Shows / Why We Do What We Do
Why We Do What We Do
We explain popular and weird, little-known ideas in psychology. Whether you are a little curious about psychology, or a student, or even a professional, we have something for everyone.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/why-we-do-what-we-do--3419521/support.
Episodes
- Why We Do What We Do
The Kuleshov Effect
How do filmmakers manipulate our emotions and perceptions with just a few cuts? This episode unpacks the Kuleshov Effect, a groundbreaking discovery that…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: How Many Books Can You Read in Your Life?
It's these silly little questions that we don't think about, but are curious to hear the answer. We can estimate how many books someone reads by figuring out…
- Why We Do What We Do
Bad Arguments
Some arguments are so bad that if even they were right, they'd be wrong. In this discussion, we unpack a specific example of criminally poor arguments. We take…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Revolving Doors
What is the deal with revolving doors? How are they trying to control us? Who's behind the cabal of big revolving doors? Just kidding :) There are some very…
- Why We Do What We Do
Public Speaking
Public speaking is some people's number one fear. For most people, it is not preferred and can be difficult to master. There is a lot research about public…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Sensory Friendly Vaccine Kits
Special guest, Dr. Lauren Brown, BCBA-D, LBA joins us in our first-ever guest-hosted mini to discuss a collaborative effort between behavior analysts and…
- Why We Do What We Do
Why We Lead the Cheer
Humans have not universally hired performers to entertain the crowd during professional sports throughout all of human history... which means that it had to…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: PIC-NIC
A useful, informal template for beginning to understand human behavior is consider a couple of features of the consequences for behavior: the longterm and…
- Why We Do What We Do
Ghosts
What are ghosts? Why are ghosts? How are ghosts? Pretend, for fun, and they aren't, in that order. Ghosts exist in the space of low resolution and little…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Microphobia
Our last and least mini of the Halloween season: The fear of small things! We'll cap off our series of minis with our smallest episode. We'll talk about the…
- Why We Do What We Do
The Plausibility of Cryptids
What makes people prone to believing in cryptids and why do some cryptids seem more plausible than others? We explore the various culture, language, and…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Hippo... phobia
The fear of long words has 36 letters, making it one of the longest words in the English language: Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. Also called simply…
- Why We Do What We Do
Scared to Death
Is it possible to die of fright? Turns out, yes, sort of. How this works is interesting in its own right, but the "why" invites a fascinating inquiry. We…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Phobophobia
Phobophobia is fear of fear. This is so esoteric, it has to be an episode that we'd cover! This is not unlike generalized anxiety disorder. Also, we manage to…
- Why We Do What We Do
Skinwalkers
Halloween-month 2024 continues! Sort of a misinterpretation of Navajo traditions, Skinwalkers are similar to the cocept of werewolves or other…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Coulrophobia
For Halloween month this year we are focusing on specific phobias for our minis. This week's selection is on the fear of clowns. What is it? Why is it? We will…
- Why We Do What We Do
Fear
Happy Halloween month! It's October, the time we spend celebrating the spookier side of psychological topics. What we haven't done thorughly, yet, is the most…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: That's Just How My Brain Works
A common refrain in acknowledging, justifying, or explaining behavior is "that's just how my brain works." For some people, this is the case. For others, it is…
- Why We Do What We Do
Imitation Imitation
It is easy to dismiss some behaviors as "just" imitation. However, this is a crucial developmental skill that we rely on throughout our lifetimes. We explore…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a a name that might be misleading. It is not "liberal" as in left-wing politics. We will describe what neoliberalism is and offer our own…
- Why We Do What We Do
Why Did We Ever Have Royalty?
Why did humans to raise some people or allow them to raise themselves above even the highest "classes" of society? We trace the history of royalty, the…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Porn
This is less of a "why" or the inner workings of the industry and more of a definition unpacking. This is largely in response to the "I can't define it, but I…
- Why We Do What We Do
Nostalgia: The Dunning-Kruger Effect
We revisit this classic episode in a discussion about how lack of experience leads to a false-sense of competence, or maybe there is something else going on?…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Duh
Another exploration of the weird things we say. The word "duh" is an interesting one with more recent roots than you might think. Enjoy our quick dive into…
- Why We Do What We Do
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is the vaccine against misinformation. If you learn nothing else, learn to question your own beliefs. We discuss the importance of criical…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Temporary Insanity
One defense that lawyers have successfuly used is the supposition that people can become temporarily unable to tell the difference between right and wrong…
- Why We Do What We Do
The Electoral College pt. 2
This discussion expands on the first episode, which covered the history of the electoral college, by explaining the arguments for and against this system…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: How's My Driving?
Did you ever notice those stickers on commercial vehicles that ask "How is my driving?" with a corresponding phone number? We were curious, what is the purpose…
- Why We Do What We Do
The Electoral College pt. 1
The electoral college is a strange system in the United States by which the president is "chosen" by a slate of people who represent the will of the voters…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Weird Blue Chart
In the small field of Behavior Analysis, there is a smaller subset of practitioners who champion the use of a particular data graphing display called the…
- Why We Do What We Do
Empathy pt. 2
This discussion concludes by exploring how empathy develops. This can result in people with extremely high empathy and extremely low empathy. Where do you fall…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Expressions That Died
These are the things we cut our teeth on... Did you know what a "trick cyclist" was? We didn't. Some sayings stick around in the lexicon, some seem to fade…
- Why We Do What We Do
Empathy pt. 1
Empathy is a common term that has an elusive definition and nebulous parameters. In this first episode, we set out to walk through definitions of empathy and…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Toilet Paper
Today, wiping our anuses after defectating seems so natural as to be just a part of being human. But, most animals do not wipe their anuses. And, toilet paper…
- Why We Do What We Do
Universal Basic Income pt. 2
The second part of this discussion explores that actual attempts at implementing some version of UBI in various parts of the world. It sounds good, but would…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: The Value of Human Life
How much money is your life worth? In the transactional scheme of our modern world, some people have taken on the somewhat macabre task of assigning a dollar…
- Why We Do What We Do
Universal Basic Income pt. 1
Universal Basic Income is a policy proposal to provide everyone in a closed system with a no-strings-attached cash infusion on a regular schedule such as every…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Middle of the Road
Another quick review of a a logical fallacy. This time, we dive into the Middle of the Road logical fallacy, which many people inadvertently fall prey to. Of…
- Why We Do What We Do
Your Lizard Brain
Many of us will blame our most instinctual behaviors, impulses, and drives on the vestigial, reptilian parts of our brains. My lizard brain made me do it! What…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: PTO vs. Sick Leave
Employers should consider what they are incentivizing and de-incentivizing when they put certain policies in place. One such common policy is to make employees…
- Why We Do What We Do
Not So Sweet Revenge
People often invoke our impulses by referencing the lizard part of our brains. What is this vistigial reptillian cortex that weilds so much power over our most…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Scientific Understanding
We can broadly categorize our levels of confidence or purpose of scientific data based on the amount of and quality of the information we have about the…
- Why We Do What We Do
Nostalgia: Grit With Steven Hayes
Due to some unforeseen circumstances, we needed to release another nostalgia episode this week. This was our second most popular episode ever. Dr. Steven Hayes…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Mood Rings
Mood rings change color to inform the external world about our emotional states. How does this magical jewelry make our most private, inner experiences overtly…
- Why We Do What We Do
Thumbs and the Evolution of Culture
Do pandas have thumbs? Kind of. We should periodically take the time to acknowledge and admire the significan role our biological morphology affects our…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Deductive vs. Inductive Reasoning
Many people have taken a strong stance for a particular approach to reasoning: either inductive or deductive. However, we are going to try to argue that these…
- Why We Do What We Do
Black Applied Behavior Analysts Conference
What does it take to put on a conference? We invite speical guests Jackie and Tyanna to talk about how and why they are a part of the team that organizes the…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Does Philosophy Matter for Expertise?
Our least scripted, most free-form discussion ever! Abraham doesn't even tell Shane the topic until after hitting record. This is the most raw, actual…
- Why We Do What We Do
The Seven Wonders
Do you know all seven of the wonders? Do you know how they were chosen? As a species, we seem to be fascinated with lists and ranking things. So, let's talk…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Can Stress Turn Your Hair Gray?
The idea that stress turns our hair gray has been the punchline of many jokes. Do those of us with anxiety gray sooner? We do a quick dive into the science of…
- Why We Do What We Do
Nostalgia: Social Media Addiction pt. 2
Oh rare Friday release! This is our follow up to our nostalgia episode on Social Media addiction. Enjoy!This concludes our mult-month coverage of the topic of…
- Why We Do What We Do
Nostalgia: Social Media Addiction pt. 1
Recorded in the early days of the pandemic, we are resurrecting this little gem to put a cap on our series of addiction-themed episodes. Amazing how much and…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Books Bound in Human Skin
WARNING: Contains discussion of death, murder, and mutliation which some listeners may find disturbing. Who even wants to think about this? A lot of people, it…
- Why We Do What We Do
How to Treat Addiction
Wishful thinking, empty promises and empty threats, and shaming don't work to treat addiction. People have been trying to strategize ways to overcome addiction…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Catnip
Is catnip "drugs" for your cat? Why does it affect them the way that it does? We explain what is going on in the brain and the behavior of cats when they get…
- Why We Do What We Do
Food Addiction
Another example of behavioral excess of things that are biologically necessary. Again, the utility of calling this an "addiction" is questionable, and we will…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Traffic Jams
Traffic is the worst. But, why do traffic jams happen in the first place? Am I the problem? Are you the problem? Are we all the problem?! We'll unpack what you…
- Why We Do What We Do
Gambling pt. 2
Whereas part 1 was more about the history of gambling, casinos, and the psychology of designing gambling and gambling environments to foster addiction as much…
- Why We Do What We Do
Mini: Skin Idioms
We did an episode on idioms a while back. During that discussion, we ended up having to cut a lot of the content we had prepared. In particular, there was a…
- Why We Do What We Do
Gambling pt. 1
One behavioral addiction of the "inessential" variety is gambling. This is an issue that has ruined many lives and pumped a lot of money into the city of Las…