Learn about the right and wrong way to approach an argument; evidence that dogs really do want to rescue you; and how blind people dream.
Learn about the right and wrong way to approach an argument; evidence that dogs really do want to rescue you; and how blind people dream.
Don't argue to win, argue to learn by Kelsey Donk
Dogs really do want to rescue you, it's science by Kelsey Donk
Do blind people have dreams? by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Aakash)
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/why-you-should-argue-to-learn-dogs-want-to-rescue-you-and-do-blind-people-dream
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 the right and wrong way to approach an argument; and evidence that dogs really do want to rescue you. We’ll also answer a listener question about how blind people dream.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
When you argue, what’s your main goal? If you’re just trying to “win” the argument, you might be doing arguments wrong. And I don’t just mean you’re making family dinners unpleasant — according to research, you might be changing the way you understand the issue at hand. So get ready to learn how to argue.
In a 2016 study, Yale researchers identified two main mindsets a person can take during an argument: arguing to learn and arguing to win. When you argue to learn, you’re focused on cooperating with the other person to better understand the topic. When you argue to win, though, your sole focus is winning the argument. No matter how much it costs or how many logical fallacies you have to make, you must defeat the other person in the argument.
So, big deal, right? Of course you want to win when you argue. Isn’t that the whole point? Well, the researchers found that when people argue to win, they see the issue as an objective one, with a single right answer. They become more resistant to alternative explanations and ideas — and those alternatives could be the real truth.
For the study, researchers paired up people who strongly disagreed on some hot button issues — like same-sex marriage, teaching evolution in schools, legalizing marijuana, and abortion. Four topics I’m pretty sure I avoided like the plague when I was on-air in the 12 years I spent working at a major market radio station. But the researchers had participants talk about them, with each other, in a chat room. Half of the participants were told that the goal of the chat would be to argue their position and win, while the other half was told to learn as much as they could. Later, the participants were asked questions to measure their level of objectivism: like, whether they agreed with the statement “If people have opposing views on a topic, at least one side must be wrong.”
After five studies, the researchers concluded that people change how they evaluate the truth based on the goal of their argument.
When people argue to learn, they’re less objectivist and more open to alternative points of view. But when people argue to win, they see topics through an objectivist lens: as black and white, good or bad, and right or wrong. And since research suggests that our political debates are becoming more combative and focused on winning, it’s possible that our views on controversial topics are becoming more stubborn.
It might feel automatic to argue to win when you care deeply about something, but this study suggests that arguing to learn benefits everyone in the end. It can lead people to seek out more knowledge and make better arguments. It can be uncomfortable. But if it’s the truth you’re after? It’s worth it.
Would your dog save you from a burning building? Or if you were trapped beneath rubble? We all like to think so, but now we have some evidence. A new study says your dog probably would try to save you. [CODY: Laaaaaaasiiiiiiiie]
Here’s the proof. Scientists had 60 dog owners bring their pets into the lab. None of the dogs had been trained in rescue — they were just normal, everyday pooches.
The owners were asked to sit inside a box made out of a metal dog crate, which was covered in pegboard on all sides but the door, which was missing. In its place, the researchers placed a large piece of foam board, which was designed to be easy for the dogs to move aside.
Next, the researchers told the owners to cry for help in the most convincing voice they could muster. They could yell ‘help’ or ‘help me,’ but they couldn’t call out their dogs’ names. That way they could make sure the dogs weren’t acting out of obedience. Then, the researchers left the room and waited to see if the dog opened the box to save their owner.
The same experiment was repeated in two other ways. In one condition, the same owner sat inside the box calmly reading aloud. That tested how the owner’s emotional state affected the dog’s behavior. In another, the dog just had to retrieve food from the empty box. That would demonstrate whether the dog was actually capable of opening the box. Every dog went through all three experiments in random order.
So what happened? Well, in the rescue condition, 20 of the 60 dogs successfully rescued their owners. That’s a third. That may not seem like a lot...until you take the other experiments into account.
Nineteen dogs retrieved food from the box. Nineteen! More dogs figured out how to rescue their owners than to retrieve food. That means that way more dogs may have wanted to rescue their owners. They just didn’t know how.
When the researchers only looked at how many dogs were able to both retrieve the food and rescue their owners? The rescue rate shot up to 84 percent.
What’s more, the dogs showed signs of distress when their owners were distressed. More dogs whined or barked when their owners were crying for help than when they were reading. So if you’ve always felt an emotional bond with your dog, consider this a win! Your dogs would probably run into a burning building to save you — if they could just figure out how.
We got a listener question from Aakash [ah-KASH], who asks, “Do blind people have dreams?” Great question, Aakash!
The answer is a resounding yes — blind people do have dreams; they’re just different than those of sighted people. As a sighted person, I dream mostly in images. Usually my dreams have sounds, and sometimes they have touch sensations, but I don’t ever recall dreaming of a smell or a taste. You might be different! Studies find that on average, sighted people’s dreams contain visual images almost a hundred percent of the time, sounds 40-60 percent of the time, tactile sensations 15-30 percent of the time, and tastes and smells less than 1 percent of the time. That’s all to say that even for sighted people, dreams are made up of many different sensory experiences.
So it makes sense that studies examining how blind people dream also find a variety of sensory experiences. Just...different ones. For a study like this published in 2014, Danish researchers got four weeks worth of dream journals from 50 adults: 11 were blind from birth, 14 became blind later in life, and the rest were sighted controls. Specifically, right after waking from a dream, the participants would fill out out a questionnaire, either by typing or using text-to-speech software. The questionnaire asked about their dream’s sensory impressions, emotional content, and general themes. None of the participants who had been blind from birth reported having any dreams that contained visual content. For those who went blind later in life, the longer they had lived without sight, the less visual imagery their dreams contained.
But that’s about what they didn’t dream. What did they dream? Well, 86 percent of the blind participants reported hearing sounds in their dreams, compared with only 64 percent of the sighted controls. Nearly 70 percent of them reported tactile sensations, compared to 45 percent of controls; nearly 30 percent reported smells, compared with 15 percent of controls, and about 18 percent reported tastes, compared with just 7 percent of controls.
But otherwise, the dreams were pretty much the same between blind and sighted dreamers. They all reported dreaming about the same number of successes and failures, quantity of social interactions, and range of emotions. The one big difference was in the number of nightmares. A whopping 25 percent of participants who were blind from birth had at least one nightmare, compared to 6 percent of controls. The researchers think this may be because nightmares are believed to be evolution’s way of rehearsing for threats, and blind people generally face more risks going about their lives than sighted people do.
So there you have it! Sighted people dream with the senses they use in their waking life, and blind people do too. Thanks for your question, Aakash! If you have a question, send it in to podcast at curiosity dot com. Or leave us a voicemail at 312-596-5208!
CODY: Before we recap what we learned today, here’s a sneak peek at what you’ll hear next week on Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY: Next week, you’ll learn about whether the summer will help or hurt the coronavirus;
What happens to your brain after a breakup;
And how archaeologists mapped an entire Roman city underground - WITHOUT DIGGING.
CODY: You’ll also hear learn about why the future of medicine is bright thanks to wearable technology and AI analytics, in our interview with the Dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine, Dr. Lloyd Minor. As for right now, let’s recap what we learned today.
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CODY: Today’s stories were written by Ashley Hamer and Kelsey Donk, 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: Have a great weekend, and if you’re one of our American friends, we wish you a safe and happy Independence Day. Join us again Monday to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!