WEBVTT - Science of Pet Peeves 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:13.360 Works dot com. Hey, what can't the stuff to blow 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:15.720 your mind? My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:19.760 Julie Way. Is being on a plane the absolute worst? 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:22.640 Like setting there on the on the plane waiting to 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:26.560 take off, it seems like every possible annoying thing in 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:30.320 the world is inevitably trapped in there with you. Well, 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:33.040 I mean your personal space is being invaded, right, there's 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:37.080 elbow wars going on. It's true. They're stinky air being circulated. 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:40.360 Well yeah, no, really, I mean think about it, Like, 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:42.800 all of a sudden, five minutes into it, you've got, 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:45.519 you know, a hundred people crammed in this space. Stinky 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:48.280 air is happening. It's true. They're they're they're rooting around 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:51.800 for stuff. Some of them have brought on outside food. Yeah, person, 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:54.120 next you may have a pizza that they're pulling out 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:57.120 of a satchel to to chomp down on. And then 0:00:57.200 --> 0:00:59.000 a lot of it's all out of your control too. 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:00.840 I mean, that's that's a huge thing too. You step 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:04.560 on the plane and it's definite plane rules, step out 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:07.040 of line. Somebody's going to escort you away and like 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:09.600 shackle you to a seat somewhere and they will by 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:13.520 the way, Yeah, just so you now, did that happen? No? Okay, 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:15.800 But there are other elements going on, right, I mean 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:18.240 that really the five senses are engaged here and and 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:22.640 most notably the h your your ears, because there's just 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:26.880 that they're being assaulted, right, Because inevitably when you get 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:29.920 on that plane, there is going to be a baby 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:34.920 crying or a toddler whining. This is just the law 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:37.840 of airplane travel. Ye. Generally the dogs are going to 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:41.280 be tranked, so you don't really have to worry about those. No. No, 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:43.560 I've heard I've heard of people flying though where they're 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:47.440 encountering cats, uh, cats and little boxes on the seat 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:49.760 next to them, cats catterwalling, Yeah, I guess. I mean 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:51.360 that's what they're going to do for the duration of 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:53.480 a flight. If they do it for an entire drive 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:56.760 across the town to to the vet, uh, I think 0:01:56.800 --> 0:02:01.320 it's guaranteed um transoceanic flight. Well, unless they get a 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:06.360 mother's little helper, you know what I'm saying. But but 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:08.760 I mean, okay, so sound is a big deal on 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:11.520 the plane. Now, obviously, Eventually there's going to be an 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:14.519 airplane engine and some nice sort of white noise to 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:17.000 sort of help. Eventually you're going to be able to 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:21.880 turn on your iPod or other listening to music device 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:25.440 without being yelled at and hopefully drown out some of 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:27.840 the sound. But there's there's gonna be some time there 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:30.200 where you're gonna have to deal with the crying baby, 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:34.600 the dude that is coughing and sniffling, um, the person 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:38.000 who's like shuffling papers, the person who won't stop fidgeting 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:42.200 with their seatbelt. Oh, and the cell phone talker. Well, 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:44.480 luckily that'll well I don't know, can you talk on 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:49.680 a cell phone on UM? I think some transatlantic ones 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:52.640 you can. I can't recall remember seeing a news item 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:55.280 about it and sort of cringing inwardly. But certainly everybody 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:58.320 tries to finish up their conversations before the before they 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:01.040 take off, before the in the right after they get 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:03.680 that that weird call where you're getting arranging. Generally, it's 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:06.120 just like a ranging pickup, like I'm here, this plane 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:09.240 is awful, Um, I'll be out in ten minutes. But 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:11.120 but when you first got on the plane, there's no 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:13.480 telling what it's going to be some snippet of some 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:18.600 some conversation that is just amazingly irritating or way too personal, 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:21.880 and you're like, what, I can't believe they're having this discussion, uh, 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:24.400 because some people just have blinders on when they're when 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:27.880 they're having these these discussions with with somebody, and you're like, WHOA, 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:30.119 that is way too much detail to just be shoveling 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:32.240 out into the island on the airplane. And it's the 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:34.440 worst because you know you're only hearing half of it, 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:36.920 and the half of it that you are hearing sometimes 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:38.960 is so like you say, horrendous. You're like, really, you 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:40.960 don't need to be airing your dirty laundry. And I 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:43.360 only knew half of what you're talking about. So obviously 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:45.800 what we're talking about today is sort of the science 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:49.320 of pet peeves. Why we react the way that we do, yes, 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:54.080 because inevitably some scientists, researcher, neuroscientist has been on a plane, 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:57.440 put up with this stuff, and then they've decided that's it. 0:03:57.520 --> 0:03:59.800 I'm going back. I'm getting funding, I'm gonna research this, 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:01.800 gonna get a test group together, I'm gonna figure this out. 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:04.920 My next flight is going to be far less annoying, right, 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:07.720 we hope right, or at least we've we've uncovered the 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:11.320 reasons why we're annoyed. According to an article on Wired 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:14.840 by Alex Vincent, there is one sound more annoying than 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:18.720 nails on a blackboard or even sirens, and that is 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:23.200 the whining child. Yes, the whining child. Not just the 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:26.200 crying child, but the whining specifically the whining child. And 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:29.080 and that sort of catterwauling actually peaks between the ages 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:30.960 of two and four. In case you're wondering this, This 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:36.360 this frequency that toddlers seemed to cultivate and and just 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:42.560 resonate their out in the universe, the moment I that 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:46.680 kind of yeah, yeah, you got it. Um, Yeah that um. 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:48.320 And it doesn't matter if you're a parent or not. 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:52.480 It affects everybody equally, bothers everyone. Um. In a study 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:56.760 published in the journal Social Evolutionary and Cultural Psychology, participants 0:04:56.800 --> 0:04:59.960 were asked to do subtraction problems while listening to an 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:04.240 infinct crying, also a regular speech silence, whining in a 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:08.159 high pitched table saw and mother ease, mother ease? Now 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:10.200 can you give up as a mother? Can you give 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:14.279 an example of mother ease. I can't give you I 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:17.680 know right that just that just made me feel dirty. Um. 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:20.760 This is that sort of exaggerated baby talk, and it's universal. 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:23.200 It doesn't matter what language you speak, and there's there's 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:26.200 mother ease, and we do it when we talk to babies, 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:28.479 and we do it when we talk to our pets, 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:32.480 sometimes to our significant other. I generally don't use that 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:35.960 voice um when talking to my significant either or my cat, 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:38.520 but occasionally somebody else will be introduced to the cat 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:40.400 and they'll like break out some mother ease on him. 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:42.479 I'm always kind of like, oh, wait, don't talk to 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:45.800 my cat that way. She's not she's not accustomed to this. 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:50.000 That's interesting. You're like, don't expose my cat to to 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:53.000 mother ease. She's going to expect this or is that 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:55.120 what you're thinking. I don't know it just then it 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:57.880 might warp her somehow. You know, it's gonna irritating sound. 0:05:57.920 --> 0:05:59.400 And I'm like, oh, don't inflict that on me. You 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:01.800 don't inflict that on the cat either. Well. The worst though, 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:04.520 I think, is when people flirt in mother EA's and 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:07.800 it reminds me of that Seinfeld episode in which Jerry 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:12.800 and his girlfriends started calling each other schmoopy, you're schmoopy, 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:15.880 your schmoopy? Well, and this I guess this also kind 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:18.919 of ties into the whole the whole sexy baby voice, 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:22.159 which I just don't get. Yeah, but but it seems 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:24.920 to be some more levels of annoying. Maybe it quite 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:26.600 as as bad I mean, And I don't know if 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:30.880 it's been empirically studied, like the mother ease. Oh what 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:33.719 the sexy baby voice. Yeah, I don't hear of you 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:35.800 study of the sexy baby boy. I don't think that 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:39.960 there's any sort of brain development that is going on 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:42.560 with the baby sexy voice. But you know, at least 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:45.440 with mother ease and with babies, we can see an 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:49.480 actual tie there between you know, cooing to a baby 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:52.360 and talking in mother e's and the child actually understanding 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:56.040 that this voice is specifically for him or her and 0:06:56.080 --> 0:07:00.160 to pay attention, and that these words like dindon and 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:03.120 now I know how to completely annoy this is awesome, 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:05.839 um for dinner that is short for dinner, and so 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:10.000 they sort of understand, uh, you know, phonologically from mother ease. 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:13.320 But that being said, Mother's as annoying as it is, 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:17.480 is still less annoying than the baby whinings because because 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:21.880 when those people were doing uh, the math, the subtractions, 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:26.800 they found that they made more mistakes per math problems 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:30.760 completed when listening to the wines and any other speech 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:33.560 patterns or noises. And just to be clear to when 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:36.880 they used the language samples the speech patterns, what they 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:39.760 did is they scrambled it so that or excuse me, 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:42.520 didn't scramble. They had it in another language. And the 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:45.520 reason they did that is because they didn't want people 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:47.880 to be distracted by what was actually being said. They 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:51.320 just wanted to hear someone talking. Huh. I wonder if 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:53.560 anyone has ever used this to try and get something 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:56.040 a break on their taxes or excuse some sort of 0:07:56.360 --> 0:07:59.320 clerical error in bookkeeping where they're like, I'm sorry, I 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:02.920 work at a priest. Cool look at the study. I was. 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:04.920 I was doing really good to get any of this right. 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:07.000 I was on an airplane trying to complete the report. 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:09.400 There was a baby whining. What was I to do? 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:12.560 It's true, but it is but this is tied to 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:15.800 an evolutionary thing because because the idea is I mean, 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:19.880 we've discussed before, like the big evolutionary push is reproduced, 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:23.440 make another little person and push that person out, continue 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:27.200 the gene, continue the species. And so therefore we have 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:29.040 it built in that it's like whoa, one of the 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:33.520 larval humans requires sustenance. Stop what you're doing, tend to that, 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:35.520 and then you can get by with whatever the other 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:37.439 thing is, because this is the thing that is genetically 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:40.160 most important. Yes, the larval humans are trying to get 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:43.480 the parents attention. And that's what co author Rosemary so 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:47.240 called Chang seems to think. She's the she ran the study. 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:50.040 So yes, there it's something. It's the sort of pitch 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:53.559 that could drill through any distraction to get your parents attention. 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:58.160 The larva require candy, the larva require toys. Whatever it is, 0:08:58.200 --> 0:09:03.280 it's more important than checking out pool. Sorry, I will 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:07.480 really stop doing that. Um So that explains. That explains 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:13.360 whining that the child catterwauling. What explains the annoyance that 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:16.360 we feel when we hear only half of a conversation. Yeah, 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:18.920 this is really interesting, and we touched on it earlier. 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:23.000 Half of a conversation. We're even dropping on half of something, 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:27.720 and so that our brains cannot help but follow along 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:29.760 and try and make sense of what we're hearing. I mean, 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:32.760 our senses have evolved to make sense of the world 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:36.480 around us and help us navigate this world. And uh, 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:38.800 and therefore you've got this half of a conversation going on, 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:40.400 even if you don't want to, even if you know 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:43.520 it's the dumbest conversation on the planet, or it's something 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:46.760 just completely offensive, and you know that you are growing 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:50.559 stupider every second that you listen to it. Your your 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:53.760 brain cannot shut it off. Um. There was an interesting 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:58.440 uh study into this by graduate student Cornell University. UM. 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:01.760 He subjected people to having to listen to these half conversations, 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:04.240 and then he had another group of people that he 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:08.560 had listened to the same conversation, but but with the 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:12.120 words garbled. So you were hearing not the not the words, 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.960 but just the sound just kind of you know, kind 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:19.000 of you weren't you weren't hearing a pattern or a 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:21.920 story or half of a story being told. You're just 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:25.080 hearing gobbledy cook, just hearing gobbledy cook the whole um, 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:27.240 you know, the mother on peanuts kind of a thing. 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:31.720 Because the idea, Yeah, because the idea was, Um, are 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:33.640 we annoyed by the sound? Is it just the sound 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:36.160 of somebody else yabbering when we're trying to do something, 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:38.680 or is it tied to the words? Is it tied 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:41.360 to our brains trying to figure out the meaning of 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:43.560 this conversation, And it's tied to the meaning. That was 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:46.040 what he found there. The person was far more distracted 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:50.080 um our, Our our thought process and our problem solving 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:54.120 bodies were far more impacted by the actual worded conversation 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:56.080 as opposed to the gobblty cook. And I thought that 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:57.600 was interesting because a lot of times you and I 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:00.240 have talked about how the brain is just one of 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:04.079 his primary functions is predictive modeling. It's always trying to 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:06.880 figure out what the next step is, what's going on, what, 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:09.920 what is the pattern in front of the unfolding So 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:12.839 it drives the brain crazy when it only has half 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:16.120 of the information. Yeah, Lewis Black, I mean, comedians love 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:20.120 talking about things that annoy them. It's like, like, I 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:23.760 guess eight to nine percent of anybody's stick. But Louis 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:26.000 Black has this bit where he's talking about overhearing part 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:29.120 of a conversation I believe about um. It was something 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:31.200 to the effect of a woman saying and then if 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:34.120 I didn't have that horse, I wouldn't have gotten into college. Yeah, 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:36.679 I forget it involved college and a horse. And that's 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:38.320 the only piece he heard. Yeah, that's the only piece 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:40.520 he heard. And so he does this long bit about 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:43.400 where he's just flying into a rage about his inability 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:46.440 to understand what the context could possibly be for such 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:49.520 a ludicrous statement. And it's a great example of how 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:51.439 I think any of us feel on some level when 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:54.000 we're hearing this conversation, like what was that person talking about? 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:57.600 I remember, I remember being in an airport and overhearing 0:11:57.640 --> 0:11:59.679 just just one snippet. It wasn't enough to be annoying, 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:02.960 but I heard some guys say, yeah, I'm about to 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:05.480 have to break through some membranes, and and that was 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:07.679 that was it. And then so for for a while 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:10.679 it's like what membranes was he gonna breakthrough? Like is 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:13.640 this metaphorical or yeah, I'm picturing him like, you know, 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:17.360 he's like shrinking down fantastic void style and like, you know, 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:20.480 journeying through some cellular tissue or something. I don't know, 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:22.520 it just made or is it some slang that I'm 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:25.120 just not hip to. I don't know. I love that, like, 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:28.920 is he turning into a blood nanobot um. The Science 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:32.160 of What Bugs Us by Joe Palca and Florida Lickman 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:34.880 is a book that actually covers a lot of this material, 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:39.120 and co author Joe Palca actually says that you can 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:43.040 you can actually change the circumstances um when you are 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:46.640 being annoyed by by something like this, and he calls 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:50.079 it cognitive restructuring. Uh. He says that when you're faced 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:52.480 with the situation in which you're annoyed a cell phone call, 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:55.720 a seemingly endless line that you're standing in, or mosquito 0:12:55.760 --> 0:13:00.079 buzzing around you, you can practice cognitive restructuring. So his 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:02.960 his example is, you can tell yourself that the mosquito 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:06.320 is just a part of the life flow in the world, 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:08.800 and I shouldn't be mad. It's just trying to do 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:13.199 what it is genetically programmed to do, and that that 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:17.880 sort of cognitive restructuring will alleviate your your symptoms of annoyance. 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:21.600 I'm going to try it, Okay, Well, I found that 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:24.720 I'm One thing I try and do is just tell myself, 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:27.440 don't be a jerk, don't be an idiot, that that 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:30.040 tends to to help. Like if I I'll find like 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:32.240 it'll be a situation where, um, and I think this 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:33.760 is something a lot of people do, especially in this 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:36.080 day and age. Something annoys you, and you have to vent, 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:38.839 you have to say something about it. So in our 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:42.680 social media age, there's this huge temptation to do a 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:46.600 tweet about it, right and and and I find it 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:48.440 will be a situation where like, somebody has like a 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:52.480 really annoying aftershave or deodorant on, and I'll just really 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:55.800 want to do a tweet about how it smells like 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:59.160 a stick of right Guard exploded in the office. But 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:01.200 but I hold off because I'm like, that's that's just 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:03.199 doing nobody need good. It will be like a moment 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:05.319 of relief, and then people would be like, wow, this 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:07.480 is a great Twitter feed. He always does his gripe 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:10.440 about the smells in the office. Right and so instead, 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:13.480 are you now going to start saying to yourself right 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:16.800 guard It exists in the world, Yes, exactly, it exists. 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:19.800 It helps them to not stink. Exactly. Well, maybe you 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:23.080 know right guard is better than the alternative, I guess, right, right, 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:26.359 But it is worth noting that things like right Guard 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:30.560 or fake lavender. Yeah, and we'll fake lavender is such 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:34.000 a weird thing because actual lavender smells so good, it's wonderful. Yeah, 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:37.960 but fake lavendar is like the death of my nose follicles. Yes, 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:41.120 like being gas and U and I mean that is 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:45.040 is specifically tied to our genetic structure. There's a gene 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:50.520 called trip a one that's trp A one, and in mammals, 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:54.320 it's primarily receptor for chemical irritants. I mean, because it 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:57.320 basically breaks down. You can't feel your DNA getting mutated, 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:01.760 so so our bodies need another alarm system. Um. And 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:03.840 they've they've done these experiments where they found that if 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:06.160 they removed this from a fruit fly, it will lap 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:09.400 up cinnamon water like it was just normal water. Um. 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:11.520 They've removed it from mice and the mice will just 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:13.600 eat a whole bunch of a sabi and not care. 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:16.600 It's used to help us pick up on harmful chemicals, 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:18.720 but it's also it can also be uh be set 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:22.240 up by by extremes of colder heat. It's uh basically 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:25.680 this kicks in any time our bodies meet the outside world, 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:29.080 so any number of like chemical or physical irritants that's 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:31.560 what's happening. And it's really interesting why you would be 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:34.720 annoyed by those smells because on a cellular level, it's 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:38.120 saying like this is danger or could potential changer, and 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:40.720 we don't know. Yeah, yeah, potentially, And certainly there has 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:43.600 been you know, I'm not sure about current products, but 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:45.000 they're hit. In the past, there has have been some 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:48.360 concerns about various air fresheners. I mean, I'm sure they're 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:50.320 so are for a lot of the products out there, 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:52.800 about some of the chemicals that are involved in That's 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:55.360 why people end up going for these these more natural 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:57.920 products in any cases, because it's this whole question mark 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:00.480 of what am I actually pumping into the air. So 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:03.120 our bodies, Yeah, their bodies actually get in on the 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:06.080 conversation too, and they're like, whoa, I think this might 0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:10.160 be harmful. Let's get away from this particular odor or funk. 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:14.360 The funk coming in. It's the cloud of fake lavenger, yes, yes, 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:18.160 rushing toward us. And actually that brings up another point 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:21.040 when we're talking about actual funk in terms of like 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:25.920 hygiene or also another huge thing, uh on airplanes coughing 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:28.200 and sneezing. Another stand up comedian as He's and Sorry, 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:31.120 has a bit where he's he's talking about somebody like 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:33.720 flying into a rage at him about him having the sniffles, 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:35.920 and he and the person's just like, you can have 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:38.760 the sniffles for you know, however many hours and he 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:40.920 was like, whoa, that was, you know, really an appropriate 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:43.600 amount of anger over someone having the sniffles. But it 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:46.760 can be annoying on one level. It is like this 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:50.920 unpredictable sound, like when's it gonna stop, when's it gonna 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:53.360 happen again? You know? And then if you add into 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:55.640 that someone not covering their mouth when they cough, like 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:58.320 that's the worst. And I think I think the reasons 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:00.840 here pretty obvious, and that is that this is somebody's 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:03.760 else's hygiene issue going on. They've got some sort of 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:06.160 a bunk that we don't want to catch. So it's 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:08.360 it's natural that we would want to avoid it at 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:10.920 all costs. Okay, So that's why you see people on 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:14.439 the airplane sometimes like constantly spring their hands and cleaning, 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:16.639 or just George's bringing on like a tub of it 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:18.320 and just you can't do that anymore, but you still 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:21.040 bring on a tub of hand sanitizer and just and 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:23.560 just glob it on specifically, what right you'd want a 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:27.399 barrier of glob hand sanitizer? So glad they don't do that, 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:31.040 let you do that anymore. Yeah. Well, even on taking 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:33.199 the train to work, you know, somebody will cough and 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:35.720 instantly all I can think about are those images where 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:38.320 they show how far a cough travels, you know, where 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:41.080 they show this like giant red cloud that stems out 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:43.360 and I'm like, oh, like even when somebody's covering their mouth, 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:45.520 I'm just kind of cringe. And then if they don't, 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:48.560 I'm just like, oh, disease vector, throw that person from 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:50.359 the tree. That's it. I mean that's because you're you 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:53.600 are witnessing all of that. So yeah, we're trying to 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:58.280 detect disease um and even decay right because certain smells 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:01.760 and we're like whoa, uh, it's all very interesting how 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:05.240 we are doing this on an unconscious level. Oh here's 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:08.040 another one for our I think our last little bit 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:10.480 on this one. I was once on the train and 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:13.639 it was it was pretty crowded and uh, and somebody 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:16.040 gets on and they're having a loud, annoying and appropriate 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:19.240 conversation where it's like really mad, they're really irritated on 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:21.960 this phone call. And then they add and this train 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:23.639 is really crowded, and you know, that's one of my 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:26.359 pet peeves. And I'm thinking, that's that can't really be 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:28.920 your pet peeve. Don't act like you're the like one 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:31.399 of the few people on earth who doesn't dig a 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:34.960 crowded train. Like unless you were a, um, you know, 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:38.240 like a groper on a like a Japanese subway, or 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:41.919 you're a pickpocket, you're you're probably not going to be 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.040 really wild about the idea of a really uber crowded train. 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:49.600 But it's also a regular condition of at least in 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:52.919 our city at peak times, you know, so you you 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:55.359 come to expect this, but we still we never get 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:58.800 quite used to it. You know, like there's nothing there's 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:01.240 nothing sweeter than an empty train pulling up at the 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:03.959 track to take you to work. I will say that 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:06.879 at the peak of summer, when you're in the train 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:09.520 and it's just like it's a hundred ten outside and 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:14.040 drew inside the train. Um, it does kind of start 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:17.240 to smell like the reptile house at the it does. 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:21.040 There's a certain funk. But all of us being said, 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:24.040 we still have not answered the question about why nails 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:28.520 on a blackboard are so crowd thing. Yeah, go back, 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:30.199 we'll get we'll get the crowds, but let's let's go 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:32.040 to the nailboard thing. Well, before you get the nail 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:33.560 board the I'm gonna we need to take a break. 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:36.360 Oh yeah, we do. I know it's annoying, but we'll 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:40.800 gree high back after this. This podcast is brought to 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:45.119 you by Intel, the sponsors of Tomorrow and the Discovery Channel. 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:49.800 At Intel, we believe curiosity is the spark which drives innovation. 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:53.880 Join us at curiosity dot com and explore the answers 0:19:53.920 --> 0:20:00.480 to life's questions. And we're back. So, yeah, we have 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:03.240 crowds to discuss, and we also have nails in a chalkboard. 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:04.560 I mean, that's the big one. So let's go ahead 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:07.520 and discuss nails on a chalkboard. It is the iconic 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:10.560 annoying sound. And I think everyone responds the same to this. 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:13.280 And this again, this is a universal thing. The jury 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:17.000 is still out on exactly wine nails on chalkboards send 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:19.359 shivers down our spine and make us clench our teeth. 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:22.639 But in nineteen eighties, six study by doctors Lynn Helper 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:27.600 and Randolph Blake and James Hildebrand, subjected volunteers like the 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:31.680 fantasy artists who did all the token illustrations. Yes, that's 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:35.920 what I mean. The name caught my eye. Um volunteers. 0:20:35.920 --> 0:20:38.919 I'm gonna put volunteers and quotation marks, I think, uh 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:42.359 to sixteen different sounds and found that the sound made 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:46.639 from dragging a three pronged garden fork dragged across a 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:49.359