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. This Simple Money Trick Could Help You Stop Overspending How the Big 5 Make Up Your Personality This 10-Minute Personality Test Can Measure You on the 5 Main Personality Traits Improving World Health Will Reduce Overpopulation, Not Make It Worse Stage 5 of the Demographic Transition Model | Population Education Want to know more about how your own personality works? Learn from the experts in Mark Leary, Ph.D.'s "Why You Are Who You Are: Investigations into Human Personality" through The Great Courses Plus online learning platform. It's one of the best ways to enrich your mind with classes taught by experts in their field — and one of the only ways you can join an astronomy class taught by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Learn more 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!
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:
Want to know more about how your own personality works? Learn from the experts in Mark Leary, Ph.D.'s "Why You Are Who You Are: Investigations into Human Personality" through The Great Courses Plus online learning platform. It's one of the best ways to enrich your mind with classes taught by experts in their field — and one of the only ways you can join an astronomy class taught by Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Learn more 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/how-to-stop-overspending-world-population-growth-and-big-5-personality-traits
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY COUGH: All right, we've got three stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smart in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Cough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today, you'll learn a simple money trick to help you stop overspending on impulse buys, the big five traits that make up your personality. And we'll answer a listener question about the population of the world.
CODY COUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity.
ASHLEY HAMER: Cody, how bad are you with, like, impulse purchases?
CODY COUGH: Oh boy, it depends. I'm not like a candy bar at the checkout line kind of person. But if I'm out anywhere in the universe and there's coffee nearby, I'm just going to buy it.
ASHLEY HAMER: I'm actually kind of bad with online shopping. Like, I find that when I'm under stress or have some anxiety about something, I am on an online shop and looking for things. And it's weird. Like, sometimes, and I love to just put stuff in my cart, and then, just suddenly, my self-control kicks back into gear. And I'm like, no, I'm not going to buy these things. And then, I'll get back on task. But, like, that's sometimes my stress relief.
CODY COUGH: You know, sometimes, if you fill your cart on a website and then you just leave it for a while, they'll send you a coupon after a week or two.
ASHLEY HAMER: I've heard that.
CODY COUGH: Yes.
ASHLEY HAMER: It hasn't happened to me.
CODY COUGH: Yeah. Well, we've seen you were going to buy this. Maybe, you'll buy it if we give you 10 bucks off.
ASHLEY HAMER: Well, then, you just see it on the ads everywhere you go on the internet, yeah. Well, a new study from Rice university found a trick to stop unnecessary overspending on impulse buys. But why is that a big deal, though, right? Like, am I hurting anybody by buying a few things I don't need? How much do people actually spend on impulse buys?
Well, a 2018 survey showed that Americans spend an average of $450 a month on impulse buys. That is more than 5,000 bucks a year and more than $300,000 over the course of a lifetime.
CODY COUGH: Oh boy.
ASHLEY HAMER: That is so much.
CODY COUGH: That's too much.
ASHLEY HAMER: So to stop this overspending, researchers have one piece of advice. Think of all the stuff you already have. Think about functional possessions you've used lately, like blow dryers, food processors, clothes steamers, you know, stuff like that.
CODY COUGH: Coffee makers.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. Thinking about what you already have can calm you down and reduce your impulsiveness by about 14%. So before you're tempted by that super cool and slightly random thing you probably don't need, just take 2 seconds to think about the junk filling your home. The urge to splurge will die down soon enough.
CODY COUGH: And if you're looking for quality talents for your next hire, then we've got the perfect sponsor to help you avoid overspending on your candidate search.
ASHLEY HAMER: Today's episode is sponsored by LinkedIn. LinkedIn is more than the world's largest professional network, it's also a better way to find great talent.
CODY COUGH: You might not have realized this, but LinkedIn is an incredible place to find quality talent. If you're not using LinkedIn, then you're missing out. Every hire matters. So don't settle for posting a job and just hoping the right person will find you somehow and apply.
ASHLEY HAMER: 70% of the US workforce is already on LinkedIn. And when it comes to delivering quality candidates, businesses rate LinkedIn jobs 40% higher than job boards.
CODY COUGH: Think about your company's job boards. How often do you check them, let alone anybody else? Then, there's LinkedIn where 22 million professionals view and apply to jobs every week in every industry, even yours and mine.
ASHLEY HAMER: When you're looking to fill a position, LinkedIn takes potential candidates and looks at their skills, experiences, location, and more to match and promote your job to the right professionals.
CODY COUGH: Before you look for your next hire, visit LinkedIn.com/curiosity and get $50 off your first job post.
ASHLEY HAMER: That's right. Get $50 off your first job post at LinkedIn.com/curiosity.
CODY COUGH: One more time, visit LinkedIn.com/curiosity to get $50 off. Terms and conditions apply. All right, Ashley, what's your personality type?
ASHLEY HAMER: Wet blanket. I hate personality stuff, I hate it.
CODY COUGH: What's your BuzzFeed Harry Potter quiz personality?
ASHLEY HAMER: Well, I'm a Ravenclaw for sure. But still, it's stupid.
CODY COUGH: Well there are indeed too many quizzes and quote, unquote, "personality tests" out there that are not really backed up by any science whatsoever. So today, we're going to give you a refresher on the big five personality traits. You can remember them with the acronym, OCEAN. That stands for openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Some of those are objectively good and, others, not so much.
Some psychologists have proposed a sixth trait, they call honesty, humility, that's basically a willingness to tell the truth and act selflessly, or on the low-end, your willingness to lie, cheat, and steal. They call that version the HEXACO model because they change a couple of the words to make another acronym. And scientists love acronyms.
ASHLEY HAMER: Scientists absolutely love acronyms so much.
CODY COUGH: But even without that sixth trait, the five pillar model can be really precise. Even if you only use five levels of each of the big five traits, it would still be more than 3,000 unique categories. And there are more than just five levels of each trait. We've got links in the show notes to take an online test to determine your personality, plus a link to sign up for the Great Courses plus if you want to really dig deep into this psychology tool.
And just so you know, there are two versions of this test. One is 300 points, but that can take up to 40 minutes to take. And the psychology professor who put together the site warns that, sometimes, the website crashes.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh no.
CODY COUGH: Yeah. So you don't want to lose 40 minutes. But there is, fortunately, 120 point test that should only take about 10 to 15 minutes. Give it a shot and let us know if you learned something new about yourself. You can always email us at podcast@curiosity.com.
ASHLEY HAMER: I've taken the test myself. It was actually pretty cool.
CODY COUGH: You're blown about yourself?
ASHLEY HAMER: I did. And it's better than stupid Myers-briggs, which we have taken apart on Curiosity.com, absolutely.
CODY COUGH: Savage. We're going to do something a little different today and wrap up with a listener question. Because we've been getting so many listener questions, we can't just answer them on Sundays. This question comes from Francois Berger. And he writes, "I'm listening to you guys on Apple Podcasts all the way from sunny South Africa."
ASHLEY HAMER: Amazing.
CODY COUGH: "How about a podcast on the world population? Is it growing or shrinking?" Thanks for your question, Francois. And shout out to our listeners in South Africa. Also, shout out to people listening on Apple Podcasts, which he mentioned, who have left us a five star review. That's super helpful and we really appreciate it. We haven't gotten any cool reviews lately. So hop on Apple Podcasts and let everybody know what you think of our show. Anyway, Ashley, you're the expert. So what's up with the world population?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, I love this question. Because every so often, there's an article that I will write for Curiosity.com that completely changes the way I see the world. And this was one of them.
CODY COUGH: Nice.
ASHLEY HAMER: So we can actually look to history for some answers. According to experts, improving world health and wealth will actually slow population growth. So there's a thing called the demographic transition model. And that came from years of research into historical growth rates.
This model has five stages. In stage one, birth rates and death rates are both high. And population stays pretty consistent. That was most of the world before the Industrial Revolution. Then, in stage two, death rates go down, thanks to medical advancements, but birth rates stay high. That leads to rapid population growth. And you see that in lots of the world's least developed countries right now.
In stage three, birth rates gradually go down alongside increases in wealth, women status, and contraception access. That's where most developing countries are today. In stage four, birth and death rates both plateau at a low rate and the population stabilizes. These countries tend to have better economies, health care, and levels of education. Most developed countries are in this stage.
And stage five is a theoretical stage. That is when births fall below the rate needed to make up for the death rate. And the elderly outnumber the young. No country has reached this stage, but experts fear that some are close. According to populationeducation.org, potential examples of stage five countries include Germany, Greece, Japan, Portugal, and Ukraine. But time will tell.
So to answer your original question, we could see the world's population decrease if we work to lift all boats with the rising tide of nutrition, medicine, and economic growth. But right now, it is definitely growing. It's just that estimates on how quickly it's growing or whether growth is slowing down or speeding up depends on who you ask right now. We'll put a link in the show notes to an article with more information. But I hope that helps answer your question.
CODY COUGH: And you can join us again tomorrow for the Curiosity daily. To learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Cough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Stay curious.
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