Learn about Ivan Pavlov’s dogs, and why you might not know them as well as you thought. Then, learn about the three types of perfectionism that are ruining your life. Plus: if the universe is expanding, then what is it expanding into? 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: The One Thing You Know About Pavlov and His Dogs Is Wrong Three Types of Perfectionism Are Ruining Your Life If the Universe Is Expanding, What Is It Expanding Into? 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! Get your hands on "Ivan Pavlov: A Russian Life in Science" by Daniel P. Todes for more on Pavlov’s dogs! We handpick reading recommendations we think you may like. If you choose to make a purchase through that link, then Curiosity will get a share of the sale. 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 Ivan Pavlov’s dogs, and why you might not know them as well as you thought. Then, learn about the three types of perfectionism that are ruining your life. Plus: if the universe is expanding, then what is it expanding into?
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!
Get your hands on "Ivan Pavlov: A Russian Life in Science" by Daniel P. Todes for more on Pavlov’s dogs! We handpick reading recommendations we think you may like. If you choose to make a purchase through that link, then Curiosity will get a share of the sale.
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/pavlovs-dog-myths-three-types-of-perfectionism-and-what-the-universe-is-expanding-into
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GOUGH: Hi. We've got three stories from curiositydotcom 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 Pavlov's dogs and why you might not know them as well as you thought, the three types of perfectionism that are ruining your life, and what the universe is expanding into.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity.
ASHLEY HAMER: Remember Pavlov's dogs from psychology class? Ivan Pavlov was the Russian physiologist best known for his work with the conditioned reflex. As in he trained his dogs to salivate when they heard the sound of a bell because they knew food was coming. Well, today in myth busting, we're going to take a second look at Pavlov's dogs because it turns out you may have been lied to.
CODY GOUGH: I use the term Pavlovian response all the time.
ASHLEY HAMER: Me too, yeah. The generic term is conditioned response, which is not as cool at all.
CODY GOUGH: No. Not nearly.
ASHLEY HAMER: No.
CODY GOUGH: After this story, are we going to have to rethink our use of the term?
ASHLEY HAMER: It depends. According to the biography, Ivan Pavlov-- a Russian life in science, Pavlov never actually used a bell with his dogs. According to his biographer, Professor Daniel P. Todes, it would have been a bad experimental practice to do that. He wrote, quote, "Indeed, the iconic bell would have proven totally useless to his real goal, which required precise control over the quality and duration of stimuli. He most frequently employed a metronome, a harmonium, a buzzer, and electric shock." Unquote.
The bell idea probably came from a mistranslation of the Russian word for buzzer. But wait. There's more. You know you learned about Pavlov when you were learning about psychology? Well, really, should have learned about it as a part of physiology. Pavlov didn't just train his dogs to think about food when they saw a lab coat, he was able to actually trigger a physical reflex in the form of salivation.
Pavlov was showing how a mental stimulus can cause a physical response, not just a mind association game where one thing makes us think of something else. In fact, Pavlov earned the 1904 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his work. So the next time you throw out the phrase Pavlovian response when you're thinking about something, make sure there's a physical element if you want to be really scientific about it.
CODY GOUGH: So if there's a movie that makes you really sad, that's not a Pavlovian response. But if you have a movie when every time you think about it you physically cry, that's Pavlovian.
ASHLEY HAMER: Right.
CODY GOUGH: On our podcast a couple of months ago, we talked about some science that you might be a perfectionist. But not all perfectionists are created equal. Today we're going to dive into three distinct types of perfectionism and some reasons why more people are feeling the strain of perfectionism these days. And both of us have to deal with this all the time, right?
ASHLEY HAMER: We really do.
CODY GOUGH: I think we're both self-oriented perfectionists.
ASHLEY HAMER: Well, let's find out.
CODY GOUGH: The idea that there are three kinds of perfectionism has been around since 1991, so it's not super new. The multidimensional perfectionism scale has been used to describe exactly what keeps you striving for a standard that's impossible to reach. And the basic test for that has been around for 30 years, although there are some other scales with slight variations.
They boil down to three types though. The first is the one I mentioned, self-oriented perfectionism. Basically, your own worst critic. You probably obsess over details and take blame when something goes wrong, even if it's something you can't control. Then there's other oriented perfectionism. This is when you're everybody else's worst critic.
You have unrealistic standards for other people, and you might struggle with trust, blame, and underlying hostility. Although you might be well suited for leadership as long as you remember to keep your judgmental tendencies out of your household. And finally, there's socially prescribed perfectionism. This is driven by thinking others are judging you by an unrealistic standard, whether they actually are or not.
This might be the worst one because it leads you to believe you're constantly letting people down, you can't handle what society once from you. You think others perceive you pretty poorly, and that's very bad since the way you think others see you is where you get your sense of self-worth. And sadly, there's been a huge increase in socially prescribed perfectionism in recent years.
In a new report, researchers looked at data from more than 41,000 American, British, and Canadian students who took a perfectionism test over the last 30 years. And they found that there's a clear upward trend in all three types of perfectionism with the socially prescribed kind in the lead.
The researchers suggest this is partly due to the capital-driven philosophy of competition that permeates our culture. That, of course, creates competition but it has a massive downside for people who don't achieve wild success. As in, a recipe for a mental health crisis. There's more on this in our full write up on curiositydotcom and on our free Curiosity app for Android and iOS. But if you want to be competitive and be successful, then make sure you do it while you keep that social pressure in check. Otherwise, it might be more harmful than helpful.
ASHLEY HAMER: Real talk, I experience all three of these in different amounts.
CODY GOUGH: Oh, no.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. And the other oriented perfectionism is the one I feel the worst about, but I am the managing editor.
CODY GOUGH: You are the managing editor.
ASHLEY HAMER: So it's probably pretty good for my job.
CODY GOUGH: I mean, I don't work for you, but I think you do a good job.
ASHLEY HAMER: Thanks. Today's episode is sponsored by PBS. Do you love a good book? Do you have a favorite novel?
CODY GOUGH: Catcher in the Rye, 1984, perhaps. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, or Gone with the Wind, or The Color Purple. There are so many classic and beloved stories, we know it's hard to pick just one. But PBS needs your help doing just that.
ASHLEY HAMER: PBS has a list of America's 100 best loved novels and they need you to help pick number 1. The Great American Read returns Tuesdays this fall at 8:00/7:00 Central starting September 11, which was this week on your PBS station.
CODY GOUGH: Host Meredith Vieira talks to some of your favorite authors, celebrities, and athletes about the subjects and stories in our favorite books. They'll explore the many ways these novels affect, reflect, and connect us all.
ASHLEY HAMER: Visit pbs.org to see the entire list vote for your favorites and share with your friends. It all leads up to the grand finale on Tuesday, October 23 when all the votes are counted and America's favorite novel is announced.
CODY GOUGH: Celebrate reading books and imagination, and join the conversation at #GreatReadPBS.
ASHLEY HAMER: The Great American read returns Tuesdays this fall at 8:00/7:00 Central starting September 11 on your local PBS station. Have you ever wondered if the universe is expanding, then what is it expanding into? Today, we've got some answers for you. It's hard to imagine anything expanding into nothing and yet the universe is everything. So what the heck is that about?
CODY GOUGH: I can't wait to hear you try to talk through this one.
ASHLEY HAMER: So that is technically the answer. The universe is everything, so it isn't expanding into anything. It's just expanding. All the galaxies in the universe are moving away from each other and every region of space is being stretched. Scientists aren't sure whether the universe is infinite or finite, but they are pretty sure that it doesn't have an edge.
But how can the universe be finite and not have an edge? To understand that, think of the fabric of the universe as the surface of a balloon. As the balloon inflates, the surface stretches and every point on that surface moves away from every other point. A tiny person on the surface of that balloon could walk forever and never run into the edge because there is no edge. Even though the balloon itself has a finite volume.
But evidence from the earliest light in the universe suggests that the universe is not shaped like a balloon and it's actually flat. When scientists say flat, they mean Euclidean, which means that parallel lines always run parallel and the sum of the angles of a triangle is always 180 degrees. This doesn't happen on a sphere or a hyperbola, but it does on a cylinder, a Taurus, or donut shape, and any other shape you can make out of a flat piece of paper.
If we do live in a quote unquote, "flat universe" like a piece of paper where the edges have been pinched together into a cylinder or a Taurus, then just like on the edges of the screen in a game of Pac-Man, you could hypothetically travel in one direction for a really long time to end up right back where you started. Just remember, no matter what shape the universe is, it's not expanding into anything. The universe has no edge, so there's nothing outside of it. Mind blowing, right?
CODY GOUGH: That's all for today but Curiosity has big plans for the weekend.
ASHLEY HAMER: This weekend, you'll learn about how Earth got all its water, some common words that were named after people, the Italian monk who invented the pretzel, why a small Alaskan town is overrun with bald eagles, five persuasion tricks to get people to do what you want, and more.
CODY GOUGH: If you've got a minute this weekend, then please fill out our listener survey for a chance to win a free Curiosity T-shirt. You can find a link in today's show notes and on our podcast page on our website and on our Patreon page, Patreon.com/curiositydotcom all spelled out. Or just ring a bell and your dog will bring it to you.
ASHLEY HAMER: And once again, feel free to check out our Patreon page at Patreon.com/curiositydotcom where you can find our first ever outtake gag reel and some other fun stuff.
CODY GOUGH: Join us again Sunday to learn something new in just a few minutes. Until then, have a great weekend. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Stay curious.
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