Learn about how scientists used video games to teach children empathy; a simple word swap that can help you keep your commitments in check; and an institute in New Mexico where all your favorite chiles came from. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: LINKEDIN: Get $50 off your first job post. Terms and conditions apply. Scientists Used Video Games to Teach Children Empathy This Simple Word Swap Can Help You Keep Your Commitments in Check All Your Favorite Chiles Came From This Institute in New Mexico Please tell us about yourself and help us improve the show by taking our listener survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/curiosity-listener-survey If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! Learn about these topics and more onCuriosity.com, and download our5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation onFacebook,Twitter, andInstagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable ourAlexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
Learn about how scientists used video games to teach children empathy; a simple word swap that can help you keep your commitments in check; and an institute in New Mexico where all your favorite chiles came from.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
Please tell us about yourself and help us improve the show by taking our listener survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/curiosity-listener-survey
If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron!
Learn about these topics and more on Curiosity.com, and download our 5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable our Alexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/empathy-teaching-video-games-chile-pepper-origins-and-a-simple-word-swap-to-take-control
CODY GOUGH: Hi. We've got three stories from curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today you'll learn about how scientists used video games to teach children empathy. A simple word swap that can help you keep your commitments in check, and an institute in New Mexico where all your favorite chilies came from.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity. A team of researchers used video games to teach children empathy. This is not a drill.
ASHLEY HAMER: You love this, Cody, don't you?
CODY GOUGH: You know, I was so excited about this. I saw the headline, I'm like, this is going in the podcast. I'm a gamer in case anyone out there--
ASHLEY HAMER: I think they figured that out. You got a smart audience.
CODY GOUGH: That's true. Well, for this study, researchers from University of Wisconsin-Madison randomly assigned 150 middle schoolers to two groups. They assigned one video game to each group, and had them play the assigned game for two weeks.
One game was an experimental empathy training game called Crystals of Kaydor. In this game, a space exploring robot crashes on an unfamiliar planet, and you can only repair your spaceship by building emotional rapport with the local alien inhabitants. The player does this by identifying the type and intensity of emotion the alien's faces are displaying. Whether it's anger, fear, happiness, surprise, disgust, or sadness.
The hope was that as they played, the kids would learn how to better understand the emotions of their fellow humans. The researchers measured how well the kids in this group could identify the characters' emotions in Crystals of Kaydor, while the second group played the 2011 action role playing game Bastion which is not designed to measure emotion.
Both before and after the study period the researchers scanned the children's brains in an fMRI machine to help them measure brain connectivity, especially in areas associated with empathy and emotion regulation. During each brain scan the researchers also had participants complete tests that measured how accurately they could empathize with other people.
And the results showed that the kids who had played Crystals of Kaydor showed greater connectivity in brain networks related to empathy and perspective taking than those who had played Bastion. Some Crystals of Kaydor players also showed more connectivity in emotion regulation, and improved more on their empathy test after playing the video game. Kids who didn't show an increase in brain connectivity didn't improve their scores on the empathy test, though. So while video games could help some kids build empathy skills, it's not a cure all for everyone.
I also want to note. I have played Bastion, and it's a phenomenal game. And there's a moral decision you have to make at the very end of the game. So--
ASHLEY HAMER: Maybe that threw a wrench in the results.
CODY GOUGH: I don't know. I don't know. It's an incredible game, and it won, like, every award in 2011. So I highly recommend that.
ASHLEY HAMER: Hmm.
CODY GOUGH: I'm not getting paid to say that. It's just a great game. I was reading the study, I'm like, Bastion, I love that game.
ASHLEY HAMER: Are you bad at saying no? Today we've got a simple word trick that can help you avoid getting talked into something you don't want to do. I am very bad at saying no.
CODY GOUGH: I was going to say--
ASHLEY HAMER: It's been my personal mantra lately to tell myself, "I do things because I want to do them, not because I can handle them." That's my big thing.
CODY GOUGH: Oh. That's a good personal mantra.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, it's still hard to stick to you.
CODY GOUGH: Do you use this trick?
ASHLEY HAMER: I should. This is a pretty simple word swap. Basically, stop saying, "I can't. Instead say, "I don't." This works great for turning someone down. Let's say, a friend invites you to go on a $100 boat ride. If you say, I can't go, then they might argue with you or ask you a million questions until you just give in. So they stop arguing.
CODY GOUGH: Like, oh, you can afford it. You can take the time.
ASHLEY HAMER: Stop and just don't buy lunch at work. But if you say, I don't. As in, I don't spend my money on trips I didn't budget for. Then that turns your excuse into an affirmation. This is how I live my life. And the phrase, "I don't," works when you're talking to yourself, too. For a study published in the Journal of Consumer Research, researchers ran a series of experiments to see how using "I don't" compare to "I can't" in exercises of motivation.
In one experiment, people on a diet who were tempted by an unhealthy snack and said, I don't eat this snack, we're significantly more likely to pick a granola bar instead of a candy bar at the end of the experiment. Than people coached to say, I can't eat this snack. This little trick works so well because saying I don't gives you power. I can't is temporary, but I don't is a statement of principle. When you say I don't, you're reminding yourself and emphasizing to others exactly what kind of person you are. That's powerful. Give it a shot and see if it works.
CODY GOUGH: Today's episode of Curiosity Daily is sponsored by LinkedIn.
ASHLEY HAMER: The right hire can make a huge impact on your business. And that's why it's so important to find the right person. But where do you find that individual? You could try posting on job boards but can you really be sure the right person sees your job? Instead, find the person who will help you grow your business with LinkedIn.
CODY GOUGH: As the world's largest professional network, people go to LinkedIn every day to grow professionally, and discover job opportunities. And 70% of the US workforce is all already there.
ASHLEY HAMER: LinkedIn jobs matches people to your role based on more of who they really are, their skills, interests, and even how open they are to new opportunities. This way, your job gets seen by more of the right people.
CODY GOUGH: Most LinkedIn members haven't recently visited the top job boards. But 9 out of 10 members are open to new opportunities. So you can only reach them on LinkedIn.
ASHLEY HAMER: And that's why a new hire is made every 10 seconds using LinkedIn. Plus, businesses rate LinkedIn 40% higher than job boards at delivering quality candidates.
CODY GOUGH: Hurry to LinkedIn.com/curiosity and get $50 off your first job post.
ASHLEY HAMER: That's LinkedIn.com/curiosity to get $50 off your first job post.
CODY GOUGH: One more time, visit LinkedIn.com/curiosity. Terms and conditions apply. Chili peppers are delicious but they didn't evolve naturally from out of nowhere. Believe it or not. The modern day chili pepper wouldn't exist without the Chili Pepper institute at New Mexico State University. Do you love chili peppers?
ASHLEY HAMER: I like them pretty well. I like a good hot sauce, you know? I'm not really the type to challenge myself to a ghost pepper competition or anything.
CODY GOUGH: Well, here's a little history lesson for you. People started cultivating the domesticated chili pepper in Central East Mexico about 6,500 years ago. It had spread across the Americas before Columbus even landed in 1492. But it didn't stop there. Within 30 years of Columbus's first journey, at least three different types of chili could be found growing in Portuguese colonies on India's West Coast. In the late 19th century, a man named Fabian Garcia decided that the pepper could go even further. In 1894 he became part of the very first graduating class at New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, which later became NMSU.
Up until that point, chilies in North America had mostly been grown in garden plots by Latino families, and were often bred to have very high levels of heat. But in Garcia's vision, chili peppers could reach a wider audience. After more than two decades perfecting his pepper, Garcia revealed to the world the New Mexico No. 9. A flavorful, low heat chili whose descendants we now know as the New Mexican or hatch chilies.
The new chili, according to NMSU's current director Paul Bosland, made Garcia the father of the Mexican food industry. The No. 9 could be shipped across the country, produced en masse, and was not too spicy for the unaccustomed tongue. Today, horticulturists at the Chili Pepper Institute are still dedicated to pushing the boundaries of what a chili pepper can be. You can read more about the history and tradition of chili peppers today on curiosity.com, and the curiosity app for Android and iOS.
ASHLEY HAMER: And look at some really colorful photos.
CODY GOUGH: Super colorful.
ASHLEY HAMER: They're great. In case you haven't heard, and if you listen to this podcast, I don't know how that's possible, we've got a listener survey to help you tell us what you think of this podcast. If you've got a few minutes to fill it out then you can also enter to win a curiosity T-shirt. You can find a link to the survey in today's show notes, and on our podcast page on our website. And on our Patreon page at patreon.com/curiositydotcom. All spelled out.
CODY GOUGH: We've been posting some fun, free stuff on our Patreon page. So you should really check it out, even if you're not supporting us. Like, the gag reel that we posted, with lots of funny outtakes from this show. Patreon is a place where you can give back to your favorite creative types, like podcasters and YouTubers, to help support what they do. And we would appreciate it a lot if you'd like to help support our podcast by becoming a patron.
We have a lot of awesome patrons we'd like to thank on this show. But today we'll start with Brianna Webster, Ryan Day, Manny Blaze and Mike Luckovich. Thank you so much for your support, and for keeping Ashley and me company on Discord during the workday. We love chatting with you and all the rest of our patrons.
ASHLEY HAMER: One more time, if you're interested in becoming a patron, then visit patreon.com/curiositydotcom. All spelled out.
CODY GOUGH: Join us again tomorrow for the Curiosity Daily, and learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Stay curious.
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