Something You Should Know - SYSK Choice: How Self Aware Are You? & How Your 5 Senses Affect Your Behavior

Episode Date: February 1, 2020

New clothes are not necessarily CLEAN clothes. In fact, there is a good chance other people have worn your new clothes before you. We start this episode discussing why and how to wash new clothes before you wear them. http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/cleaning-organizing/germs-in-new-clothes Also, how self-aware are you? Do you really understand who you really are and do you understand how other people really see you? Surprisingly, few of us know – even though we like to think we do. Organizational psychologist Tasha Eurich author of the book Insight: Why We’re Not as Self-Aware as We Think (http://amzn.to/2psRFGC) explains how to become more self-aware and why it is important to your success at work and in life. Your 5 senses can affect your attitude and behavior –and it is going to sound strange. For example, feeling something soft can “soften” your personality. Feeling something warm can create warm feelings for another person. I know it sounds nuts but Dr. Thalma Lobel author of the book Sensation: The New Science of Physical Intelligence (http://amzn.to/2raTg7Y) explains the science behind this. More importantly, she reveals how to use this knowledge to your advantage.  Have you ever been stuck in a traffic jam that appears to have no cause? Listen as I reveal why that happens and other fascinating things about the way traffic does – and does not move. http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/autoinnovation/just-a-few-self-driving-cars-on-the-highway-could-cut-random-traffic-jams-by-half/ar-AAfi1mD Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a listener to Something You Should Know, I can only assume that you are someone who likes to learn about new and interesting things and bring more knowledge to work for you in your everyday life. I mean, that's kind of what Something You Should Know was all about. And so I want to invite you to listen to another podcast called TED Talks Daily. Now, you know about TED Talks, right? Many of the guests on Something You Should Know have done TED Talks. Well, you see, TED Talks Daily is a podcast that brings you a new TED Talk every weekday in less than 15 minutes. Join host Elise Hu.

She goes beyond the headlines so you can hear about the big ideas shaping our future. Learn about things like sustainable fashion, embracing your entrepreneurial spirit, the future of robotics, and so much more. Like I said, if you like this podcast, Something You Should Know, I'm pretty sure you're going to like TED Talks Daily. And you get TED Talks Daily wherever you get your podcasts. Today on Something You Should Know, do you always wash new clothes before you wear them? You will for sure after you hear this. Then you probably think you're self-aware, but are you really? 95% of people think that they're self-aware, but the percentage of people that actually are self-aware is between 10 and 15 percent. So I always joke that 80 percent of us are essentially

lying to ourselves about whether we're lying to ourselves. Then why are there traffic jams that seem to have no cause and then just clear up? And the fascinating way your five senses can alter your personality and attitude. For example, if you touch a hard object compared to a soft object, you're a softer negotiator. You're more willing to change your initial offer just because you touch something soft or because you sit on a softer chair. All this today on Something You Should Know. Since I host a podcast, it's pretty common for me to be asked to recommend a podcast.

And I tell people, if you like Something You Should Know, you're going to like The Jordan Harbinger Show. Every episode is a conversation with a fascinating guest. Of course, a lot of podcasts are conversations with guests, but Jordan does it better than most. Recently, he had a fascinating conversation with a British woman who was recruited and radicalized by ISIS and went to prison for three years. She now works to raise awareness on this issue. It's a great conversation.

And he spoke with Dr. Sarah Hill about how taking birth control not only prevents pregnancy, it can influence a woman's partner preferences, career choices, and overall behavior due to the hormonal changes it causes. Apple named The Jordan Harbinger Show one of the best podcasts a few years back, and in a nutshell, the show is aimed at making you a better, more informed, critical thinker. Check out The Jordan Harbinger Show. There's so much for you in this podcast. The Jordan Harbinger Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Something you should know.

Fascinating intel. The world's top experts. And practical advice you can use in your life. Today, Something You Should Know with Mike Carruthers. Hi, welcome to the weekend episode of Something You Should Know. Every week, to round out our two weekday episodes, we have a weekend episode for you, and we have a lot to talk about today, a lot of interesting stuff. We're going to start with a question. Do you wash new clothes after you get them home from the store? Do you wash those clothes before you wear them?

Well, you probably should for one simple reason. You're probably not the first person to wear them. Just like you, other people like to try on clothes first. And very often they try them on and, for whatever reason, end up putting them back on the rack. New York University microbiology professor Dr. Philip Tirno swabbed clothes from three popular chains and he found, shall we say, personal bacteria from people who had worn them before. Good housekeeping recommends that bathing suits and underwear not sealed in packages should be washed for sure in hot water before you wear them because cold water washing doesn't kill germs.

Other clothes are a judgment call. You probably won't get sick from wearing pre-worn clothes, but you decide if the gross factor is enough now that you know. And that is something you should know. Do you think you're self-aware? Do you think you know how other people see you? Is the way you see yourself really the way you are, or are you just fooling yourself?

It's a fascinating question because, according to my first guest today, a lot of us are deluding ourselves into believing who we are, and we really have no clue the way other people really see us. And if you don't know who you really are, and you don't know how other people see you, well, how can you be effective in dealing with people? Tasha Urich is an organizational psychologist, researcher, and best-selling author, and her new book that just came out is called Insight, Why We're Not as Self-Aware as We Think, and How Seeing Ourselves Clearly Helps Us Succeed at Work and in Life. Hi, Tasha. Thanks for coming.

Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. So explain, first of all, what it means to be self-aware. What is self-awareness? Self-awareness is made up of two types of knowledge about ourselves. One is knowing who we are on the inside. And by that, I mean, what do we value? What are we passionate about? What are our strengths and weaknesses? And so on. And then the other side of the coin is,

I call it external self-awareness, which means understanding how other people see us. And my research has shown, and my personal experience too, that most people have quite a ways to go on both, but are even more focused on one than the other. So you think about someone who is a navel gazer who spends thousands of dollars a year on therapy, but has no idea how his friends actually see him. And the same is true on the other side. You might have someone who really cares way too much almost about what other people think, and they're not acting in service of their own best interests and happiness.

And it just seems to make all the sense in the world that it would be hard to imagine really how other people see us because they're not seeing us as us. They're seeing me as filtered through their own filters. They are, although it's interesting. Other people tend to be, as a whole, more objective about our behavior than we are. And so I always tell people it's not a matter of saying only what I see matters or only what other people see matters. It's really figuring out both and getting that information and wrestling with it when it doesn't agree, and then kind of coming up with your own conclusions.

So what's the benefit, though, of being more self-aware? One concern, it would seem, would be that if you are so concerned about how other people see you, and you just described this, that that in itself is a problem, because you're too wrapped up in what other people think, and, you know, I got to be me. I've got to be me. Those are two great parts of your question. Let me start with why it matters. And then I'll come back to why self-awareness isn't necessarily self-consciousness about how other people see us. So I've spent the last three years of my career, I've been working as an organizational psychologist for about 15 years. But three years ago, I got really interested in this topic because a lot of the executives I coached were making these remarkable transformations.

There's an executive that I coach named Steve, and he went from, you know, delusional, basically people quitting in droves, his business hemorrhaging money through a coaching process with me to becoming remarkably self-aware and able to manage the perceptions he was creating. And in so doing, he was able to turn around his business and can sort of keep people and make sure that they were thriving and successful. But that brings me to the benefits. So research has shown that people who are self-aware make smarter decisions. They build stronger relationships at work and in life, which can be helpful. They are more successful, better performers at work. They get more promotions. They even raise more mature children and they lead actually more profitable companies. And so whether you're looking at the applications of this to the workplace or just to your life in

general, it's very, very clear that people who have that understanding of themselves live happier, better lives. But coming back to your second point, which I think is a really good one, being self-aware doesn't mean being worried about what other people think of us. It means getting feedback and making that courageous choice to do it on saying, you know what, apparently I interrupt people, for example, and that upsets them. I'm going to try to do a better job. Sometimes it even means just accepting who we are and being more transparent and vulnerable about it with others. But one of the things that I have never been more sure about after this last three years is that it is absolutely worth the energy and the courage it takes to become more self-aware. It seems to me, and I can't wait to hear your answer, that the people who seem not very self-aware are the guys, are the people like your client that you coached. It's jerks who

don't realize what jerks they are more so than really nice people who don't realize how nice they are. Typically, that is the most visible form of unselfaware behavior. Let me give you a couple of statistics that blew my mind the first time I did these analyses. So number one, 95% of people think that they're self-aware, but the real figure, the number of percentage of people that actually are self-aware is between 10 and 15%. So I always joke that 80% of us are essentially lying to ourselves about whether we're lying to ourselves. And it is more visible for the people that are jerks and they don't know they're jerks. But there are a lot of nuances, right? You could be a jerk and not be aware of it. But another way it can manifest is,

you know, somebody who is just unhappy in their career and they're not really sure what they want to do, but they know they don't want to do what they're doing, who is looking for that answer or that thing that's going to fulfill them. And so it's definitely the most dramatic and sometimes most interesting example to look at people like Steve and the jerks that don't know. But there's so many ways that lack of self-awareness can manifest and show itself. Why is it so hard to see us ourselves as we are? Is it just that it's easier to tell ourselves a story that more or less makes life easier, or why? Why is it so hard for me to see who I really am? You think it would be so easy, right? Yeah, right.

Time and energy into it. So I've uncovered basically three reasons for that. The first is that we humans have natural blind spots where we actually can't see and recognize a lot of the behaviors we have, the thoughts, even the emotions. And it doesn't make us bad people. It's just how we're wired. So there's that piece. The second is what you said. It's this tendency to look at ourselves with rose-colored glasses and to preserve our self-esteem at the expense of accepting reality, which I often tell people is fine until it isn't, right? You can sort of go along your merry way and think you're awesome until you abruptly get fired and you say, wow, I didn't see that coming. The third reason might be the one that is most interesting,

I think, at this time, which is that as a society, there are forces conspiring to make us more self-absorbed and less self-aware. And, you know, in particular, social media is contributing to that, where there's been a lot of research that shows that there is a causal connection between the amount of time you spend on social media and how narcissistic you are. And just by being narcissistic, it means that you're seeing yourself as sort of more awesome than maybe is objectively true. And again, the solution isn't to say I suck and I'm horrible. The solution is to say, how can I see myself clearly? How can I know maybe what my gifts are that I don't really appreciate,

as well as the things that might be getting in my way that I want to know about and better control? When people make the journey, when people who are not self-aware learn about it and become self-aware, is it a process or is it a case of, my God, up till now, I've really sucked. I'm a jerk. My research shows, and I did actually study in depth, these people who have made these dramatic transformations. What I took from them and what the commonality was, was there weren't a lot of patterns in, you know, even by gender, by age, by national origin, by job or industry. But the two things that they had in common were number one, a feeling that their self-awareness was a critically important skill to develop. And then number two,

a commitment to work on it every single day. And what I like about that is, you know, you sort of don't have to wait for a lightning bolt to hit you, which I think is what a lot of people do. If you wake up every day and just have it in the back of your mind of saying, how can I be a little more reflective? How can I get a little bit more feedback? That's what I learned from these people that have made these dramatic transformations. It definitely doesn't happen overnight. There's no magic pill. I wish there was.

But it's that daily incremental improvement that really can make huge differences in people's lives. My guest is Dr. Tasha Urich. She's an organizational psychologist, researcher, and best-selling author. Her latest book is called Insight, Why We're Not as Self-Aware as We Think. Hi, I'm Jennifer, a founder of the Go Kid Go Network. At Go Kid Go, putting kids first is at the heart of every show that we produce. That's why we're so excited to introduce

a brand new show to our network called The Search for the Silver Lining, a fantasy adventure series about a spirited young girl named Isla who time travels to the mythical land of Camelot. Look for The Search for the Silver Lining on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. People who listen to Something You Should Know

are curious about the world, looking to hear new ideas and perspectives. So I want to tell you about a podcast that is full of new ideas and perspectives, and one I've started listening to Thank you. and a lot more. A couple of recent examples, Mustafa Suleiman, the CEO of Microsoft AI, discussing the future of technology. That's pretty cool. And writer, podcaster, and filmmaker, John Ronson, discussing the rise of conspiracies

and culture wars. Intelligence Squared is the kind of podcast that gets you thinking a little more openly about the important conversations going on today. Being curious, you're probably just the type of person Intelligence Squared is meant for. Check out Intelligence Squared wherever you get your podcasts. So, Tasha, when I think about how other people see me, there's no one way other people see me. It's very situational.

I could be in a bad mood. They could be in a bad mood. There's no one me to see. Here's an alternate way of looking at things. And I'll give an example of, you know, my coaching clients again. So, you know, when I was coaching Steve, he told me the same thing. He said, oh, these people at work, they don't know the real me. And I said, interesting. Well, why don't you take the feedback I just gave you about how they see you back to your wife and your family and get their thoughts? You know, do they think these people are wrong? Do they see you a different way? And lo and behold, Steve came back and said, I'm pretty shocked, but my family was seeing the same behavior and none of them knew how to talk to me about it.

And so I do agree that we show up differently in different situations. If I'm at a birthday party for my friends, I'm going to be carefree and fun and jokey. And if I'm on an interview like this, I'm not going to have that same behavior. So there is situational behavior. But if we look at people who know us pretty well, whether they're in our personal life, whether they're people at work, they generally tend to see us in a more similar way than we think. So as long as you're talking to somebody that has enough data, what they're telling you is probably pretty objective and pretty accurate.

I'll give one caveat, though. There are some people that don't actually want to help you. So, you know, a peer at work who has it out for your job or, you know, somebody who really doesn't want you to be successful. And that's where you have to be careful about who you get feedback from. But most of the time, if you ask people that trust you and that you trust, you're going to get some pretty good data. You mentioned that there are some people who are delusional and, you know, will

never get this. But I was talking more about the people who are so perhaps unselfaware or unpsychology aware that they don't even understand what we're talking about. It's not that they're delusional about it or that they think they're something they're not. They just don't think about this at all. And that is the danger. And that is why I personally am so passionate about this topic. A lot of people have told me that it gives language and sort of a framework for things that have felt really amorphous for them in the past. And, you know, the data are really clear. And that's the reason that I call self-awareness the meta skill of the 21st century.

And what I mean by that is all of the things that make you successful at work and in life in our increasingly crazy world. Things like influence, communication, emotional intelligence, all of those things stem from our ability to be self-aware and see ourselves clearly. And so I actually think that's very good news is if we can start getting people to see this and see how important it is, it's something that we can all work on and we can all see the benefits of. What about the difference between the person that other people see and the person that I am privately? And they're not the same.

I mean, I act differently when I'm by myself. I don't, you know, I'm just, I'm not as concerned about the way I look, the way, you know, I, you know what I mean? It's, there's like two me's. There's the one I am with people, and then there's the one I am by myself. Or am I admitting that I have some deep-seated psychological problem? But I, and I think you're giving voice to something that everyone feels. You know, it's this idea of the private me versus the public me. And, you know, my somewhat cheeky response is, yes, those are both you. And the interesting thing about becoming self-aware is to identify those precise things.

You know, we always want these sort of clean, clear, unequivocal answers about who we are. But what you just said was a really good example of somebody who has sort of looked at himself objectively and tried to look at patterns. And a lot of times there isn't one universal truth. And it's more of saying, okay, pattern-wise, you know, I'll just use myself as an example. I'm introverted. And so what I've noticed is when I'm around, you know, in a social situation with a bunch of people I don't know, I've noticed that I'm much quieter, I'm much more likely to listen to other people. But when I'm with, you know, one of my best friends, I'm, you know, crazy and giggly and talkative. And those are both me, but it's a situational sort of difference. And so I think part of that process is just exploring those different sides of you

and understanding them. And in understanding these things, we can sort of appreciate them and if we want to change our behavior, we have more control over it. Do you find or does the research find or have you experienced somebody who becomes self-aware, realizes that they're just one big moron, and is fine with it? I call those people aware, don't care. And those are the people that say, you know, however they came to the insight, they say, yes, I'm a jerk, and I'm going to keep being a jerk.

And, you know, those can be some of the most frustrating people the rest of us have to deal with on a daily basis, because it's not just that they mean well and they are, you know, not aware. It's that they know exactly what they're doing and they do it anyway. And what I always tell people is it's very tempting to try to change these people, you know, particularly if they're family members or God forbid, you're dating them or something that you see them every day. But it's more, it's more effective to channel that energy into managing your own reactions. Because ultimately, I think those people, whether or not they have a, you know, a sort of lightning bolt moment at

some point in the future, we usually can't control that for them. And so what I recommend is to try to manage your response to those people more than you try to fix them, because more times than not, you're going to be pretty disappointed. So lastly, if someone wants to become more self-aware, work on it, as you say, how do you work on it? What's the first thing you start to do that makes you more self-aware? This seems small, but it is one of the most important steps, and it's the decision to become what I call braver but wiser. And what I mean by that is to make the commitment to yourself that you are going to start questioning the assumptions you have, that you're going to dig a little deeper,

that you're going to get feedback from other people on a more regular basis. And I think that decision is what can set you on a path to really make some pretty significant improvements. Obviously, there's all the tools that I talk about in my book, Insight, but let me just give you one that maybe people could start using right away, and it's called the daily check-in. So this is something that our highly self-aware people taught us. Most of them at the end of every day, whether they were driving home from work, whether they were sitting in bed watching TV, they just reflected for five minutes on how their day went.

And they asked, what went well today and what was behind that? What didn't go so well today? And finally, what did I learn that I'm going to carry on until tomorrow? And something that simple is what gets those incremental improvements going. Obviously, there are so, so, so many other tools that we don't have time to discuss, but I'm hoping braver but wiser, and then the daily check-in at least gets folks on a good path. Well, I would imagine, too, just the ability to say, you know what, I'm going to start being more self-aware and understanding

and taking a look at this would go a long way to helping you become more self-aware and understanding and taking a look at this would go a long way to helping you become more self-aware, to just make the decision to do it. That's exactly right. And I think most people, frankly, either they don't understand how important it is or they're scared. And I completely appreciate that. You know, I try to hold myself to that same standard of always questioning and always getting feedback. And sometimes it can require some courage. But I am, again, more confident than ever that doing that work and the bravery and energy that it takes will always pay off. So once you look at it that way, it's easy to make that commitment, even if it isn't going to be easy every single step of the way. Well, great. That's good advice. Tasha Urich has been my guest.

She is author of the new book, Insight, Why We're Not as Self-Aware as We Think. Do you love Disney? Then you are going to love our hit podcast, Disney Countdown. I'm Megan, the Magical Millennial. And I'm the Dapper Danielle. On every episode of our fun and family-friendly show, we count down our top 10 lists of all things Disney. There is nothing we don't cover. We are famous for rabbit holes, Disney themed games, and fun facts you didn't know you needed, but you definitely need in your life. So if you're looking for a healthy dose of Disney magic,

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things pop culture listen to don't blame me but am i wrong on apple podcast spotify or wherever you get your podcasts new episodes every mond Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Could it be that your five senses, what you experience with your five senses, can affect your attitude and behavior? In other words, could sitting on a soft chair make you a softer and easier negotiator? Could holding a warm object make you feel warmer towards another person?

I mean, if this is true, you could just imagine all the ways you could use this to your advantage. But it sounds ridiculous and simplistic and unlikely, doesn't it? Well, if you think so, meet Dr. Thalma Lobel. She is probably the world's leading expert on the psychology of physical intelligence, and she is author of a book called Sensation, the New Science of Physical Intelligence. Welcome, Dr. Lobel, and let me ask you to start explaining this, and perhaps using some examples would help. Let me start, for example, with a very amazing result of a study conducted in Yale several years ago.

In this study, subjects were invited to the laboratory and while they were accompanied by an experimenter in the elevator, she asked each participant to just hold her cup of coffee for a minute while she was writing his or her name. Then they came to the laboratory, and they were asked to evaluate a certain person A on various characteristics. The thing is that half of the participants were given a cold cup of coffee to hold for a minute, while the other half were given a warm cup of coffee.

That was the only difference between the two groups. What happened was that those who touched in the elevator before the experiment supposedly started, those who touched a warm cup of coffee perceived that person, A, as a warmer, that is, friendlier, kinder person than those who touched a cold cup of coffee in the elevator. Of course, when they were asked why, they had no idea that it was related in any way

to the fact that they touched for a few seconds or minutes a cup of coffee in the elevator. So that's one example. These same researchers, if I continue about the temperature, did another study where they asked in a supposedly marketing research, asked participants to hold a therapeutic pad and ask them some questions about it. Half of the participants held a warm therapeutic pad while the other half held a cold therapeutic pad. And then they were offered as a reward for their participation to choose between either a present for themselves or for a friend. And as you can imagine, those who touched a warm therapeutic pad chose more often a present for a friend compared to those who touched a cold

therapeutic. So they were more generous, actually. And there are, of course, many implications. That's about temperature, but there are other things like colors and texture. If you want me, I can go on and on. Yeah, please, give me some more. So, for example, texture. Studies showed that if you touch a smooth surface or an object compared to a rough object, you perceive an interaction as smoother or

rough interaction, although it's the same interaction. Or if you touch a hard object compared to a soft object, you're a softer negotiator. You're more willing to change your initial offer just because you touch something soft or because you sit on a softer chair. So that's about texture. Colors. Studies have shown, for example, that participants who had a red participant number on their test performed worse on mathematical and verbal tests compared to those who had participant number at the top of their page in other colors, like black or green. Just the red influenced their performance.

On another context of red, those men who were shown the same photo of a woman depicted against different colors of background, those who saw the photo depicted against the red color perceived that woman as more attractive, sexier, more desirable, wanted to date her more, to have sex with her more, and even to spend more money on her on a date. It was the same exact photo that other men saw depicted against different colors. Moral issues.

You know, we use the metaphors, clean conscious, dirty hands. Well, there are studies that show that it's not only a figure of speech. And studies show that those who thought about something unethical felt greater need to wash their hands or to buy something which is related to cleaning, physical cleaning. I, for example, found in my lab that the people who were after a shower in the gym cheated more on a test than those who were before the shower. And I explained that they felt completely pure so they could afford a little cheating, like they have room for cheating, license to cheat. Height.

Those who sit on a higher chair are perceived as more powerful than those who sit on a lower chair. Even when you see an organization chart and the principal is drawn a little bit higher, if the vertical line is longer, he's perceived as a more powerful person than if he's still above, but the vertical line is a shorter one. Creativity. Studies show that people who saw light bulbs while they were taking creative tests saw them better. They were more creative just by seeing the picture

or a real light bulb in front of them. And all these things have really implications for every aspect of our life, if you think about it, because we negotiate both business negotiations. We negotiate all the time. Also, in our personal life, we negotiate with our kids, with our spouse, with our friends, and at work. And if you think about it, you can, first of all, be less manipulated when you know all these things. But you can also use them for your advantage. You can give the other person a warm beverage to hold rather than a cold Coke. Give them hot tea rather than a cold Coke.

It will definitely make them a little bit more warmer, and they perceive you as a warmer person. Let them sit on a softer chair, so there is a better chance they will be softer negotiators who will agree. Think about the distance, the height. And, you know, so this is about negotiation. Date.

Think about the colors you wear. Also, again, about the distance, the things you want to touch. I didn't say anything about smell. Oh, yeah. Yeah, go ahead. There are several studies on smell one of them showed for example that when men ask telephone numbers in a mall near bakeries where you smell the fresh baked cookies women were more willing to give

their telephone number compared to if they asked the same girls or other girls in the mall near clothes stores or shoe stores. So these fresh baked cookies made these women more willing to interact and in this case to give their phone numbers. Other studies showed that when you smell something really, really gross, you tend to be harsher in your moral judgments. The same dilemmas that people heard when they smelled something really bad, they judged them harsher compared to the same dilemmas when they didn't smell anything. So smell also influences our decisions, our judgments. So we are all exposed decisions, our judgments.

So we are all exposed to that without knowing. And once you know it, as I said, you can use it in your advantage, and you can use it to understand that sometimes you judge people not on the basis of what you want them to be judged upon, and you're more aware of that, so you're less manipulated, and you come to better decisions, I think. So, when you look at these, they seem to follow common sense, that you sit in a soft sofa, you're softer on negotiation. If you hold a warm cup of coffee, you perceive the person as warmer. Are they all logical like that, or are there some counterintuitive?

That's a very good question. Yeah, I'll answer it in two ways. First of all, although they are logical, I agree, because if you want to conduct a study and you take a metaphor, you predict that if there is a metaphor such as a warm person, so you want to find out that if somebody holds something warm, he will behave in a warmer way. Still, it's kind of amazing because people don't want to believe that just because before the interaction you touch something warm, then still it affects you.

You don't want to believe that, but it happens. So there are, but some of the studies are counterintuitive. For example, my study about the showering. As I said before, we found in my lab, we went to the gym, and we asked people to complete a questionnaire that was very hard to really know the right answers. And we had to kind of measure how we could find if they cheated or not. And we found that those who were after the shower cheated more. Now, this is counterintuitive.

You would probably think and predict what we thought, that once you're clean and pure physically, you're a pure person, and then you will cheat less, right? And we found, so this, for example, is counterintuitive. And we explained it, as I said, that once you feel pure inside, it doesn't necessarily mean that you will now behave more morally. Actually, it means that, okay, I'm completely keen, so I have license to do some things which are not that moral. So this is counterintuitive. You couldn't predict that before, for example. And are there cases where you would, based on hearing about these,

you would think, okay, you know, if you touch this or you saw that or you did this, something would happen, and in fact there was no difference? Yeah, definitely. Let me tell you more about that. Probably some people are more sensitive to external stimulation than others. Also, ambient temperature. Maybe it depends whether the room is hot or cold, whether touching a warm or cold beverage will affect you. So, like always happens in science, first you show this amazing phenomena of embodied cognition, but now it's time to measure it more when it happens, on what conditions,

with whom and where, etc. So that was a great question, because it happened many times. There are many studies that showed that, and many of them attacked the problem from various angles. Like, for example, with the red, they showed different pictures, and they did it once comparing to green and one comparing to blue, and one with the blonde women, one with the blacker women. So they didn't do only one study. But still, you have to examine. Maybe some people will be influenced more than others, etc. So it's not necessarily all 100% all the time on all people,

but there's a general tendency that these things... Exactly, exactly. Which actually is true for a lot of psychological findings. When you hear about all these psychology studies, you have to remember all the time that you're talking about average. This group was higher statistically significant. The difference is statistically significant, but still, it's one mean bigger than the other. But it doesn't mean that all the people in this group behave differently than all the people in the other group.

That's why we have the statistics to show it's statistically different. And lastly, if you know this, can you short-circuit it so that it doesn't work on you, or even knowing it still doesn't defend you from the effects? I think knowing it will definitely defend you. And that's why I think it's so important to know about it. Because if I'm aware, and I know about myself, you know, and my students, that we talk about these studies for the last three years all the time,

so we are more aware of that and then I'm asking myself if I'm touching something wrong or rough or sitting on a softer chair, I am aware of that, that that might influence my decision, so it definitely helps you. And yet it seems too simplistic, too simple. Yet there's all this research to back it up. I've been speaking with Dr. Thalma Lobel.

She is one of the leading experts on the subject of the psychology of physical intelligence. And she is author of the book, Sensation, The New Science of Physical Intelligence. You'll find a link to that book in the show notes for this episode. Highway traffic fascinates me, and a good thing because I live in Southern California, and here in the greater Los Angeles area, we have supposedly some of the worst traffic in the world. And my experience is that that's probably true. Here are some interesting things about highway traffic. Because traffic is influenced by a lot of different things.

And one of the things is that humans cannot drive at a consistent speed. Traffic would flow much better if drivers drove at a consistent speed, but they actually cannot. A Japanese study put drivers in cars and asked all of them to drive at the same consistent speed, but they just couldn't. And then their fluctuations messed up the traffic pattern. Jerk drivers help traffic, believe it or not. Research shows that when a driver flaunts the rules and speeds and cuts in and out of traffic, it causes the rest of us, the rule-obeyers, to spread out, making for smoother traffic flow overall.

Hiding accidents keeps traffic moving. In an experiment, opaque screens were put around traffic collisions so that passing drivers couldn't see anything. And with nothing to look at, drivers didn't slow down and traffic flow was improved. And here's something interesting. I think most people think that traffic lights change when the weight of the vehicle is felt by that sensor you see in the road. And while that may still be true in some cases, that is actually pretty old technology. The new technology uses induction loops in the surface of the roadway,

and these coils of wire have an electric current running through them. And the presence of a large metal object over them creates magnetic changes in that current, which are then processed and sent to the light's controller to request a signal change. And that is something you should know. That's the podcast. I'm Mike Carruthers.

Thanks for listening today to Something You Should Know. Welcome to the small town of Chinook, where faith runs deep and secrets run deeper. In this new thriller, religion and crime collide when a gruesome murder rocks the isolated Montana community. Everyone is quick to point their fingers at a drug-addicted teenager, but local deputy Ruth Vogel isn't convinced. She suspects connections to a powerful religious group. Enter federal agent V.B. Loro, who has been investigating a local church for

possible criminal activity. The pair form an unlikely partnership to catch the killer, unearthing secrets that leave Ruth torn between her duty to the law, her religious convictions, and her very own family. But something more sinister than murder is afoot, and someone is watching Ruth.

Chinook. Starring Kelly Marie Tran and Sanaa Lathan. Listen to Chinook wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Jennifer, a co-founder of the Go Kid Go Network. At Go Kid Go, putting kids first is at the heart of every show that we produce. That's why we're so excited to introduce a brand new show to our network called The Search for the Silver Lightning, a fantasy adventure series about a spirited young girl named Isla

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