If you've ever flown in economy class on a plane, you probably had to walk through the first class cabin to get to your seat. Maybe you noticed the extra leg room. The freshly-poured champagne. Maybe you were annoyed, or envious. Social psychologist Keith Payne says we tend to compare ourselves with those who have more than us, but rarely with those who have less. This week, we explore the psychology of income inequality, and how perceptions of our own wealth shape our lives.
Apr 22, 2019•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast The desire to find our tribe is universal. We like to know who we are and where we belong. This fascination has led to a thriving industry built on the marketing and sale of personality tests. These tests offer individuals – and, increasingly, employers – quick and easy insights that can be used to make some of life's biggest decisions. But most fail to stand up to scientific scrutiny. This week, we revisit our 2017 episode about the world of personality testing, and explore the many different w...
Apr 15, 2019•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast For generations, living openly as a gay person in the United States was difficult, and often dangerous. But there's been a dramatic change in public attitudes toward gay people. This week, we explore one of the most striking transformations of public attitude ever recorded. And we consider whether the strategies used by gay rights activists hold lessons for other groups seeking change.
Apr 08, 2019•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Chaos is a part of all of our lives. Sometimes we try to control it. And other times, we just have to live with it. On this week's Hidden Brain , we bring you two of our favorite stories about coping with chaos. They come from our 2016 episodes "Panic in the Streets" and "Embrace the Chaos."
Apr 01, 2019•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Twin studies aren't just for twins. They're a paradigm for all of us, a way to explore an old question: how much are we shaped by our genes, and how much by our environment?
Mar 25, 2019•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast All social classes have unspoken rules. From A-list celebrities to teachers, doctors, lawyers, and journalists — there are social norms that govern us, whether we realize it or not. This week on Hidden Brain, we look celebrity culture, as well as another elite group: the yoga-loving, Whole Foods-shopping, highly-educated people whom one researcher calls the new "aspirational class." This episode is from December 2017.
Mar 18, 2019•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast From stone statues to silicone works of art, we have long sought solace and sex from inanimate objects. Time and technology have perfected the artificial lover: today we have life-size silicone love dolls so finely crafted they feel like works of art. Now, with the help of robotics and artificial intelligence, these dolls are becoming even more like humans. This week we talk with researcher Kate Devlin about the history of the artificial lover, and consider what love and sex look like in the age...
Mar 11, 2019•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast You own your body. So should you be able to sell parts of it? This week, we explore the concept of "repugnant transactions" with the man who coined the term, Nobel Prize- winning economist Al Roth. He says repugnant transactions can range from selling organs to poorly-planned gift exchanges — and what's repugnant in one place and time is often not repugnant in another.
Mar 04, 2019•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Annie Duke was about to win $2 million. It was 2004, and she was at the final hand of the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions. But as a woman at a table full of men, she wasn't sure she deserved to be there. In this week's Radio Replay, we tell the stories of two people who grappled with gender stereotypes on the job. Annie Duke shares her experiencing at the World Series of Poker, and then we hear the story of Robert Vaughan, a former Navy sailor who decided to pursue a new career as ...
Mar 01, 2019•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our modern world is saturated with awards. From elementary school classrooms to Hollywood to the hallways of academia, there's no shortage of prizes. But — do they work?
Feb 25, 2019•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast The eugenicists were utopians, convinced that they were doing hard but necessary things. And that included making decisions about who could have children.
Feb 18, 2019•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today, more and more of us are living through the people on our screens and in our headphones. It's not real, but for many of us, it's close enough.
Feb 11, 2019•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, we search for the answer to a deceptively simple question: why is the brain divided? Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist explains why popular distinctions between the "left brain" and "right brain" aren't supported by research. He argues that one hemisphere has come to shape Western society — to our detriment. For more information about this episode, please visit https://n.pr/2SxITco
Feb 04, 2019•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast What happens when we connect with people whose view of the world is very different from our own? We look at the links between diversity, conflict, and creativity.
Feb 01, 2019•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast All of us think back to turning points in our lives, and imagine how things could have unfolded differently. Why do we so often ask ourselves, "What if?"
Jan 28, 2019•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast We like to think that science evolves in a way that is...rational. But this isn't always the case. This week, we look at how information and misinformation spread in science.
Jan 21, 2019•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, a scientific look at what makes us laugh. Here's a hint — a lot of it isn't funny. We talk to neuroscientist (and stand up comedian) Sophie Scott.
Jan 14, 2019•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2009, an old man died in a California nursing home. His obituary included not just his given name, but a long list of the pseudonyms he'd been known to use. In this episode, we trace the life of Riley Shepard, a hillbilly musician, writer, small-time con man and, perhaps, a genius.
Jan 07, 2019•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Maya Shankar was well on her way to an extraordinary career as a violinist when an injury closed that door. She eventually found a new path forward in a very different field.
Dec 31, 2018•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, we look at the science of compassion, and why doing good things for others can make a big difference in your own life.
Dec 24, 2018•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast We dig into the psychology that determines the foods that make us salivate and the scents that make us squirm.
Dec 21, 2018•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Arguments and bickering can sour family gatherings during the holiday season. This week, we share tips on how to avoid miscommunication from our January 2018 conversation with actor Alan Alda. You might know him from his roles on television shows like M A S*H, The West Wing and 30 Rock, but in recent years Alda has also focused on helping scientists, and the rest of us, communicate better. His book is If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face? My Adventures in the Art and Science of...
Dec 17, 2018•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast When a newspaper shuts down, there are obvious costs to the community it serves: job losses, fewer local stories. But new research suggests there's another consequence that's harder to spot—one that comes with a hefty price tag for residents. This week on Hidden Brain we ask, who bears the cost when nobody wants to pay? For more information about the research in this episode, visit https://n.pr/2zSPraS.
Dec 10, 2018•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Why do we always fall for surprise endings? It turns out that our capacity to be easily fooled in books and movies is made possible by a handful of predictable mental shortcuts. We talk this week with Vera Tobin, one of the world's first cognitive scientists to study plot twists. She says storytellers have been exploiting narrative twists and turns for millennia — and that studying these sleights of hand can give us a better understanding of the contours of the mind.
Dec 03, 2018•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." These words, penned by Thomas Jefferson more than 240 years ago, continue to inspire many Americans. And yet they were written by a man who owned hundreds of slaves, and fathered six children by an enslaved woman. This week, we talk with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed about the contradictions in Jefferson's life — and how those contradictions might resonate in our own lives.
Nov 26, 2018•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast We try to translate the mysterious language of babies. And we ask, when should we step back and just let our children be?
Nov 23, 2018•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Gender is one of the first things we notice about the people around us. But where do our ideas about gender come from? Can gender differences be explained by genes and chromosomes, or are they the result of upbringing, culture and the environment? In this encore episode from October 2017, we delve into debates over nature vs. nurture, and meet the first person in the United States to officially reject the labels of both male and female, and be recognized as "non-binary."
Nov 19, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast There's a core belief embedded in the story of the United States: the American Dream. This week we discuss the state of that dream with economist Raj Chetty.
Nov 12, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast We're used to the idea that rhetoric sways voters. But what about another element of language: a candidate's voice? This week on Hidden Brain , what happens when our political system and ancient biological rules meet. For more information about the research in this episode, visit https://n.pr/2Pe1Fog.
Nov 05, 2018•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast More than 70,000 people died of drug overdoses last year — many of them from heroin and other opioids. One of the most widely-used tools to confront this crisis is a drug called naloxone. It can reverse an opioid overdose within seconds, and has been hailed by first responders and public health researchers. But earlier this year, two economists released a study that suggested naloxone might be leading some users to engage in riskier behavior — and causing more deaths than it saves. This week, we...
Oct 29, 2018•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
