1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,520 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hi 2 00:00:06,640 --> 00:00:09,520 Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam here with a classic episode 3 00:00:09,560 --> 00:00:13,160 Speaker 1: from our archives. You know, I never thought that much 4 00:00:13,160 --> 00:00:16,079 Speaker 1: about that intro line that I just said that I 5 00:00:16,160 --> 00:00:18,079 Speaker 1: say something to the extent of at the beginning of 6 00:00:18,079 --> 00:00:21,000 Speaker 1: every episode. I inherited the line from one of our 7 00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:23,040 Speaker 1: former hosts, and I just sort of went with it. 8 00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:26,439 Speaker 1: But this episode made me feel a number of ways 9 00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:29,840 Speaker 1: about it. The question of the day is, how can 10 00:00:29,880 --> 00:00:38,200 Speaker 1: talking about yourself in the third person make you feel better? Hey, 11 00:00:38,200 --> 00:00:41,320 Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam here. In pop culture parlance, 12 00:00:41,479 --> 00:00:44,479 Speaker 1: it's known as the Jimmy, the odd conversational quirk of 13 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:47,120 Speaker 1: referring to yourself in the third person, named after the 14 00:00:47,159 --> 00:00:49,839 Speaker 1: Seinfeld character who bragged about his basketball skills as if 15 00:00:49,840 --> 00:00:54,640 Speaker 1: he was his own biggest fans jim He's ready, dude check. 16 00:00:56,360 --> 00:00:59,720 Speaker 1: Professional sports and politics are full of real life Jimmy's 17 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:03,080 Speaker 1: outsized personalities with the off putting habit of talking about 18 00:01:03,080 --> 00:01:06,600 Speaker 1: themselves by name. Senator Bob Dole was mocked relentlessly on 19 00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:10,080 Speaker 1: Saturday Night Live for his Bob Dole is ums Lebron James, 20 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:12,959 Speaker 1: defending his controversial move from his hometown of Cleveland to 21 00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:15,960 Speaker 1: the Miami Heat famously said I wanted to do what 22 00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:19,400 Speaker 1: was best for Lebron James to make him happy. The 23 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:21,680 Speaker 1: real term for talking about yourself of the third person 24 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:24,959 Speaker 1: is ilioism, and every armchair psychologist has a theory for 25 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:30,520 Speaker 1: why certain celebrities are rabbid iliasts. The easiest explanation is ego. Essentially, 26 00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:32,880 Speaker 1: their ego gets so big and inflated that it takes 27 00:01:32,880 --> 00:01:35,440 Speaker 1: on a life of its own. Same for narcissism. These 28 00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:37,640 Speaker 1: folks love themselves so much that they need to address 29 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:40,720 Speaker 1: the object of their affection by name. But the truth 30 00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:42,800 Speaker 1: is that no substantial research has been done on the 31 00:01:42,880 --> 00:01:46,200 Speaker 1: question of why some A list athletes, actors, and politicians 32 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:49,560 Speaker 1: can't keep their own name out of their mouth. Interestingly, though, 33 00:01:49,760 --> 00:01:52,480 Speaker 1: there is convincing evidence that regular folks like you and 34 00:01:52,520 --> 00:01:55,440 Speaker 1: me can actually boost ourself confidence through the simple trick 35 00:01:55,680 --> 00:01:59,160 Speaker 1: of thinking of ourselves in the third person. Ethan Cross 36 00:01:59,280 --> 00:02:02,000 Speaker 1: is a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, where 37 00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:05,680 Speaker 1: he runs the Emotion and Self Control Laboratory. Cross studies 38 00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:08,160 Speaker 1: the ways in which people regulate their emotions, including the 39 00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:11,400 Speaker 1: handy trick of psychological distancing. Taking a step back from 40 00:02:11,440 --> 00:02:14,040 Speaker 1: intense anger or pain to think about the situation as 41 00:02:14,080 --> 00:02:17,760 Speaker 1: an objective outsider. Cross said, what we've learned is that 42 00:02:17,880 --> 00:02:21,200 Speaker 1: language provides people with a tool to distance themselves psychologically, 43 00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:24,720 Speaker 1: including language that many people use spontaneously without even thinking 44 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:27,240 Speaker 1: about it. It turns out that all of us, not 45 00:02:27,320 --> 00:02:30,520 Speaker 1: just celebrities, engage in what Cross calls third person self 46 00:02:30,560 --> 00:02:33,320 Speaker 1: talk when we need a little emotional or psychological boost. 47 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:35,520 Speaker 1: Maybe it happens at the gym when we feel like 48 00:02:35,600 --> 00:02:38,520 Speaker 1: quitting with five minutes left on the elliptical, Come on, Lauren, 49 00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:40,959 Speaker 1: pushed through, or when we're trying to work up the 50 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:43,960 Speaker 1: nerve to ask our boss for a raise. You deserve this, Lauren, 51 00:02:44,720 --> 00:02:47,560 Speaker 1: And as weird as that just felt, it works. In 52 00:02:47,639 --> 00:02:50,600 Speaker 1: his lab, Cross ran experiments comparing the performance of two 53 00:02:50,639 --> 00:02:53,840 Speaker 1: groups in a stressful situation. One group that was prompted 54 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:56,359 Speaker 1: to psych itself up with eye statements and a second 55 00:02:56,360 --> 00:02:59,520 Speaker 1: group that used use statements and their own name. When 56 00:02:59,520 --> 00:03:02,320 Speaker 1: the particip were asked to give an extemporaneous speech in public, 57 00:03:02,480 --> 00:03:05,040 Speaker 1: a true stress bomb. The Jimmy group came in with 58 00:03:05,040 --> 00:03:08,880 Speaker 1: a healthier attitude, performed better, and was less critical of itself. Afterward. 59 00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:11,760 Speaker 1: In a later study, Cross took f M R I 60 00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:14,760 Speaker 1: brain scans of people engaged in first person versus third 61 00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:18,400 Speaker 1: persons self talk. The scans revealed that I centered thinking 62 00:03:18,440 --> 00:03:21,320 Speaker 1: it triggers the areas of the brain associated with negative 63 00:03:21,360 --> 00:03:25,800 Speaker 1: self referential processes, while Jimmy style thinking does not. In addition, 64 00:03:25,960 --> 00:03:29,600 Speaker 1: the third person self talk appears to bypass the cognitive 65 00:03:29,720 --> 00:03:32,440 Speaker 1: or effortful parts of the brain. In other words, the 66 00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:36,600 Speaker 1: positive effect is automatic. Cross recommends that everyone give it 67 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:39,040 Speaker 1: a try the next time they're stressed or emotionally wrought. 68 00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:43,240 Speaker 1: He said, compared to other emotional regulation strategies, third person 69 00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:45,480 Speaker 1: self talk might be a little bit easier for people 70 00:03:45,480 --> 00:03:48,320 Speaker 1: to implement, the costs are minimal, and the potential upshot 71 00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:51,880 Speaker 1: is valuable. Does this mean that all the Lebrons, Jimmy's 72 00:03:51,880 --> 00:03:53,960 Speaker 1: and Trumps of the world are talking about themselves in 73 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:57,040 Speaker 1: the third person because they're trying to establish psychological distance 74 00:03:57,080 --> 00:04:01,000 Speaker 1: from stressful situations, maybe, says Cross, But it's not something 75 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:04,680 Speaker 1: that he or anyone else has studied. Interestingly, in the 76 00:04:04,720 --> 00:04:07,840 Speaker 1: famous clip of Lebron James defending Lebron James, he also 77 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:10,360 Speaker 1: tells the interviewer what I didn't want to do was 78 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:13,760 Speaker 1: make an emotional decision. Maybe for James, the best way 79 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:17,120 Speaker 1: to distance himself emotionally and make an objective decision was too, 80 00:04:17,320 --> 00:04:20,000 Speaker 1: as he put it, do what's best for Lebron James, 81 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:24,880 Speaker 1: not necessarily himself. One important difference between the lab experiments 82 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:27,440 Speaker 1: and examples of celebrity self name dropping is that the 83 00:04:27,440 --> 00:04:31,039 Speaker 1: participants in Crosses study never spoke out loud. All of 84 00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:33,640 Speaker 1: the self talk was internal or written out on paper. 85 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:36,240 Speaker 1: So there's still a possibility that when it comes to 86 00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:41,000 Speaker 1: celebrity self talkers, that first theory we mentioned still applies. However, 87 00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:44,320 Speaker 1: we'll leave you with an interesting case study. Soccer legend 88 00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:47,640 Speaker 1: Pel was a world class Jimmy, but for an interesting reason, 89 00:04:48,440 --> 00:04:51,560 Speaker 1: Born Edson arounds Pile, the person didn't identify with the 90 00:04:51,640 --> 00:04:55,160 Speaker 1: global superstar that had crowds chanting his name. He told 91 00:04:55,160 --> 00:04:57,920 Speaker 1: the Guardian, Edson is the person who has the feelings, 92 00:04:57,920 --> 00:05:00,760 Speaker 1: who has the family, who works hard, and Pile is 93 00:05:00,760 --> 00:05:04,479 Speaker 1: the idol. Pele doesn't die, Pele will never die. Pile 94 00:05:04,839 --> 00:05:09,279 Speaker 1: is going to go on forever. Today's episode is based 95 00:05:09,279 --> 00:05:11,800 Speaker 1: on the article the Benefits of talking about yourself in 96 00:05:11,839 --> 00:05:14,520 Speaker 1: the third person on House to Forks Dot com written 97 00:05:14,520 --> 00:05:17,599 Speaker 1: by Dave Roose. Brainstuff is production by Heart Radio in 98 00:05:17,640 --> 00:05:20,760 Speaker 1: partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang. 99 00:05:21,200 --> 00:05:23,560 Speaker 1: Four more podcasts to my heart Radio, visit the I 100 00:05:23,640 --> 00:05:26,360 Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 101 00:05:26,400 --> 00:05:27,240 Speaker 1: your favorite shows.