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Speaker 1: M Hey, everybody. Welcome to Stuff you Should Know Selects.

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Speaker 1: This is Chuck here this week. It's my pick and

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with how Willpower Works from February seven,

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Speaker 1: And frankly, I'm picking this one because I need to

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Speaker 1: listen to this one again because I have no willpower.

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Speaker 1: That's something I need to work on, so I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: check it out again. I encourage you to do the same.

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Speaker 1: It's uh, it's pretty neat episode. So here we go

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Speaker 1: with how Willpower Works. Welcome to Stuff you Should Know

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Speaker 1: from how Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to

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Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clarkin sitting across from me putting

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Speaker 1: on his Love your Mama. Um, lip ball? What what

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Speaker 1: Philip Flavors? That is almond? Actually is yummy? Look at

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Speaker 1: that plug right out of the gate. Uh, this is

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Speaker 1: Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Hello, those are nice lips you

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Speaker 1: got there, man. Wow, they're now moistified like moist blowning. Well,

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Speaker 1: the two of us get together as we are right now,

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Speaker 1: and you have yourself stuff you should know the podcast. Nope,

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Speaker 1: this is the podcast. It ain't going nowhere. It ain't

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Speaker 1: gonna change. Don't worry folks. Yeah, same as it ever was.

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Speaker 1: If you love the TV show, we thank you. If

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Speaker 1: you don't like it, hang out with us here online.

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Speaker 1: Yeah uh. Not to be confused with our online presence,

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Speaker 1: our website, our new website, the home of Josh stuff.

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Speaker 1: You should know dot com. This is pretty cool. I

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Speaker 1: don't mind saying words about this because we got a

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Speaker 1: new website and it's like, it's awesome. It's got video

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Speaker 1: and and blogs and photos and it's like all sorts

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Speaker 1: of cool stuff. It's us. It's our house on the

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Speaker 1: on the web. It's really cool. I mean stuff you

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Speaker 1: should know dot com. It's our website, mind blowing five

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Speaker 1: years in the making. Yeah. So uh. And then not

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Speaker 1: to be confused with our Twitter handle s y s

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Speaker 1: K podcast. Not to be confused with our Facebook page,

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Speaker 1: Facebook dot com slash stuff you should know boy your

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Speaker 1: front load this one. Yeah alright, All that's out of

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Speaker 1: the way, right. Um, So, Chuck, you're doing good, you're

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Speaker 1: feeling well. I'm not feeling great, but you know, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you're ready to be done. No. I'm ready to talk

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Speaker 1: about willpower though, because it is a topic that I

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Speaker 1: struggle with, as do most people. I think, like you

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Speaker 1: struggle with the topic, or you struggle with willpower. I

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Speaker 1: think everybody struggles with willpower. Oh yeah, well, as a

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Speaker 1: matter of fact, Um, I think you're absolutely right. There

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Speaker 1: is a very famous guy named Plato, famous Greek philosopher Plato. Plato. Plato, yes,

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Speaker 1: not Plato, right, um. And Plato decided well suggested that

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Speaker 1: the entire human experience, that the sum of human existence

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Speaker 1: could be basically nailed down with just this. You have

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Speaker 1: a higher self and a lower self. Yeah, and your

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Speaker 1: purpose for living is to overcome the usually more powerful

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Speaker 1: urges of the lower self in order to fulfill the

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Speaker 1: goals of the higher self. I am down without it

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Speaker 1: makes uttering complete sense. I don't know about the reason

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Speaker 1: for living, but the struggle man struggle or at least okay, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: like that's if you're born. You're going to face that. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but you're going to face it in varying degrees because,

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Speaker 1: as we found, willpower, which is what you use to

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Speaker 1: get over your lower urges and pursue your higher goals. Um,

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Speaker 1: it comes in differing amounts for differing people, different people. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and it and Robert Lamb wrote the original article from

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Speaker 1: House Touff works from stuff to blow your mind. And

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Speaker 1: he points out that we're at odds with our own

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Speaker 1: uh nature, as we have evolved here on the planet

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Speaker 1: because you know, we craved sugary sweet things because sugar

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Speaker 1: gave us lots of energy back in the day, and

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Speaker 1: back in the day they didn't have little debby cakes

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Speaker 1: within hands reach at all times. So we're sort of

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Speaker 1: at odds with ourselves. And he points out sexually as well, Um,

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Speaker 1: we evolved to spread the seed and procreate as much

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Speaker 1: as possible to ensure the survival of the species. And um,

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Speaker 1: nowadays you can't really do that stuff, or if you do,

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Speaker 1: you're a flander or a jerk or your spreading disease

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Speaker 1: and your public health nuisance. Yeah. So um, we're at

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Speaker 1: odds with ourselves, with our very existence. Yeah, and not

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Speaker 1: only internally, but you make the point um as a

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Speaker 1: society as well, I mean, society and evolution tussle. So

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Speaker 1: you can make the case that society represents our higher

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Speaker 1: self and you know, are what we are, basic instincts

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Speaker 1: that we've evolved to are our lower selves. So that's

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Speaker 1: what's going on, and it's will power, will power that

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Speaker 1: will get us over the bumps that come along in

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Speaker 1: life inevitably. Yeah, and it's I think most people relate

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Speaker 1: will power to things like eating or going to the gym,

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Speaker 1: or indulging in uh uh, sexual proclivities and things like that.

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Speaker 1: But I think it's broader than that. In general. I

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Speaker 1: think it's the will to, like Plato said, to strive to,

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Speaker 1: I guess, do the right thing. Yeah, by yourself, by others,

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Speaker 1: by society at large. Right. And I guess also, um,

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Speaker 1: how often you come up against that? How often you

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Speaker 1: have to exercise willpower because you you just hit it

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Speaker 1: on the head. Will power is the act of making

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Speaker 1: a decision. You're deciding to do something or not to

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Speaker 1: do something. Um, how often you do that? It does

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Speaker 1: depend on how you define the world around you. Yeah, Like,

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Speaker 1: are these things you know? Are you surrounded by temptations

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Speaker 1: that you have to ward off all the time and

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Speaker 1: you're paying attention to it and they're always closing in? Uh?

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Speaker 1: If you like that, then you're going to exercise your

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Speaker 1: willpower a lot. If you don't see the world as temptations,

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Speaker 1: you give into them all the time, you're not going

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Speaker 1: to If you look at the world is something that

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Speaker 1: you can handle, You're probably not gonna have to exercise

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Speaker 1: your willpower too much then either. But it's all they're all.

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Speaker 1: Those are three different ways of of living and they

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Speaker 1: all are I guess described by willpower and how you

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Speaker 1: use it. Yeah, that's a good point. Um. Robert h

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Speaker 1: makes a point that has backed up somewhat by science,

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Speaker 1: actually completely by science. The and he he puts in

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Speaker 1: terms of a video game, which makes sense that if

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Speaker 1: you were a video game and you have a willpower meter,

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Speaker 1: that that willpower meter is replenished and depleted on a daily,

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Speaker 1: probably hourly basis. And the more you uh use your

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Speaker 1: willpower and say, you know what, I'm not going to

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Speaker 1: have that little debby cake, your little willpower meter goes

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Speaker 1: down and it depletes itself, so you're not going to

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Speaker 1: have as much willpower maybe for the next decision. Right.

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Speaker 1: It's really interesting. Yeah, that's um pretty new. Our understanding

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Speaker 1: of willpower like that is very new. The first guy

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Speaker 1: to really kind of put it out like that was

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Speaker 1: freud Um, and he basically said, uh, you we have

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Speaker 1: this thing called willpower. We have an ego. That's that's

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Speaker 1: what the Freudians associate with willpowers, the ego and your

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Speaker 1: ego is this finite thing. It has a finite energy reserve.

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Speaker 1: It uses energy, and therefore it can be sapped. And

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Speaker 1: then Freud fell out of fashion, and um, everybody just

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Speaker 1: kind of stopped looking at willpower that way. And uh,

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Speaker 1: it wasn't until when a Florida State University psychologist named

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Speaker 1: Roy uh Baumeister. He uh, he figured out through this

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Speaker 1: test using chocolate and randishes, I believe that, um, you,

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Speaker 1: if you are staving off temptation using willpower, you actually

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Speaker 1: do terribly on like another test of willpower. Yeah, they

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Speaker 1: used persistence tests, um, basically puzzles that you have to

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Speaker 1: just keep at it and keep at It's not something

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Speaker 1: you could complete immediately, and offered some people chocolate chip

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Speaker 1: cookies and other chocolate treats of their liking, and offered

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Speaker 1: other people radishes instead, which is not a fair fight, right.

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Speaker 1: I mean, he really stacked the deck like maybe a radish,

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Speaker 1: a shaved radish in a salad or something. But if

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Speaker 1: all you're looking at is a plate of radish, then yeah,

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Speaker 1: I would take the cookie. So what he found out though,

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Speaker 1: was the people who ate the radishes had more trouble

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Speaker 1: completing the test. I guess because I guess the ideas

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Speaker 1: they're using up all their willpower to not eat the cookie,

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Speaker 1: so they don't have time for the test the persistence.

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Speaker 1: And there was also a another kind of follow up

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Speaker 1: study a few years after that by UM the the

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Speaker 1: University of Iowa professor with the greatest name of all

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Speaker 1: of the faculty there, Baba shiv Um and uh Dr

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Speaker 1: shiv Um had a basically tested willpower by saying, this

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Speaker 1: group is going to remember a two digit number, and

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Speaker 1: this group is going to remember a seven digit number,

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Speaker 1: and then we're gonna test their willpower UM by tempting

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Speaker 1: them with chocolate cake and uh Dr Ship found that

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Speaker 1: there was the people who were using their working memory

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Speaker 1: their cognitive capacity to remember the seven digit number had

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Speaker 1: a harder time resisting. So it basically proves that we

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Speaker 1: use our working memory to resist temptation. And I guess

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Speaker 1: it's something like reminding yourself, you know, at the at

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Speaker 1: the forefront of your mind not to do something, you

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Speaker 1: know until the temptation past. Who knows, Yeah, maybe I

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Speaker 1: had that cookie yesterday, so man, I can't eat it today.

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Speaker 1: Or we use our working memory to remind ourselves of

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Speaker 1: our long term goals in the face of a short

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Speaker 1: term reward. Well, that's one of the big keys I think. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and uh, that's something Robert hits on, which is I

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Speaker 1: want that cookie now, and I know bikini seasons coming up,

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Speaker 1: and you see you mean a bikini. Josh, it's not pretty.

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Speaker 1: I will never get that out of my memory, working memory,

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Speaker 1: or other one, that bikini. And but that's sort of

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Speaker 1: what we're at odds with is the short term. I

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Speaker 1: think humans as a group tend to enjoy the short,

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Speaker 1: short term pleasures and if you truly learn to conquer

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Speaker 1: that in in uh lieu of long term gain, that's

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Speaker 1: when you're like, you're winning, is Charlie Sheen would say,

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Speaker 1: right exactly, although Charlie Sheen is not exactly one who's

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Speaker 1: known to exercise the willpower. No, you know, that was

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Speaker 1: a really odd person to tap for that. But well

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Speaker 1: I think that's the opposite he was. He thought winning

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Speaker 1: was the short term game. Yeah, I guess yeah. Um,

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Speaker 1: and that is so dated. Yeah, people like when you

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Speaker 1: guys record this, but it's been I think today might

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Speaker 1: be the very day where you could get away with it.

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Speaker 1: So it was perfect right the way. Um, so from

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Speaker 1: all these tests like when Baumeister Um put his study

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Speaker 1: ego depletion colon is the act of self a limited resource.

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Speaker 1: It just basically kicked off the slew of follow up

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Speaker 1: studies from Dr Shiv and others and UM. One of

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Speaker 1: the things that they found was that you can kind

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Speaker 1: of watch people exercise worldpower on the old Wonder machine yeah, UM.

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Speaker 1: Using m r S. They put people in and had

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Speaker 1: them think about, I guess a suite or a health

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Speaker 1: food and decide between them. Yeah, And they found that

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Speaker 1: the ventromedial prefrontal cortex lights up when you're making that decision,

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Speaker 1: when you're considering it, which made sense they I think

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Speaker 1: they kind of expected that, but they were also surprised

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Speaker 1: to find that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex UM, which is

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Speaker 1: located a little further back UM, that lit up as well.

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Speaker 1: And they think that that has lit up for the

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Speaker 1: people who made a good decision only thank you. And

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Speaker 1: they think that that's maybe part of your that's part

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Speaker 1: of the working memory where you're like, no, I can't

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Speaker 1: eat that, because yes, that's tapping into that higher self

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Speaker 1: goal pursuit. That's the dorso lateral prefrontal cortex, right, you

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Speaker 1: did a nice job there by the ways. Uh So.

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Speaker 1: The bomber also went on to say that, um, he could.

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Speaker 1: He compares the willpower, your own willpower to a muscle

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Speaker 1: or something like a muscle, and you can deplete it,

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Speaker 1: Like you said, if you overwork your muscles, you're just

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Speaker 1: going to deplete your muscles and be worn out at

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Speaker 1: the end of the day. Or you can exercise that

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Speaker 1: muscle in a in a healthy way and make it

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Speaker 1: stronger in the long term. Um do you do this?

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Speaker 1: After reading this is sord to realize that I actually

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Speaker 1: kind of exercised willpower all the time. What you I

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Speaker 1: think you especially do so, like, for example, I have

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Speaker 1: a mail key that I used to go get the mail,

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Speaker 1: right and we keep it in our car, And I

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Speaker 1: had to go to the car and get the mail

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Speaker 1: key and then go get the mail. And it was

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Speaker 1: cold out yesterday, and then on the way back, I

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Speaker 1: could have just taken the mail key inside with me

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Speaker 1: and taking it back to the car, and the next

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Speaker 1: time I went to the car again it was very cold.

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Speaker 1: But instead I walked up a flight of stairs, put

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Speaker 1: the mail key into the car, and then went back home.

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Speaker 1: So you're you're you made that decision and you struggled

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Speaker 1: with it, even in a minor way. Yes, I did

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Speaker 1: it specifically because there was no reason whatsoever for me

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Speaker 1: to do that rationally and as far as common sense,

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Speaker 1: when there was no there's no purpose to it. But

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Speaker 1: by doing it, I basically just exercise my willpower. It

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Speaker 1: was something I didn't really want to do, but it

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Speaker 1: wasn't a big deal, but it was I could like.

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Speaker 1: Doing that accumulates. Yeah, I think I think you and

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Speaker 1: I are really different in that way. I see you

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Speaker 1: as someone who actively works that muscle a lot on

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Speaker 1: a daily basis, and I don't enough. And not that

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Speaker 1: I just have no willpower, but I don't give it,

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Speaker 1: give decisions like that enough consideration. Does that make sense completely?

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Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I'll just go upstairs and throw

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Speaker 1: the key on the coffee table, which a sane person

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Speaker 1: she kind of has that that thought. I think that

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Speaker 1: puts you in the same camp. But that doesn't ensure

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Speaker 1: that I'm making good decisions for my life, you know.

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Speaker 1: But I mean, I don't think you're making bad ones.

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Speaker 1: But it's good to self reflect, you know, Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: do kind of. It's kind of fun, you know, it's

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Speaker 1: like a game. Yeah, I want to you know, it's

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Speaker 1: it's like how Ramrod Street can I stayd you know,

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Speaker 1: That's what I'm building towards. Uh So. Another thing Robert

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Speaker 1: points out from the science side of things is as

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Speaker 1: far as giving into the short term in favor of

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Speaker 1: the long term, is glucose plays a big part in that.

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Speaker 1: And I think they found that a quick um shot

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Speaker 1: of sugar I don't think a whole lot can sometimes

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Speaker 1: stave off or build up that willpower reserve in the

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Speaker 1: short term. Yeah, it's like, ah, you you were talking

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Speaker 1: about how we have like a um willpower bar and

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Speaker 1: every time we were this temptation is depleted a little

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Speaker 1: more and more. They found that a shot of glucose

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Speaker 1: replenishes that willpower bar. So is that in lieu of like,

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Speaker 1: hey boy, I really want that cupcake, but let me

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Speaker 1: have the juice box instead. That's the irony of it,

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Speaker 1: is giving into that cupcake may help you exercise you

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Speaker 1: wild power with other stuff later further on. Didn't that weird?

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Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean if you had something healthier, that

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Speaker 1: would be the better choice. But the point is is

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Speaker 1: like any kind of shot of gluco this has been

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Speaker 1: shown to UM to to re up your your willpower.

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Speaker 1: And this was very much poop pooed at first, this idea, UM,

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Speaker 1: I think Baumeister. This is really great article by John

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Speaker 1: Tierney in New York Times magazine. It's from UM the

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Speaker 1: August before last. It's called do You Suffer from Decision Fatigue?

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Speaker 1: Our buddy Chad loves this proselytized this article. Remember, okay,

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Speaker 1: this is the one, so I strongly recommend everybody to read.

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Speaker 1: It's a good one. But UM and and it it

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Speaker 1: talks about Baumeister like thinking that you know glucose has

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Speaker 1: something to do with this UM and it was poop

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Speaker 1: pooed at first, because everybody knows the brain uses the

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Speaker 1: same amount of energy pretty much all day long. So

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Speaker 1: that didn't make any sense. Like if you're if you're

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Speaker 1: ego depleted and you're you're suffering from some sort of

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Speaker 1: willpower fatigue, but your brain still using the same amount

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Speaker 1: of energy, those two don't jibe. Again with the m

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Speaker 1: r I. What they found was somebody suffering from ego

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Speaker 1: depletion from willpower fatigue who took a shot of gluco

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Speaker 1: or whatever UM their brains lit up in areas that

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Speaker 1: had to do with exercising will power. So while your

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Speaker 1: brain was using the same amount of energy, it was

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Speaker 1: using them in different places when your willpower was fatigued.

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Speaker 1: And that glutecast basically was like spinach to popeye for

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Speaker 1: that part of your brain that's charged with exercising willpower.

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Speaker 1: Isn't that? Yeah? So what do you carry on a

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Speaker 1: packet sugar with you at all times? Come on still

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Speaker 1: with sugar right now? Um? Also, uh, the in that

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Speaker 1: same article they talk about this, uh, this kind of

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Speaker 1: landmark study of an Israeli parole board, and um, they

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Speaker 1: found that you if you were a parole e and

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Speaker 1: you came to them after it had been a while

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Speaker 1: since a break or lunch or breakfast, your chances of

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Speaker 1: being paroled dropped by like fifty or sixt oh if

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Speaker 1: the parole board had not had breakfast, yes or no.

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Speaker 1: If they if you came to them like right after

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Speaker 1: things got started after breakfast or after lunch, your chances

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Speaker 1: of being paroled were like fifty to fifty greater than

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Speaker 1: people who came to them for identical crimes like a

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Speaker 1: couple of hours later. I'm sure that makes the criminals

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Speaker 1: of the world feel pretty great. Yeah, exactly, so arbitrary.

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Speaker 1: And they what they found is it's not laziness. It's

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Speaker 1: not like physical fatigue, where like you can tell you're tired.

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Speaker 1: What our brains do is they employ the strategy where

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Speaker 1: you you are, you become risk averse, like you don't

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Speaker 1: want to make a decision, so you say, you know what,

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Speaker 1: I'm just gonna put this off. You're gonna go back

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Speaker 1: to jail. I'm not going to grant your parole because

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Speaker 1: that's risky behavior to let you back out in the world.

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Speaker 1: And I'm just I've made too many decisions today. But

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Speaker 1: you're not thinking this. They just say parole to nine

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Speaker 1: and you have no idea why. It just makes sense

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Speaker 1: to you at the time. But if you had had

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Speaker 1: some glucoset that same instance, you may you may be like, well, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think you're you're ready to come back out in society.

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Speaker 1: That reminds me of the band Rush, Yes, that we

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Speaker 1: talked about before. I remember this from when I was

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Speaker 1: a teenager. You know the lyric um Man, what song

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Speaker 1: is it? If you choose not to decide, you still

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Speaker 1: have made a choice free will. Oh yeah, that's from

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Speaker 1: that song of course. I think on the original album

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Speaker 1: jacket it says if you choose not to decide, you

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Speaker 1: cannot have made a choice. Is there. Yeah, my brother

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Speaker 1: and I used to laugh that. I think Neil Perd

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Speaker 1: actually wrote a lot of the lyrics back then that

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Speaker 1: Getty Lee justlike you know, edged it out with events.

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Speaker 1: But it's the complete opposite meanings. So it's interesting that

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Speaker 1: at some point Rush I guess that maybe a band

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Speaker 1: argument or something. I'm glad Getty Lee one, Yeah, you

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Speaker 1: have made a choice. No, you cannot have made a choice.

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Speaker 1: Just shut up, play drums. Your voice is weird. I

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Speaker 1: remember hearing that the first time. I was like, oh man,

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Speaker 1: oh yeah, blew me away? Yeah yeah, free will I

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Speaker 1: can't believe I didn't remember the name. And you're like,

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Speaker 1: I can't think of the name of this song, but

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Speaker 1: it's about free will? Yeah? Was it Red bar Chetta?

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Speaker 1: All right? Oh? I didn't really fully get the um

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Speaker 1: the Stanford UH psychologist Walton and Dweck and then is Dweck.

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Speaker 1: It sounds like saying direct wrong. Um. I didn't fully

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Speaker 1: get that that they they said that people UH who

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Speaker 1: have will fund willpower fatigue tend to slack off when

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Speaker 1: they felt their resolve wavering, but then people who felt

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Speaker 1: their resolve was limitless pressed on. I like that, just

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Speaker 1: I don't get the point there. It seems like a

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Speaker 1: no brainer. So yeah, I think I think it is.

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Speaker 1: You may just be looking too deeply. It was like

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Speaker 1: what I was talking about earlier at the beginning, where like,

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Speaker 1: depending on how you see the world, like do you

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Speaker 1: see the world is like, like you have willpower, so

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Speaker 1: you can overcome any temptation. You're going to last longer

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Speaker 1: on tests of will power than somebody who is like, um,

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Speaker 1: I'm feeling kind of weak today, you know, and then

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Speaker 1: you're just gonna give in. Okay, So it is pretty simple. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: all right, I thought it was a dummy. Not only

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Speaker 1: is it simple, I managed to make it more complex

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Speaker 1: and talk about it at length. Uh. They do know

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Speaker 1: that people, generally there is some genetic component involved, Like

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Speaker 1: if your parents are super self disciplined, then you were

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Speaker 1: more likely to turn out that way. I found that

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Speaker 1: to be true from friends of mine whose parents were

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Speaker 1: like super self discipline and their kids kind of turned

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Speaker 1: out that way too. Yeah, but I wonder, and Robert

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Speaker 1: makes a point in the article like is it genetic

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Speaker 1: or epigenetic. Yeah, I don't know, probably both would be

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Speaker 1: my guests. We just chose not to decide. We cannot

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Speaker 1: have made a choice. Uh. And then the old marshmallow

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Speaker 1: experiment this uh Stanford, not the prison experiment, but the

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Speaker 1: marshmallow experiment from the nineteen sixties, very famous one where

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Speaker 1: they placed these uh tortured these kids basically by placing

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Speaker 1: a marshmallow in front of them and saying, if you

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Speaker 1: hold off on eating that marshmallow in fifteen minutes, you

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Speaker 1: will have too. And of course not many of the

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Speaker 1: kids could hold out, but they found that the ones

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Speaker 1: who did hold out of the second marshmallow went on

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Speaker 1: in life to greater successes, at least if you count

383
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Speaker 1: s a T scores as a measure of success, two

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Speaker 1: points higher than the ones who chowed down on the marshmallow.

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Speaker 1: And the ones who ate the marshmallow later on had

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Speaker 1: struggles with relationships and stress and uh attention. Yeah, so

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Speaker 1: I wonder if that has even do with like you know,

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Speaker 1: O c D. I wonder as well, I wonder how

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Speaker 1: much um of our modern problems are really just crises

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Speaker 1: of willpower? I wonder, um. There was a follow up

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Speaker 1: to that sixties experiment. There's been a bunch, but there

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Speaker 1: was one in at the University of Rochester that was

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Speaker 1: carried out last year that um found we are more

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Speaker 1: willing to exercise willpower if we think that what we're

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Speaker 1: holding out for is actually going to happen, you know. Uh,

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Speaker 1: And they did that by this is hilarious. It's funny.

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Speaker 1: Studies with kids are always they're so cruel and funny,

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Speaker 1: I mean not the really truly cruel ones that any

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Speaker 1: psychic logical study that has new kids almost invariably has

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Speaker 1: some cruel aspect to it, and this one was no, uh,

401
00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:11,480
Speaker 1: was no exception. Basically, Uh, they said, here's the control group,

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Speaker 1: here's here's the experimental group, and the control group. We

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Speaker 1: want to give you some extra art supplies. Let us

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Speaker 1: go get them. And they came back with some extra

405
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Speaker 1: art supplies. The experimental group. They said, hey, we're gonna

406
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Speaker 1: get you some more art supplies. We'll be right back.

407
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Speaker 1: And they came back. They're like, we don't have any

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Speaker 1: more art supplies. We know you were really excited, but sorry,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna have to make do with that old red pen.

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Speaker 1: And then they tested them with the marshmallow experiment and

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Speaker 1: found that the ones who had gotten the art supplies

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Speaker 1: the promise hadn't been broken. Sure, uh, they held out

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Speaker 1: longer than the ones who have been lied to. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they're like, screw that, you're not bringing me to marshmallows.

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Speaker 1: I don't in this marshmallow right now. Exactly, I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: kick you in the ship afterwards too, I'll show you. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's not cruel on the level. What was that one?

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Speaker 1: The one kid, remember the that we talked about that

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Speaker 1: was tested on like oh, kept in a closet. No,

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Speaker 1: they tested fear conditioning and extinction and the kid it

421
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Speaker 1: was a little Albert where they like they would put

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Speaker 1: a bunny in his lap and then bang the bar

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Speaker 1: of metal with a hammer and scare the Jesus out

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00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:21,760
Speaker 1: of him. And it came to like fear rabbits, Like

425
00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:23,960
Speaker 1: there was a search for him, right, and they eventually

426
00:24:23,960 --> 00:24:26,160
Speaker 1: found him, they thought, I think, so, I don't remember

427
00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:29,159
Speaker 1: I wrote a blog post that I'll have to republish

428
00:24:29,280 --> 00:24:31,159
Speaker 1: or whatever because it's been a while. I don't remember.

429
00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:33,600
Speaker 1: But yeah, they figured out who it was pretty much.

430
00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:36,119
Speaker 1: So this isn't on that level. No, no, no, this

431
00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:41,080
Speaker 1: is just marshmallows. Yes. Um. So oh, there was one

432
00:24:41,080 --> 00:24:42,720
Speaker 1: other point I wanted to bring up that I thought

433
00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:46,840
Speaker 1: was pretty interesting and horrible from that John Tierney article.

434
00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:53,040
Speaker 1: Um where with with decision fatigue, with exercising willpower disproportionately

435
00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:56,520
Speaker 1: affects the poor and they think that possibly now, uh,

436
00:24:56,560 --> 00:25:01,040
Speaker 1: that poverty exists in a cycle because is if you're

437
00:25:01,040 --> 00:25:03,959
Speaker 1: a poor person, you have to exercise willpower. You have

438
00:25:04,040 --> 00:25:07,280
Speaker 1: to make more decisions than somebody who has more resources,

439
00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:10,760
Speaker 1: more money. Like say you're walking through the grocery store. Um,

440
00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:13,920
Speaker 1: you know, I want the soap and this food. If

441
00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:16,600
Speaker 1: you're poor, you might have to say I want both,

442
00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:18,920
Speaker 1: but I have to just buy one. I don't have

443
00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:20,680
Speaker 1: enough for both. So how much is it going to be?

444
00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:25,840
Speaker 1: And their willpower there there there, their resources of of

445
00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:29,320
Speaker 1: willpower of decision making become fatigued a lot faster because

446
00:25:29,359 --> 00:25:31,640
Speaker 1: they have to exercise it a lot more and they

447
00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:37,160
Speaker 1: don't have the uh, the resources to get themselves out

448
00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:42,159
Speaker 1: of poverty, to indulge or to like study or do

449
00:25:42,200 --> 00:25:45,880
Speaker 1: you know, do more. That they already have the deck

450
00:25:45,960 --> 00:25:48,800
Speaker 1: stecked against them resource wise, But then you throw in

451
00:25:48,840 --> 00:25:53,639
Speaker 1: this this idea of willpower, possibly that's that makes it

452
00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:57,000
Speaker 1: even more difficult. I never really thought about that. It's

453
00:25:57,040 --> 00:25:59,720
Speaker 1: pretty interesting stuff. It makes you, It makes me, you know,

454
00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:02,120
Speaker 1: you feel for him even more. Yeah, and it makes

455
00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:05,119
Speaker 1: me feel bad when say, do I want the peanut

456
00:26:05,200 --> 00:26:08,080
Speaker 1: butter ganosh cupcake or chocolate? You know what? Just go

457
00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:11,040
Speaker 1: ahead and give me both, right, exactly, Well, you can

458
00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:13,840
Speaker 1: buy both and then just take one to somebody who's

459
00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:16,480
Speaker 1: struggling in the grocery store trying to figure out they're

460
00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:49,879
Speaker 1: gonna buy soap for food. It's a good idea. Yeah, uh,

461
00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:52,600
Speaker 1: you got anything else? Man? No, this is this is

462
00:26:52,640 --> 00:26:54,960
Speaker 1: a good one. Yeah. I like wildpower. It's fun. Go

463
00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:57,320
Speaker 1: out and exercise it in little ways. It's fun. Or

464
00:26:57,359 --> 00:27:00,119
Speaker 1: don't either that or um strap of car battery to

465
00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:05,679
Speaker 1: your inner thighs. It's just fun. Uh okay. Well, if

466
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:07,399
Speaker 1: you want to learn more about willpower and made this

467
00:27:07,480 --> 00:27:11,440
Speaker 1: good article by Robert Lamb, you can type in willpower

468
00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:13,240
Speaker 1: in the search bar at how stuff works dot com

469
00:27:13,320 --> 00:27:14,960
Speaker 1: and it will bring it up. And I said search bar.

470
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:19,560
Speaker 1: So it's time for a listener mail, yeah, Josh. Quickly,

471
00:27:19,600 --> 00:27:21,479
Speaker 1: before we do that, we need to say a special

472
00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:26,000
Speaker 1: thank you to a fan of ours who helped us

473
00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:29,360
Speaker 1: out with our Wikipedia page. Oh nice, thank you, And

474
00:27:29,680 --> 00:27:32,400
Speaker 1: he was very cool and and his name and he's

475
00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:34,919
Speaker 1: been mentioned on tech stuff evidently too. Oh wow, this

476
00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:37,600
Speaker 1: guy's a star and we're not gonna hold that against him.

477
00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:40,359
Speaker 1: And this is how he His name is spelled A

478
00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:45,000
Speaker 1: N T R I K s h yadaf y A

479
00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:49,960
Speaker 1: d A B. And he says, you pronounce it won trick.

480
00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:55,560
Speaker 1: The t is soft though, as in math Son tri trip.

481
00:27:56,320 --> 00:27:59,679
Speaker 1: Yeah there you go, he he phonetically spelled out. He

482
00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:01,400
Speaker 1: told you what it sounded like. And I still can't

483
00:28:01,440 --> 00:28:03,360
Speaker 1: quite do it. So we just want to say thanks

484
00:28:03,359 --> 00:28:06,399
Speaker 1: a lot for helping us with the Wikipedia page. And

485
00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:11,040
Speaker 1: now a listener mail that I'm gonna call That's why

486
00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:15,240
Speaker 1: sk can help you get ladies. This from Todd in

487
00:28:15,280 --> 00:28:18,720
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City. Guys and Jerry. I've come to the conclusion

488
00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:21,520
Speaker 1: that I may owe you a big thank you. Your

489
00:28:21,520 --> 00:28:25,240
Speaker 1: podcast has created the impression, whether fiction or reality, that

490
00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:28,040
Speaker 1: I am somehow a guy who knows about stuff with

491
00:28:28,080 --> 00:28:31,959
Speaker 1: the ladies. My new girlfriend, in fact, mentions as one

492
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:35,120
Speaker 1: of my winning traits that I'm often saying interesting things.

493
00:28:35,600 --> 00:28:38,080
Speaker 1: And this really interested me, so I asked her for

494
00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:41,280
Speaker 1: some examples of things that I say, and it was

495
00:28:41,320 --> 00:28:44,200
Speaker 1: notable that every example that she cided was something that

496
00:28:44,280 --> 00:28:47,440
Speaker 1: I learned listening to your podcast at work. So it

497
00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:50,080
Speaker 1: is quite possible, Sirs, that you and your podcast made

498
00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:53,560
Speaker 1: my baby fall in love with me. I'd like to

499
00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:56,400
Speaker 1: shake your hands. Every single guy should listen to your

500
00:28:56,400 --> 00:28:59,640
Speaker 1: podcast because it may at least get you a second date.

501
00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:04,440
Speaker 1: And that is Todd from Oklahoma City, who is banking

502
00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:08,320
Speaker 1: on our knowledge to woo women, and I guess he

503
00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:10,719
Speaker 1: got a girlfriend of it. Good going, Todd. Good for you.

504
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:13,680
Speaker 1: We're glad we could help. Man. We're married, dude, so

505
00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:20,320
Speaker 1: we we live vicariously through these emails. That's not true. Well, no,

506
00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:22,720
Speaker 1: I think it's great. I'm happy for Todd. I don't

507
00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:27,800
Speaker 1: mean I live vicariously and said I wish. No. No,

508
00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:30,160
Speaker 1: I just mean like, that's great. I'm glad someone out

509
00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:31,880
Speaker 1: there is getting a date because of this. Yeah. I

510
00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:35,000
Speaker 1: love helping people find love connections. Yeah, as a matter

511
00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:37,120
Speaker 1: of fact, we should do a speed dating episode. I

512
00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:40,200
Speaker 1: wrote an article on it once and it's pretty neat. Yeah,

513
00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:42,480
Speaker 1: my friend p J. You met p J. He uh,

514
00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:45,080
Speaker 1: he just texted me yesterday and said, Hey, this girl

515
00:29:45,160 --> 00:29:47,320
Speaker 1: he does a lot of online dating. He said part

516
00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:49,600
Speaker 1: of her profiles that she's like a huge fan of

517
00:29:49,600 --> 00:29:52,680
Speaker 1: you guys, And I said data. Yeah, well I don't

518
00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:55,560
Speaker 1: know data. There you go. You're doing it all over

519
00:29:55,600 --> 00:29:58,400
Speaker 1: the place. Man's right. Um, let's see if we have

520
00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:01,920
Speaker 1: affected your life positive lee. Um, we want to hear

521
00:30:01,960 --> 00:30:07,000
Speaker 1: about it, not negatively, just positively. You can tweet to

522
00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:09,120
Speaker 1: us at s y ESK podcast. You can join us

523
00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:11,880
Speaker 1: on Facebook dot com, slash stuff you Should Know. You

524
00:30:11,920 --> 00:30:14,760
Speaker 1: can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at Discovery

525
00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:17,360
Speaker 1: dot com, and you can always find us hanging out

526
00:30:17,520 --> 00:30:19,959
Speaker 1: at our home on the web, Stuff you Should Know

527
00:30:20,360 --> 00:30:28,440
Speaker 1: dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics,

528
00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:40,960
Speaker 1: visit how Stuff Works dot com.