parenting methods in the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.

Amy Chua wrote a book called Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and at one point in the book she tells her older daughter that if her piano playing isn't perfect she is going to take her stuffed animals and burn them.

But I remember rationalizing it to myself as a modernday Pride and Prejudice.

For those who don't remember the plot of her book Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy, who has been promised in marriage to his wealthy cousin, falls instead for Elizabeth Bennet, a woman of modest means.

Mr. Darcy is engaged to my daughter. Now what have you to say?

Only this, if that is the case you can have no reason to suppose he would make an offer to me. You selfish girl!

This union has been planned since their infancy. Do you think it can be prevented by a young woman of inferior birth?

Heaven and earth are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted. Now tell me once and for all, are you engaged to him? I am not.

For those who don't remember the plot of her book Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy, who has been promised in marriage to his wealthy cousin, falls instead for Elizabeth Bennet, a woman of modest means.

For those who don't remember the plot of her book Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy who has been promised in marriage to his wealthy cousin falls instead for Elizabeth Bennett, a woman of modest means.

For those who don't remember the plot of her book Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy who has been promised in marriage to his wealthy cousin falls instead for Elizabeth Bennett, a woman of modest means.

In his book, Everybody Lies, Seth explains how big data from Google searches can predict with great accuracy things like the suicide rate in a community or the chances that a hate crime will take place.

We've shown that you can predict hate crimes against Muslims based on searches people make.

People make very, very, very disturbing searches, searches such as kill Muslims or I hate Muslims.

And these searches can predict on a given week how many hate crimes there will be against Muslims.

But I think the right approach to this is not to target any particular individual to show up at the door of any particular individual who make these searches.

In his book, Everybody Lies, Seth explains how big data from Google searches can predict with great accuracy things like the suicide rate in a community or the chances that a hate crime will take place.

We've shown that you can predict hate crimes against Muslims based on searches people make. People make very, very, very disturbing searches, searches such as kill Muslims or I hate Muslims. And these searches can predict on a given week how many hate crimes there will be against Muslims.

He used to be a data scientist at Google, and he's the author of the book Everybody Lies, Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are.

Seth Stevens-Davidowicz is a former Google data scientist and the author of Everybody Lies, Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are.

Seth Stevens-Davidowitz is a former data scientist at Google and the author of the book Everybody Lies, Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are.

We've shown that you can predict hate crimes against Muslims based on searches people make.

People make very, very, very disturbing searches. Searches such as kill Muslims or I hate Muslims and these searches can predict on a given week how many hate crimes there will be against Muslims.

But I think the right approach to this is not to target any particular individual to show up at the door of any particular individual who make these searches.

That's what you're really saying, that you're picking up on things that are in the ether, if you will, in the community that might not show up in the individual but are likely to show up in the aggregate.

Yeah, and I think you don't really know the reason that any particular person makes a search, right? Someone could be searching kill Muslims because they're doing research or they're just curious about something or they made a mistake in their typing.

He's the author of the book Everybody Lies, Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are.

Seth Stevens-Davidowitz is a former data scientist at Google and the author of the book Everybody Lies, Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are.

Richard Thaler is the author of Misbehaving, the Making of Behavioral Economics.

You can read more about these ideas in his book, Misbehaving, the Making of Behavioral Economics.

Richard Thaler is the author of Misbehaving, the Making of Behavioral Economics.

You can read more about these ideas in his book, Misbehaving, the Making of Behavioral Economics.

Richard Thaler's latest book is Misbehaving, the Story of Behavioral Economics.

His latest book is called Misbehaving, The Making of Behavioral Economics.

Richard Thaler's latest book is Misbehaving, the Story of Behavioral Economics.

His latest book is called Misbehaving, the Making of Behavioral Economics.

LOL, this is just like one of the examples from your book.

His latest book is called Misbehaving, The Making of Behavioral Economics.

That is the hot, cold empathy gap. Yeah. So when she was in the cold state, she didn't want any dessert. When she was staring the dessert in the face, you know, let me at it.

That was behavioral economist Richard Thaler. His latest book is called Misbehaving, the Making of Behavioral Economics.

I wrote about the test in my 2010 book, The Hidden Brain.

I wrote about the test in my 2010 book, The Hidden Brain.

In my book, The Hidden Brain, I described how these patterns shape decisions involving life and death on the upper floors of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

In my book, The Hidden Brain, I described how these patterns shape decisions involving life and death on the upper floors of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

I'm Shankar Vedantam. You may know me as NPR social science correspondent or the author of The Hidden Brain, a book about unconscious bias.

Your book is built around an analogy Parents behaving like gardeners Parents behaving like carpenters Unpack those analogies for me

Well if you look at the prevailing culture of parents and caregiving in the United States It's a picture that's a lot like the picture you might imagine if you thought about a carpenter Do the right things, get the right skills read the right books You're going to be able to shape your child into a particular kind of adult

And that picture is very different from the kind of picture that comes from the science The picture that comes from the science is much more like being a gardener

I think the science suggests that being a caregiver for human beings is much more like being a gardener than being a carpenter It's much more about providing a protected space in which unexpected things can happen and shaping a child to come out to be a particular kind of desirable adult

Alison Gopnik is a professor of psychology and philosophy at the University of California Berkeley. She's the author of several books about children's development and her most recent one is The Gardener and the Carpenter

In her book, The Gardener and the Carpenter, Alison looks at two approaches to being a parent and their consequences.

Your book is built around an analogy. Parents behaving like gardeners, parents behaving like carpenters.

Alison Gopnik is a professor of psychology and philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. She's the author of several books about children's development and her most recent one is The Gardener and the Carpenter.

Your book is built around an analogy. Parents behaving like gardeners, parents behaving like carpenters.

Well, if you look at the prevailing culture of parents and caregiving in the United States, even in Europe now, it's a picture that's a lot like the picture you might imagine if you thought about a carpenter.

And the idea is that if you just do the right things, get the right skills, read the right books, you're going to be able to shape your child into a particular kind of adult.

The picture that comes from the science is much more like being a gardener.

Alison Gopnik is a professor of psychology and philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. She's the author of several books about children's development, and her most recent one is The Gardener and the Carpenter.

Your book is built around an analogy, parents behaving like gardeners, parents behaving like carpenters.

Her most recent book, The Gardener and the Carpenter, explores the different ways parents can raise kids and the consequences of those choices.

I think intuitively parents feel that there's something that's crazy about having your teenagers staying up until 2 o'clock at night studying for their SATs and trying to get that little extra edge that's going to get them into the college as opposed to someone else.

And I think that's exactly right. And I think both those messages are there. And my experience in going around and talking about this book is

Alison Gopnik is a professor of psychology and philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. She's the author of several books about children's development, and her most recent one is The Gardener and the Carpenter.

one thing i would recommend to parents is uh is the book by ellison gopnik called The Gardener and the Carpenter

Johanna has helped me coordinate interviews that I've done about my new book, Useful Delusions.

Matt is my editor at Norton & Company, the publisher of my new book, Useful Delusions.

The idea that we explore today, how stories shape the way we see the world, is also a central theme of Useful Delusions.

One of my fellow panelists was Damon Santola. I so enjoyed hearing about his ideas that I reached out to him shortly afterwards and asked him about coming on Hidden Brain.

I have a new book out. It's called Useful Delusions and it looks at the paradox of self-deception.

You can find out more about how to make the paradox of self-deception work for you in my new book, Useful Delusions, The Power and Paradox of the Self-Deceiving Brain.

Can self-deception ever be a good thing? Can we better address the problems with delusional thinking by understanding the emotional defense mechanisms that trigger such beliefs?

These counterintuitive ideas are at the core of a new book I've written. It's called Useful Delusions, and it's available now for pre-order. You can learn more at hiddenbrain.org books.

For more Hidden Brain you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Again if you'd like to learn more about my new book Useful Delusions go to hiddenbrain.org books.

Thinking Fast and Slow

Danny Kahneman, whose famous book, Thinking Fast and Slow, also suggests that we are a house divided.

If you think about the dual processing tradition, of which Danny Kahneman and Amos Fersky are the most famous proponents, what you're getting there is an exact echo of this Buddhist or Platonic picture.

He's the author of the book Thinking Fast and Slow.

Some people read thinking fast and slow in the hope that reading it will improve their minds.

I wrote it and it didn't improve my mind.

Cal is the author of Deep Work, Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.

People who spend a larger proportion of their professional time concentrating intensely on a single high skill or high craft target tend to enjoy their work a lot more.

And there's a lot of different factors about why that might be true, but I ended by saying a deep life is a good life.

Cal Newport is the author of the book Deep Work Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.

I'm speaking to Cal Newport, a Georgetown University computer science professor who's the author of the book Deep Work.

Cal is the author of Deep Work, Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.

I ended up adding a chapter to the book that was not in the original proposal that was all about these findings I kept coming across and these stories I kept coming across about deep living also just being good living.

Cal Newport is a computer science professor at Georgetown University. He's the author of Deep Work, Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.

It's about how we can cultivate the ability to focus on work free of all distraction.

Cal is the author of Deep Work, Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.

I'm talking with Cal Newport. He's a computer science professor at Georgetown University and the author of Deep Work, Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.

Cal Newport is the author of the book Deep Work, Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.

I'm speaking to Cal Newport, a Georgetown University computer science professor who's the author of the book Deep Work.

Cal Newport is a computer science professor at Georgetown University, and he's talking about his book Deep Work, Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.

Cal is the author of Deep Work, Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.

I'm speaking to Cal Newport, a Georgetown University computer science professor who's the author of the book, Deep Work. It's about how we can cultivate the ability to focus on work free of all distraction.

Cal Newport is a computer science professor at Georgetown University. He's the author of Deep Work, Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.

If the world is less safe, which it really is not, statistically, but even if it was, don't we need our kids to be stronger and more capable to face what awaits them outside of our homes? If things are less safe out there, we need to be raising warriors, not fragile, weak pieces of veal who will be slaughtered by what the world brings to them.

If the world is less safe, which it really is not, statistically, but even if it was, don't we need our kids to be stronger and more capable to face what awaits them outside of our homes? If things are less safe out there, we need to be raising warriors, not fragile, weak pieces of veal who will be slaughtered by what the world brings to them.

If the world is less safe, which it really is not, statistically, but even if it was, don't we need our kids to be stronger and more capable to face what awaits them outside of our homes? If things are less safe out there, we need to be raising warriors, not fragile, weak pieces of veal who will be slaughtered by what the world brings to them.

If the world is less safe, which it really is not, statistically, but even if it was, don't we need our kids to be stronger and more capable to face what awaits them outside of our homes? If things are less safe out there, we need to be raising warriors, not fragile, weak pieces of veal who will be slaughtered by what the world brings to them.

He's the author of Messy, the power of disorder to transform our lives.

And the argument in my book is very often we're faced with the unplayable piano and actually we produce something great out of it.

You have a number of examples besides Keith Jarrett about how disruptions and inconveniences and surprises can sometimes have paradoxically good effects on us, even though we all try to avoid those disruptions.

I said he is a master of using chaos to his advantage.

He described his creative strategy as it's a little bit similar to being in an accident.

He's the author of Messy, the power of disorder to transform our lives.

And the argument in my book is very often we're faced with the unplayable piano and actually we produce something great out of it.

You have a number of examples besides Keith Jarrett about how disruptions and inconveniences and surprises can sometimes have paradoxically good effects on us, even though we all try to avoid those disruptions.

I deny leaking the book to Donald Trump.

However you're absolutely right there is a section in the book about Donald Trump's campaigning style that was written before he won the election and it was published before he won the election.

Tim Harford is the author of Messy, the Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives.

And the argument in my book is very often we're faced with the unplayable piano, and actually we produce something great out of it.

Now, your book came out only a few weeks ago but clearly he must have read an early draft. I deny leaking the book to Donald Trump.

I said he is a master of using chaos to his advantage.

So for all the children who are listening to this podcast I want to make clear that you're not saying that every time your parent tells you to clean up the room you should just say Tim Harford says I shouldn't.

He's the author of Messy, the Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives.

And the argument in my book is very often we're faced with the unplayable piano and actually we produce something great out of it.

You talk about commuters, for example, who suddenly have to find a new way to work or scientists who are working on so many projects that they are discombobulated because they don't know what they're working on.

In many of these cases you find that disorder and confusion could actually be helpful.

Well I have to say since writing the book I have stopped asking my children to clear up their room

The lesson one could learn in Auschwitz and in other concentration camps, in the final analysis was those who were oriented toward a meaning to be fulfilled by them in the future were most likely to survive.

And this has been confirmed afterwards by American Navy and Army psychiatrists in Japanese prisoner of war camps.

The orientation toward a future, toward a task, a personal task waiting for them to be fulfilled in their future or another person whom they were loving to be met again.

This was what was decisively upholding these people.

So, the orientation beyond oneself, you see, the question was not just survival, but there had to be a why of survival.

The book is about the experience that Viktor Frankl had in a concentration camp during the Second World War.

And specifically it was about his experience, how he was able to maintain a sense of control over his life despite the complete lack of control he had from an objective standpoint.

And one of the core lessons of that book is even when you have no control over your environment, you can still exert some degree of control over your reaction to the environment.

Especially in contexts where you feel like there's nothing you can do to make the situation better. Believing that well at least I can control my own reaction to the situation, I think gives you some degree of agency, right?

That allows you to both maintain an adequate level of well-being in the moment and also maintain some degree of hope to think that well, things are terrible now but at least there's a possibility for things to be better in the future.

The lesson one could learn in Auschwitz and in other concentration camps in the final analysis was those who were oriented toward a meaning to be fulfilled by them in the future were most likely to survive.

And this has been confirmed afterwards by American Navy and Army psychiatrists in Japanese prisoner of war camps.

The orientation toward a future, toward a task, a personal task waiting for them to be fulfilled in their future or another person whom they were loving to be met again.

This was what was decisively upholding these people.

So this, the orientation beyond oneself, the, you see, the question was not just survival, but there had to be a why of survival.

If we didn't need eight hours of sleep and we could survive on six, Mother Nature would have done away with 25% of our sleep time millions of years ago.

Because when you think about it, sleep is an idiotic thing to do.

Matthew Walker is a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California at Berkeley. He studies sleep, and he's the author of the book, Why We Sleep.

And I do hope you sleep well tonight.

I hope you have sweet dreams tonight.

If sleep does not provide a remarkable set of benefits, then it's the biggest mistake the evolutionary process has ever made.

Matthew Walker is a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California at Berkeley. He studies sleep and he's the author of the book, Why We Sleep.

Matthew Walker is a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California at Berkeley. He studies sleep and he's the author of the book, Why We Sleep.

You know, sleep is the Swiss Army knife of health.

You know, when sleep is deficient, there is sickness and disease. And when sleep is abundant, there is vitality and health.

Matthew Walker calls himself a sleep diplomat. He spent more than 20 years studying the topic, and he's written a book titled, Why We Sleep.

Coincidences are wonderful stories. I don't want to blow the stories in favor of the mathematics because, you know, I was hitting a nerve on coincidences.

It's called Fluke, The Math and Myth of Coincidence.

If you categorize these coincidences to, let's say, 10 different categories, that particular kind of coincidence, meeting an acquaintance or somebody you're familiar with, in a very strange place, I would say perhaps 80% of all the coincidences I've heard fall into that category.

Joseph Mazur, professor of mathematics and author of Fluke, The Math and Myth of Coincidence.

It's called Fluke, The Math and Myth of Coincidence.

If you categorize these coincidences as an acquaintance or somebody you're familiar with, in a very strange place, I would say perhaps 80% of all the coincidences I've heard fall into that category.

Coincidences are wonderful stories. I don't want to blow the stories in favor of the mathematics because, you know, I was hitting a nerve on coincidences.

It's called Fluke, The Math and Myth of Coincidence.

If you categorize these coincidences to, let's say, 10 different categories, that particular kind of coincidence, meeting an acquaintance or somebody you're familiar with, in a very strange place, I would say perhaps 80% of all the coincidences I've heard fall into that category.

Joseph Mazur, professor of mathematics and author of Fluke, the math and myth of coincidence.

Francesca Gino is a behavioral scientist at the Harvard Business School and author of Rebel Talent, Why it pays to break the rules at work and in life.

So I see too many leaders who focus so much on efficiency that curiosity shut down in people. And that's too bad because curiosity leads to all sorts of great results and great outcomes.

There's a tension that runs through much of the book, and the tension is the tension between expertise and experimentation.

Francesco Gino is a professor at Harvard Business School and the author of Rebel Talent, Why it Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life.

Her book about this quest is called Rebel Talent, Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life.

One of the things, again, the story reveals to me is this tension between expertise and experimentation.

So there's something that happens when you combine expertise with experimentation. That's where the magic is.

Francesco Gino is a professor at Harvard Business School and the author of Rebel Talent, Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life.

Her book about this quest is called Rebel Talent, Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life.

One of the things that makes this book so interesting, Francesca is that you've spent so much of your career exploring the pitfalls of breaking the rules...

but what the book hopefully teaches us or at least in looking at the story of these rebels what I've learned is that you might feel uncomfortable at first but really it does pay off.

Francesco Gino is a professor at Harvard Business School and the author of Rebel Talent, why it pays to break the rules at work and in life.

Daniel Gilbert is a psychology professor at Harvard University. He's the author of the book Stumbling on Happiness, and he's one of my favorite researchers in the world.

Daniel Gilbert is a psychology professor at Harvard University. He's the author of the book Stumbling on Happiness, and he's one of my favorite researchers in the world.

He's the author of the book Stumbling on Happiness and one of my favorite researchers in the world.

Ethan Cross is a psychologist at the University of Michigan. He's the author of the book Chatter, the voice in our head, why it matters and how to harness it.

Ethan Cross is a psychologist at the University of Michigan. He's the author of the book, Chatter, The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters and How to Harness It.

The book explores the different roles of the voices we hear inside our heads. The harsh judge, the fearful prognosticator, the repetitive ruminator.

Ethan Cross is a psychologist at the University of Michigan. He's the author of the book, Chatter, The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters and How to Harness It.

We started this conversation by having you tell me about your experience as a young undergrad at Penn, who was dealing with setbacks when you first got to college.

Ethan Cross, welcome to Hidden Brain.

He has studied the different roles of the voices we hear inside our heads. The harsh judge, the fearful prognosticator, the repetitive ruminator.

If our inner voice is consistently a source of anxiety or a driver of depression, why do we have an inner voice at all?

And I'd been interested in Buddhism and Hinduism for a long time. I read the Bhagavad Gita.

But when he wasn't doing all those things, he was reading Eastern philosophy and The Bhagavad Gita and meditating.

But when he wasn't doing all those things, he was reading Eastern philosophy and The Bhagavad Gita and meditating.

In the book that you wrote with Carol, Carol Tavares, Mistakes Were Made But Not By Me, you cite work looking at marriages, looking at how regardless of how marriages turn out, people tell stories that explain sort of why it is they've ended up the way they have.

The fascinating thing, I think, about the work that you and others have done is that it actually doesn't matter which course of life you choose. Cognitive dissonance is still probably going to be at play.

You have a happy marriage, you're going to tell yourself a story about why you have a happy marriage, but the same is true also if you have an unhappy marriage.

Yeah, it's true. But if you have a happy marriage, you don't need a story.

If you have an unhappy marriage, you need a story. You need a story as to why you're staying in it. You need a story as to why you're ending it. And chances are, the story is very self-enhancing.

Elliot and Carol are also the authors of a very fine book that explores the science of cognitive dissonance. It's called Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me.

It's called Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me.