Learn about the surprising power behind our need to feel socially connected, with guest Vivian Zayas, Director of the Personality, Attachment, and Control Laboratory at Cornell University. Plus, learn about how to make your commute a little happier. Please support our sponsors! Get two months of unlimited access to over 25,000 classes on Skillshare — for free. To sign up, go to skillshare.com/curiosity. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following story from Curiosity.com about 7 ways to make your commute a little happier: https://curiosity.im/2QE2kwt Additional resources from Cornell University: Cornell University’s “What Makes Us Human?” podcast series — https://as.cornell.edu/humanities Hear Vivian Zayas on the “Love Science” episode of the What Makes Us Human?” podcast — https://as.cornell.edu/news/love-science Personality, Attachment, and Control Laboratory at Cornell University — http://people.psych.cornell.edu/~pac_lab/ Vivian Zayas’ Cornell University research bio — https://research.cornell.edu/researchers/vivian-zayas 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! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Learn about the surprising power behind our need to feel socially connected, with guest Vivian Zayas, Director of the Personality, Attachment, and Control Laboratory at Cornell University. Plus, learn about how to make your commute a little happier.
Please support our sponsors! Get two months of unlimited access to over 25,000 classes on Skillshare — for free. To sign up, go to skillshare.com/curiosity.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following story from Curiosity.com about 7 ways to make your commute a little happier: https://curiosity.im/2QE2kwt
Additional resources from Cornell University:
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! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom
Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/how-badly-we-need-to-feel-socially-connected-w-vivian-zayas-and-work-commute-tips
CODY: Hi! We’re here from curiosity-dot-com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about the surprising power behind our need to feel socially connected, with special guest Vivian Zayas [ts-ayas]. You’ll also learn about some way to make your commute a little happier.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Vivian Zayas 4 - Research shows how important it is to have social connections, effects of feeling left out — ”Spread of exclusion” (4:37) (Cody)
CODY: Research shows that when humans feel left out, they feel it in a POWERFUL way. That’s according to a lot of research into social exclusion and feelings of loneliness, including some from the Personality, Attachment, and Control Laboratory at Cornell University. We have an incredible story about that work on today’s edition of our “Mentality Mondays” mini-series, with the director of the lab, Vivian Zayas. She told us that humans are inherently social beings who want to belong and connect, and our default mode is being in relationships. There’s an argument that from an evolutionary perspective, that’s good, because when we’re socially connected, we have better access to shelter, allies, potential mates, and lots of other great stuff. But there’s a flip side to wanting to feel included. Here’s Professor Zayas with more.
[CLIP 4:37]
CODY: Remember when I said that when humans feel left out, they feel it in a POWERFUL way? Yeah. I wasn’t kidding. Vivian Zayas will be back next week to talk about some of the implications of this research, in the final episode of our “Mentality Mondays” mini-series. You can also hear her and lots of other interesting people on Cornell University’s podcast series called “What Makes Us Human.” It features lots of fascinating people, and their episodes are even shorter than ours! We’ll include links to that podcast and more in today’s show notes.
[SKILLSHARE]
ASHLEY: Today’s episode is sponsored by Skillshare, an online learning community for creators. Skillshare offers more than 25,000 classes in design, business, and more, to help YOU find new ways to fuel your curiosity, creativity, and career.
CODY: You can take classes in social media marketing, mobile photography, creative writing, illustration, and pretty much everything in-between. And I’m talking about SKILLS. We all know programming and coding jobs are in demand, and I’ve been curious about learning a little bit of code just to see what I can do. I tried a bunch of free websites and videos to try my hand at learning JavaScript, but it wasn’t until I checked one out on Skillshare that I was confident I was actually learning from someone who knew what he was doing.
ASHLEY: The class Cody’s been taking is taught by a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft — that’s nothing to sneeze at! — and ALL of Skillshare’s classes are taught by real experts in their field or public motivational speakers. Whether you’re looking to discover a new passion, start a side hustle, or gain new professional skills, Skillshare is there to keep you learning and thriving.
CODY: Today, YOU can join the millions of students already learning on Skillshare with a special offer just for Curiosity Daily listeners: Get two months of Skillshare for free.
ASHLEY: That’s right, Skillshare is offering Curiosity Daily listeners two months of unlimited access to over 25,000 classes for free. To sign up, go to Skillshare dot com slash CURIOSITY. Again, go to Skillshare dot com slash CURIOSITY to start your two months now.
CODY: One more time, that’s Skillshare dot com slash CURIOSITY.
7 Ways to Make Your Commute a Little Happier — https://curiosity.im/2QE2kwt (Ashley)
ASHLEY: I’ve got some good news if you’re not a fan of your commute to work or school. There are some science-backed ways to make your commute a little less stressful, and maybe even turn it into a period of productive, happiness-boosting me-time. And this is pretty important stuff, since studies have shown that workers rate their commute as the least enjoyable part of their day. So if you’re like a lot of people, you’ll want to listen up. Here’s the first tip: plan your day. For a 2016 study, researchers sent text messages to participants every morning to suggest they think about what they’ll do when they get into the office and plan out their schedule. And those participants reported feeling more satisfied with their jobs after 2 weeks of doing this. For your AFTER-work commute, you can just flip the script and reflect on the work day you just finished. Second commuting tip: plan your weekend. A 2010 study showed that people were happier BEFORE going on vacation than after, which suggests the anticipation for your trip could make you nearly as happy as the trip itself — and that suggests that you might get the same happiness benefits from planning a big Saturday night out with friends while you're commuting during the week. Tip number three: work on a goal. If you drive or bike, audio is great for learning languages and taking online classes. If you take the bus or train, you can bring along a craft project or sketchbook to build your skills. Not only will this help you reach your goal faster, but it’ll also make you happier thanks to something called the pre-goal attainment positive affect — basically, the happy flood of dopamine you get while you're heading toward a goal. A fourth tip to improve your commute: exercise. There’s a boatload of evidence that biking or walking to work can lead to a boost in your mood and even ease symptoms of serious conditions like depression or anxiety, so try to bike or walk to work. Even better if you can cut through a park or nature preserve on the way to work, to boost those effects just by being around nature. And here’s a final tip: talk to a stranger. I know, it sounds scary, but we’ve mentioned this on the podcast before: a 2014 study found that even though commuters predicted they would dislike talking to strangers, the group of participants who actually DID talk to strangers found it a lot more enjoyable than avoiding conversation or even just commuting as they normally did. Compliment a stranger’s backpack, or talk about the weather. You might strike up a conversation that’ll make you a little happier once you reach your desk. [ad lib]
CODY: Read about today’s stories and more on curiosity-dot-com!
ASHLEY: Join us again tomorrow for the award-winning Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I’m [NAME] and I’m [NAME]. Stay curious!