Learn about psychological ownership; why cats love boxes; and how researchers—and AI—finished Beethoven’s 10th symphony. "Psychological ownership" is why holiday shopping can get so hostile by Steffie Drucker Kirk, C. P. (2018, November 20). Why do Black Friday shoppers throw punches over bargains? A marketing expert explains “psychological ownership.” The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/why-do-black-friday-shoppers-throw-punches-over-bargains-a-marketing-expert-explains-psychological-ownership-106673 Campbell Pickford, H., Joy, G., & Roll, K. (2016). Psychological Ownership: Effects and Applications. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2893092 Kirk, C. P., Peck, J., & Swain, S. D. (2018). Property lines in the mind: Consumers’ psychological ownership and their territorial responses. Journal of Consumer Research, 45(1), 148–168. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucx111 Why Do Cats Love Boxes? by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Reese in Newton, Massachusetts) originally published September 5, 2018 https://omnystudio.com/p/curiosity-daily/clips/1adc7d26-de9f-48df-9a31-ab51000f8517 Musicologists and computer scientists completed Beethoven's 10th symphony by Briana Brownell Elgammal, A. (2021, September 24). How a team of musicologists and computer scientists completed Beethoven’s unfinished 10th Symphony. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/how-a-team-of-musicologists-and-computer-scientists-completed-beethovens-unfinished-10th-symphony-168160 NPR. (2021, October 2). Team uses AI to complete Beethoven’s unfinished masterpiece. NPR.org; NPR. https://www.npr.org/2021/10/02/1042742330/team-uses-ai-to-complete-beethovens-unfinished-masterpiece i24NEWS English. (2019). Artificial Intelligence to “Complete” Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu1GI0QNLSE Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day withCody Gough andAshley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
Learn about psychological ownership; why cats love boxes; and how researchers—and AI—finished Beethoven’s 10th symphony.
"Psychological ownership" is why holiday shopping can get so hostile by Steffie Drucker
Why Do Cats Love Boxes? by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Reese in Newton, Massachusetts) originally published September 5, 2018 https://omnystudio.com/p/curiosity-daily/clips/1adc7d26-de9f-48df-9a31-ab51000f8517
Musicologists and computer scientists completed Beethoven's 10th symphony by Briana Brownell
Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/hostile-holiday-shopping-why-cats-love-boxes-beethovens-10th
CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Discovery. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about one psychological reason why holiday shopping can get so hostile; and how researchers completed Beethoven’s 10th symphony. We’ll also answer a listener question about why cats love boxes.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
It’s Black Friday in the United States, and that usually comes with some very bad behavior from frantic shoppers. A fellow shopper taking “your” parking spot or touching “your” Playstation 5 before you’ve even bought it can lead to heightened emotions and terse words. Researchers have a name for this phenomenon: it’s called psychological ownership. Basically, we lay claim to stuff in our heads even if it’s not actually ours.
Psychological ownership can be beneficial. When you feel ownership of your ideas or your work, you might feel greater job satisfaction. But it can also bring out your dark side, like it does on Black Friday. Whether for good or for evil, researchers say psychological ownership has three ingredients:
First is the ability to touch or control something, or even imagine doing so. Think putting stuff in your shopping cart — whether that’s real or virtual. Second is a deep knowledge of the product. You know everything about that Playstation 5 – and why you have to have it! Finally, there’s time and effort spent personalizing the product — basically the secret to Build-a-Bear’s success.
A recent study demonstrated how slights to your perceived sense of ownership can have real consequences. Scientists served 58 college students at a mock restaurant. First, the students-slash-patrons each poured themselves a cup of coffee and customized it with cream, sugar, and flavored syrups. Later, a waiter checked on the patrons at their tables. At half of the tables, the waiter randomly moved the patron’s cup. When the bill came, those whose cups had been moved tipped the waiter 25 percent less. In a later survey, they said the waiter encroached on their territory and that they were less likely to dine there again.
So how do you avoid store aisle smackdowns? Findings from another experiment could help. Researchers asked 146 participants to imagine themselves shopping for a comfy sweater. They were also told to picture themselves wearing it and feeling how soft it was. Then, they imagined that when they put it on the counter at the cash register, the customer behind them in line either touched the sweater without asking or asked permission to touch it. Participants who’d been asked permission responded more kindly than those who hadn’t been asked. Politeness goes a long way, even when it comes to the green monster of psychological ownership.
So, if you’re hitting the stores tonight, obey the Golden Rule: Treat others the way you’d want to be treated.
We got a listener question from Reese in Newton, Massachusetts, who asks "Why do cats like boxes so much? Is there some kind of evolutionary reason?" We answered this question way back in September of 2018, so we thought it was time for a refresher. Here it is remastered just for you.
[ASHLEY: Clip 1:58]
Ludvig van Beethoven wrote nine symphonies during his lifetime. And now, thanks to a multidisciplinary team of historians, musicologists, composers, computer scientists and a musically inclined AI, we have a 10th Beethoven symphony.
It’s not like Beethoven didn’t want to write more. The eminent composer left behind sketches of a 10th symphony, but poor health in the last few years of his life kept him from completing it. The project team used these sketches as a starting point to create a symphony similar in style to what Beethoven might have written.
Symphonies are written with a specific structure. The first movement is typically a fast tempo, and the second movement is much slower. Then, the third movement comes in at either a medium or fast tempo, and the final and fourth movement is back at a fast tempo. The team needed to match the phrases Beethoven had sketched to the movements — they basically had to guess what part of the symphony each of them belonged to.
Then the AI got to work. There were lots of different, complicated problems that the technology needed to solve. The short phrases weren’t enough to fill a whole movement, so the AI was tasked with expanding Beethoven’s sketches into longer phrases. To do so, the AI used the catalog of Beethoven’s music to learn his distinctive style, along with songs from his contemporaries that would have influenced him. It also had to learn the standard conventions for the musical form and Beethoven’s own creative process.
There were other complications, too. The AI also had to figure out how to create harmonies from a melody, and to orchestrate the music — that is, deciding which instruments should play which part. It had work to do on the overall structure too. For example, figuring out how to bridge the various parts of music together and how to conclude the movement in a Beethoven-like style.
After two years of work, it finally paid off: the symphony was finished. Here’s a brief excerpt we’re sharing via Creative Commons:
[excerpt]
We could all use a little more Beethoven in our lives, and this new work gives us a little more of it to appreciate.
CODY: Before we recap what we learned today, here’s a sneak peek at what you’ll hear next week on Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY: Next week, you’ll learn about why socializing too much can actually be bad for your health;
How ancient desert structures could help us fight climate change;
The evolutionary reason why females feel colder in many species;
Whether truth serum actually works;
And more! Okay, so now, let’s recap what we learned today.
[ad lib optional]
ASHLEY: Today’s writers were Steffie Drucker and Briana Brownell.
CODY: Our managing editor is Ashley Hamer, who was also a writer and audio editor on today’s episode.
ASHLEY: Our producer and lead audio editor is Cody Gough.
CODY: Have a great weekend! [AD LIB SOMETHING FUNNY] Then, join us again Monday to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!