Learn about a surprising benefit of adding humor to the news; what getting chills from music says about your brain; and how Volta’s electric eels that hunt in packs.
Learn about a surprising benefit of adding humor to the news; what getting chills from music says about your brain; and how Volta’s electric eels that hunt in packs.
Young adults are more likely to remember and share news delivered with humor by Kelsey Donk
What Getting Chills from Music Says About Your Brain by Reuben Westmaas
Electric eels hunt in packs, and scientists are shocked by Steffie Drucker
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/what-getting-chills-from-music-says-about-your-brain
CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity-dot-com. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about a surprising benefit of adding humor to the news; what getting chills from music says about your brain; and electric eels that hunt in packs.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
When comedy and news come together, it can make some people uneasy. Is it really a good idea to make serious news into a joke? Well, new research suggests that it could be. Young adults are more likely to remember and share news delivered with humor.
For the study, researchers asked people between the ages of 18 and 34 to watch a variety of news clips. Some of those news clips ended with jokes, and some didn’t. While they watched, the researchers measured their brain activity with an fMRI machine. Afterward, the team quizzed the participants to find out how much of the news they remembered and asked them how likely they were to share each news clip with friends.
Let’s try it. Here’s a serious clip of the news. [INSERT AUDIO FROM NON-HUMOROUS EXAMPLE.]
So… what was the news? Do you feel like you’ll remember it tomorrow? Do you want to share the news with your family and friends? Probably not. Now, let’s listen to the same news delivered with humor. [INSERT AUDIO FROM HUMOROUS EXAMPLE].
It’s just a little joke about money at the end, but according to the study, that small joke gave the news more social relevance. And that helped participants remember the news and even motivated them to share it.
Interestingly, the funny news clips also sparked more activity in brain regions associated with thinking about others’ thoughts and feelings. The comedy helped people feel more socially engaged and connected, and that can be hard to achieve when discussing something dry like political policy.
So the research suggests that older generations can stop fretting about how young adults consume political news through entertainment-based media. If it’s interspersed with factual information, those funny TikToks and John Oliver clips can actually boost their knowledge about politics and world events. If only there was an educational podcast that made silly jokes and bad puns whenever the hosts talked about scientific studies...
When the music hits just right, something sxtrange can happen. You know what I mean: when that bass drops, when the orchestra swells, when Steve Perry sings about taking the midnight train going anywherrrrre… For some people, musical moments like these bring on full-body chills. And if you’re one of those people, you might have a very special kind of brain.
That’s because, as it turns out, getting chills, shivers, and goosebumps from music is not a universal experience. The technical term for it is frisson, and research suggests that between 55 percent and 85 percent of people feel it. And according to a 2016 study, those people might have very different brains than those who don't have that experience.
For that study, USC researchers gathered 20 people and had them listen to a selection of their favorite songs. Whenever they felt a chill, they pressed a button. All 20 were then given MRI scans — and the 10 that reported reactions were obvious standouts. Their brains had a much higher volume of fibers connecting the auditory cortex to the areas that process emotion. That means that those areas can communicate more effectively, and that suggests these people are more able to experience extreme emotions.
Of course, even if we know the actual mechanism that causes frisson, we don't know what purpose it could serve us. But other studies have suggested some potential benefits of this kind of behavior.
One report from 2007 found that people who experience frisson are more open to new experiences than others. Other studies have suggested that frisson-feelers may have higher levels of creativity and intellectual curiosity. That makes sense. The appreciation of beauty is central to what makes us human, and frisson may just be a super-charged version of that appreciation.
Eels are generally thought to be lone hunters. They lurk in the darkness, waiting for a solitary fish to wander by, then ZAP! They strike. And that fish is dinner. That’s why one scientist was so amazed when he witnessed eels hunting together. This was quite the find, and the phenomenon may lead to new discoveries of how group hunting evolved in fishes.
The big discovery happened in 2012, when biologist Douglas Bastos [DOE-glah BAH-stos] was floating down a river in Brazil. He was looking for endangered fish, and came across a swarm of freshwater fish known as Volta’s electric eels. And they were working together to hunt for food. He returned two years later to investigate.
These frightening fish spent their days hanging out at the bottom of the riverbeds. But at dawn and dusk, they moved to a shallow pool at the riverbank where they worked together to herd and hunt their prey. Bastos [BAH-stos] saw hundreds of eels working in groups of up to 10 to corral little fish called tetras into floating balls. Then, all together, ZAP! They’d send the fish flying with a shock and catch them as they fled, like catching candy from an exploding pinata. Each hunt lasted about two hours and involved at least seven attacks. And you thought the idea of getting zapped by one electric eel was scary.
Pack hunting is common among mammals like lions, wolves, and whales, but we only know of nine species of fish that do it. Scientists plan to compare the genomes of some known pack hunters with these newly discovered eels to see if there’s a genetic component to the trait. As for how the eels pick their partners, the leading theory is that they decide to work together again if previous hunts were successful. Experts believe eels can communicate with one another through low-voltage electric discharges.
Researchers also want to know if group hunting is a seasonal thing. Water levels are lower from June to November due to a lack of rainfall, and that crowds the fish into a smaller space. But when the river swells in the other months, prey may have an easier time keeping their distance and getting away.
So eels are more social than we thought, but you still shouldn’t give them a hug. Volta’s electric eels can produce a current of 860 volts — the strongest electric shock of any animal, and definitely enough to kill you.
Let’s recap what we learned today to wrap up. Starting with
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CODY: Today’s stories were written by Kelsey Donk, Reuben Westmaas, and Steffie Drucker, and edited by Ashley Hamer, who’s the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY: Scriptwriting was by Cody Gough and Sonja Hodgen. Today’s episode was produced and edited by Cody Gough.
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new all that and a bag of chips in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!