Learn about why your urge to nibble on baby feet is totally normal; why there are no animals with three legs; and, the different types of psychotherapy and why they work even when you feel like they don’t. 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: Don't Worry, Your Urge to Nibble Baby Feet Is Totally Normal — https://curiosity.im/31t3cru Why Are There No Animals with Three Legs? — https://curiosity.im/2MrpENs Psychotherapy Works, Even When You Feel Like It Doesn't — https://curiosity.im/2VS7ZSr 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 why your urge to nibble on baby feet is totally normal; why there are no animals with three legs; and, the different types of psychotherapy and why they work even when you feel like they don’t.
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/types-of-psychotherapy-your-urge-to-nibble-baby-feet-and-why-animals-dont-have-3-legs
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 why your urge to nibble on baby feet is totally normal; why there are no animals with three legs; and, the different types of psychotherapy and why they work even when you feel like they don’t.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Don't Worry, Your Urge to Nibble Baby Feet Is Totally Normal — https://curiosity.im/31t3cru (Cody)
It’s normal to have the urge to nibble on baby feet. And the science behind that urge is pretty interesting. Now I’m not around a lot of babies, so I haven’t had this happen to me [have you, Ashley?] But maybe you’ve seen a baby that was so cute, you just wanted to — cutely, for lack of a better expression — eat it up. We probably don't have to tell you that this isn’t a sign you're a cannibal. It's just an example of a thing called dimorphous expression. That’s the way that intense positive emotions can come out in ways that would otherwise be considered negative. And experts have some theories about its evolutionary benefits.
A 2015 study published in Psychological Science explored this phenomenon. Participants looked at pictures of babies that had been altered to look extra cute. Then they rated how much they agreed with statements like "When I look at this baby I feel like I am overwhelmed by strong positive feelings." Not so surprisingly, the researchers found that the cuter the baby, the more subjects felt overwhelming emotion, a desire to care for it, but they also found expressions of aggression.
Why is this? A later part of the same experiment gives some clues. The researchers tested the participants before, directly after, and five minutes after seeing cute babies. The people who expressed the most aggression in the moment had the greatest declines in positive feelings five minutes later. Though that might sound like a bad thing, experts suggest it’s a way to balance us out so the expression of one emotion regulates another emotion. So one might expect to see negative emotions expressed when positive emotions run too high. The researchers point out that the same thing happens when people smile during intensely sad movie scenes — it helps them recover from the sad emotion more quickly. Think about it: If your offspring was so cute that you were overwhelmed with adoration all the time, you'd hardly get anything done. Dimorphous expression helps level you out, and as a result, makes you a better caretaker. So go ahead, nibble those tiny toes. It just means your emotions are working properly.
Why Are There No Animals with Three Legs? — https://curiosity.im/2MrpENs (from Sunday 10/27) (Ashley)
Why are there no animals with three legs? I mean, camera tripods keep heavy cameras standing up pretty sturdily, so why can’t animals do the same thing? Well, one study suggests the answer to why there aren’t any animals with three legs could be at the core of animal evolution.
A researcher named Thomson recently published an essay on nature’s lack of three-legged animals in the journal Bioessays. Thomson is a graduate student in the earth and planetary sciences department at UC Davis, and he’s been pondering the nonexistence of tripeds.
There’s a lot to think about, too. I mean, meerkats use a tripod stance with their tail and rear feet, woodpeckers use tail feathers to brace themselves against tree trunks, and many tree-dwelling animals use their tails for additional gripping, although they may be moving with all four of their limbs as well.
Three-limbed movement is less common, although in insects with six legs, there is a mode of movement where their legs move in sets of threes. This is called the "alternating tripod" gait.
Given that three-limbed movement does seem to work for some animals, Thomson wonders why there are no animals with three legs? He believes that the code for having two sides to everything seems to have been embedded in our DNA very early in the evolution of life — maybe even before appendages like legs, fins, or flippers even evolved. And this could be important to understanding the process of evolution.
With our built-in bias towards two-handedness, it can be hard to figure out how a truly three-legged animal would work — although that hasn’t stopped science fiction writers from imagining them. Perhaps trilateral life has evolved on Enceladus or around Alpha Centauri or on Mars, and those lifeforms have as hard of a time thinking about two-limbed locomotion as we do thinking about three.
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ASHLEY: Here’s a question: how did you sleep last night? Did you spend the night tossing and turning? Well if your sleep is bad, then your day is probably gonna be bad, too. And if you’re struggling to get a good night’s sleep, then you’ve gotta try a Purple mattress.
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ASHLEY: The ONLY way to get this free pillow, is to text Curious to 84-888. That’s C-U-R-I-O-U-S to 8-4-8-8-8. Message and data rates may apply.
Psychotherapy Works, Even When You Feel Like It Doesn't — https://curiosity.im/2VS7ZSr (Cody)
If you’ve ever considered psychotherapy, you might’ve wondered which actual type of psychotherapy you should get. So in today’s podcast, we thought we’d help you understand the different kinds of psychotherapy. And it comes with some good news: as in, a meta-analysis published in the Psychological Bulletin suggests that therapy works, no matter what kind of therapy it is, even when you feel like it doesn’t.
In fact, while it’s usual as you grow older to get more self-confident, more controlled, and more emotionally stable, the research suggests just four weeks of therapy can significantly fast-track this process, especially when it comes to traits like neuroticism.
The study spans multiple types of psychotherapy, so let’s dive into the different styles.
The current reigning champ of psychotherapy, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy focuses on both thoughts and behaviors. Your therapist could help you process difficult thoughts and emotions, and encourage more healthy ones instead with the goal of altering your behavior. Or they encourage you to alter your behavior first, like attending a crowded event if you suffer from social anxiety, with the aim to changing the harmful thought processes
Psychodynamic therapy, is less popular these days, but its roots go all the way back to Freud. Here you are encouraged to explore the relationship between your conscious and unconscious mind, especially early childhood experiences and underlying reasons for repeating patterns. It’s regarded as being slower than CBT, so not covered by many insurance companies. Both CBT and psychodynamic therapy are recommended for patients with generalized anxiety disorders and depression.
Person-centered therapy is less structured than the other two, with more emphasis on the relationship between you and your therapist. You’re encouraged to work through your thoughts at your own pace, with only a little guidance. An advantage of this is that it de-emphasizes the "authority" aspect of the therapist. It's recommended for people who are undiagnosed but suffer from low self-esteem, body image issues, and relationship problems.
ASHLEY: And now, let’s recap what we learned today. Today we learned that the urge to nibble on baby feet is totally normal, because dimorphous expression helps you balance out your positive and negative emotions.
CODY: And that the genetic code for having an even number of legs may have been embedded in our DNA early on in the evolution of life — maybe before some of our appendages had even evolved.
ASHLEY: And that
[ad lib optional]
CODY: Today’s stories were written by Ashley Hamer, Andy Fell from UC Davis, and Reuben Westmas. Stories were edited by Ashley Hamer, who’s the managing editor for Curiosity.com.
ASHLEY: Scriptwriting was by Cody Gough and Sonja Hodgen. This podcast was produced and edited by Cody Gough.
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!