Learn about why plastic bag fees have such a big influence on your behavior; how bumblebees are able to fly around while carrying up to 80 percent of their own body weight; and the neuroscience behind why yoga reduces depression.
Learn about why plastic bag fees have such a big influence on your behavior; how bumblebees are able to fly around while carrying up to 80 percent of their own body weight; and the neuroscience behind why yoga reduces depression.
How plastic bag and coffee cup surcharges go beyond money to influence your decisions by Kelsey Donk
Bumblebees are more efficient the heavier they are by Grant Currin
Why does yoga reduce depression? Researchers say GABA might be the link by Grant Currin
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/why-yoga-reduces-depression-why-plastic-bag-fees-work-so-well-and-how-bumblebees-can-carry-so-much
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 how plastic bag fees can have a big influence on your behavior; how bumblebees are able to fly around while carrying up to 80 percent of their own body weight; and the neuroscience behind why yoga reduces depression.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q6NnTWu4xAq431qeu1esrk9wcR7Ku7d3xepoSPG3vd0/edit?ts=5e4ea63e
Those extra fees you pay for a plastic bag at the grocery store influence your choices in more ways than you think.
As of 2018, 127 countries worldwide had put fees or outright bans on plastic shopping bags. And while these rules may seem annoying or inconvenient at first, there might be something more to them than meets the eye. A new study from UC San Diego suggests that things like paying a fee to use a plastic bag or a disposable coffee cup may motivate us in ways that go beyond money. They play on our desire to fit in.
This all comes down to social norms. This probably isn’t news to you, but humans are pretty social animals. We’re motivated to fit in with our peers, so we follow social norms to a tee. When we understand that most people do something that we aren’t doing, we often feel shame or guilt. And that leads us to change our behavior.
And according to a recent study, that’s exactly how those fees work. When people go to a coffee shop and get charged five cents for a disposable cup, they subtly get the message that most people bring their mugs from home. But when people get a discount for bringing their mug along instead of a fee for not doing so, they feel like bringing a mug is something special. And that’s not as effective for changing behavior.
The research shows that while those 5- or 10-cent charges might be small, they have a big impact. People might not care much about the five cents they’ll spend on a plastic bag at the grocery store, but they will care about fitting in with the other shoppers who are already bringing reusable bags. That’s especially true for people who put a lot of importance on what others think of them.
The UC San Diego researchers say their work is important because it proves that incentives don’t just change behaviors in the short term — they also shape social norms for the future.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LnG1n4qFZuO0HcbEHEgKrrieQN1ML8fv5EglGmx25T4/edit?pli=1
There’s a popular myth that says bumblebees are so heavy that their ability to fly defies the laws of physics. Obviously that’s not true, but that doesn’t mean scientists aren’t fascinated with the way these rotund insects manage to carry impressively heavy loads. Well, new research says it’s easy: they just shift into economy mode.
What that “economy mode” helps them accomplish is pretty impressive: a bumblebee can carry up to 80 percent of its body weight in nectar. That’s a huge load! Imagine wearing a backpack that weighs almost as much as you — much less flying with it! The researchers behind the study wanted to understand more about how the bees accomplish such a feat, so they found a way of simulating the effect of nectar by attaching small weights to their test bees. They put them in small glass orbs and tracked their metabolism by measuring how much carbon dioxide they produced. Finally, they used high-speed video cameras to watch how the bees were flapping their wings.
It turns out that bumblebees can tweak their flying technique in a lot of ways, depending on the weight of their cargo, how tired they are, and, apparently, personal preference. A bee will always flap its wings with a greater range of motion when it needs to fly with a heavier load. They usually flap their wings faster, too, but that uses a lot of energy. Sometimes, instead of flapping faster, they shift into a special “economy mode” that generates more lift but uses less energy. It’s not clear what happens in economy mode — it might have something to do with the way the wings rotate. But this mode actually makes their flying more economical as their load gets heavier. Which is wild!
The researchers aren’t sure why bees don’t use economy mode all the time, but they think it’s because faster flapping has other advantages, like making it easier to remain stable in turbulent air and allowing them to nimbly maneuver around obstacles. But one thing is for sure: it’s a choice.
One of the researchers said that scientists used to think of bumblebees as little machines that all used the same strategies for carrying loads of different sizes. This new research has shown that different individuals make different choices. The researchers said, quote, “even the same bee on a different day will pick a new way to flap its wings,” end quote. If there’s one thing bumblebees can teach us, it’s to bee yourself. (Sorry.)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y4grKQ1HyRL-XAg0AGcMbDRZL8-rfbROAfpY88QW3NY/edit
There’s growing evidence that doing yoga can help with depression, but so far, scientists haven’t really known why. Researchers in Boston MIGHT have uncovered a clue, though: they found that yoga may do its magic by boosting levels of a neurotransmitter called GABA (G-A-B-A, GABA). So roll out your mat, get into child’s pose (or lie down and take a savasana), and try to relax while I give you some good news about depression.
And to be clear, clinical depression is a terrible affliction and a huge public health problem, but researchers don’t understand it very well. Commonly, doctors will prescribe antidepressant drugs that are designed to boost levels of neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. But those aren’t always successful, so some researchers are setting their sights on a different kind of neurotransmitter called GABA [pronounced like a word]. It’s a promising approach, since studies do show that people who have lower GABA levels are more likely to have symptoms of depression.
There’s also quite a bit of evidence that clinically depressed people who start practicing yoga tend to experience some relief from their symptoms. Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine wanted to find out what’s happening in the brain to produce that effect. So, they enlisted the help of 30 people with clinical depression. All the participants started by getting MRI scans to measure their GABA levels, and filling out questionnaires to measure the severity of their symptoms. Then they did some yoga — specifically, an hour of Iyengar [EYE-en-gahr] yoga followed by 10 minutes of relaxation, and then 20 minutes of a slow breathing exercise. Half of the participants did three sessions per week, and the rest did two per week. After three months, the participants went back to the lab for another round of MRIs and more questionnaires.
And the results were… pretty good! Symptoms improved for most people in both groups, and importantly, almost everyone’s GABA levels increased, too. GABA levels were higher four days after the last yoga session, but they had returned to normal when researchers measured them again four days after that. That’s good news — the researchers say that suggests that practicing yoga even once per week would probably be enough to keep GABA levels elevated.
So strike a pose! It seems to be good for your mental health — and now we have a clue why.
Let’s recap today’s takeaways
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CODY: Today’s stories were written by Kelsey Donk and Grant Currin, and edited by Ashley Hamer, who’s the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY: Today’s episode 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!