Learn about how people become less narcissistic as they get older; how it’s possible that we can see a single photon with the naked eye; and, new research that says cigarette smokers won’t crave more food if they quit smoking. 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: Most People Become Less Narcissistic With Age — Unless They Have These Characteristics — https://curiosity.im/2VpSq4e Can You See a Single Photon With Your Naked Eye? — https://curiosity.im/2n1gI7q New Research Says Time Away from Cigarettes Doesn't Make Smokers Crave Food — https://curiosity.im/2nds7kA 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 how people become less narcissistic as they get older; how it’s possible that we can see a single photon with the naked eye; and, new research that says cigarette smokers won’t crave more food if they quit smoking.
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:
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/quitting-smoking-doesnt-lead-to-food-cravings-narcissism-over-time-and-seeing-photons
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 how people become less narcissistic as they get older; how it’s possible to see a single photon with the naked eye; and, new research that says you won’t crave more food if you quit smoking.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Most People Become Less Narcissistic With Age — Unless They Have These Characteristics — https://curiosity.im/2VpSq4e (Cody)
Research shows that most people become less narcissistic as they get older! So parents, if your teenager seems totally self-obsessed, don’t worry: they’ll probably grow out of it. Probably. There are some people who hang onto those narcissistic leanings into middle age, and that could have implications for future organizational research. But let me back up and talk about the research. This comes from a new international study from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Scientists set out to track how narcissism levels changed over 23 years in a group of freshmen from UC Berkeley. More than 200 participants filled out narcissism evaluations when they were 18, and then did it again when they turned 41. The results showed a clear link between narcissism levels and age: most people became less narcissistic, and only about 3 percent of participants became MORE narcissistic. But the team didn't stop there: They zoomed in on how different facets of narcissism changed, too. Previous research has broken narcissism down into three such facets: entitlement, vanity, and leadership. Entitlement deals with looking down on other people and being generally disagreeable. It's the worst of the three. College students with more entitlement tended to go through more negative life events before they turned 41. Vanity is all about someone being really proud of their appearance and achievements — as in, maybe a little TOO proud. The ones who scored highest on vanity were more likely to have unstable relationships and marriages, with a higher divorce rate. But they could also be the healthiest, possibly because they exercise more and pay more attention to their diet. That third trait, Leadership, is the silver lining to narcissism. That’s associated with self-esteem, extraversion, and working toward goals. And the leadership facet could explain why the narcissistic young adults were more likely to end up with jobs as supervisors 23 years later. The researchers say this suggests that selfish and arrogant people are rewarded with more powerful organizational roles. Study participants who ended up in leadership roles showed less of a decrease in narcissism over time, which means those roles could have helped them hang onto those college-age levels of narcissism. And that’s an interesting takeaway from this research: the fact that narcissists end up in powerful positions deserves a closer look. Now that we know more about how narcissistic leaders grow into themselves, future studies should look into the implications when it comes to organizational research. And, of course, you can stop losing sleep over your teenager’s narcissistic tendencies. Like I said: they’ll probably grow out of it.
Can You See a Single Photon With Your Naked Eye? — https://curiosity.im/2n1gI7q (Ashley)
A 2016 says you can see a single photon with the naked eye. Yes, a SINGLE photon - as in, the elementary particle of light. We've known since 1942 that the eyes' rod cells only need a single photon to make them react, but who knew your brain could also register something so tiny?
In the study, published in Nature Communications, subjects identified the flash of a single photon correctly at a rate higher than chance. That means the brain might be capable of processing that tiny piece of data. And "processing" is probably a better word for it than "seeing." As physicist Alipashi Vaziri said, "The most amazing thing is that it's not like seeing light. It's almost a feeling, at the threshold of imagination."
In the experiment, three male participants went through a total of 30,767 trials. The subjects were hooked into the optical system where they’d press a button and hear two sounds separated by one second. One of those sounds might be accompanied by a single photon. They'd have to answer whether they thought the photon fired, and on which sound. Then, they’d find out if they were correct. The answers, it turned out, were better than chance: The participants guessed right 51.6 percent of the time.
This might not sound super impressive, but there were enough trials to reach the level of statistical significance. One unexpected result of the test showed that some degree of "priming" might make it easier for the brain to catch the photons. Whenever the men correctly identified a photon, they were more likely to correctly identify the next photon they saw within 10 seconds — their success rate increased to 56 percent for that particular subset.
Now, don't start working on your single-photon flashlight quite yet. Some researchers have suggested that the 2016 experiment wasn't nearly large enough to draw any universal conclusions. Still, the fact that that this degree of sensitivity is possible in biological systems bodes well for the capabilities of future technology.
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New Research Says Time Away from Cigarettes Doesn't Make Smokers Crave Food — https://curiosity.im/2nds7kA (Republish) (from Wednesday 10/6) (Cody)
Some people think that smokers who can't light up will reach for food in lieu of cigarettes. But AS REPORTED BY FUTURITY [INSERT FROM POST-EPISODE RECORDING], a new study suggests smoking abstinence doesn't greatly affect our motivation for food.
In previous research, Stephen Tiffany, professor in the University at Buffalo's psychology department, has consistently found that people will spend more for a cigarette than water, but for this study, he was interested in food, especially around the relationship between smoking and weight.
Researchers wanted to know: Do smokers who can't smoke, for whatever reason, reallocate their resources toward food and water when cigarettes are not an option?
In the study 50 smokers, who abstained for 12 hours, were given “house money” to spend. They sat in front of a box with a sliding door. Inside the box was one of three items: their favorite brand of cigarette, a candy bar they previously said they liked, or a cup of water.
Each participant would see the box's contents following a tone. They rated their craving for that item from 1 to 7 and then determined how much of the $9 they had, they'd want to spend to sample one of the cues.
The amount they spent, from a penny to 25 cents, determined whether the door unlocked or not. The more they spent, the greater the chance of the door unlocking, up to a probability of 95 percent.
Abstaining from smoking gave smokers more cravings for cigarettes, but didn’t have an impact on their craving for food. The researchers say that suggests that smokers don’t just transfer their cravings for cigarettes to other things when they abstain; instead, their cravings for food stay constant regardless of whether they’re smoking or abstaining.
The participants in the study were not trying to quit smoking and the findings don't speak to how trying to quit would influence these motivations. However, food does not become more appealing during times when a smoker is in a smoke-free environment, or otherwise can't smoke.
ASHLEY: And now, let’s recap what we learned today. Today we learned that most people become less narcissistic as they get older. But narcissistic leadership could persist, and even lead to supervisory roles.
CODY: And that
ASHLEY: And that quitting cigarettes will not make smokers crave food.
[ad lib optional]
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Stay curious!