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No Stupid Questions

51. What Separates Humans From Other Animals?

No Stupid Questions

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Society & Culture

4.63.6K Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2021

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Also: why do people pace while talking on the phone?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

What kind of jerk does that?

0:03.5

The answer was me, apparently.

0:04.9

I'm Antelod Duckworth.

0:07.0

I'm Stephen Dubner.

0:08.0

And you're listening to no stupid questions.

0:11.3

Today on the show, what separates people from non-human animals?

0:15.8

I mean, my dog has a 401k.

0:18.4

Also, why do we pace when we're stressed or anxious?

0:22.3

Like in a bug's money cartoon, so somebody's waiting outside the delivery for a baby to come.

0:31.1

So Angela, I recently came across a paper in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, which

0:36.1

I was so charmed by that I asked you to read it.

0:38.1

As we could talk about it, it's called Acquisition of a Joystick Operated Video Task by Pigs.

0:43.8

How could I forget?

0:44.8

Before the listener, I'll just explain these experiments were carried out at Penn State University.

0:50.0

There were four pigs, a pair of Yorkshire pigs named Hamlet and Omlet, and a pair of Panepinto

0:56.8

Micro pigs named Ebony and Ivory.

0:58.6

I guess after Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney are the song of that name.

1:02.2

Four after Piano Keys.

1:04.0

And the paper describes what the pigs were and were not able to learn in these experiments,

1:10.5

manipulating a video game joystick with their snouts.

1:13.8

And what I really want to know is tell us how it changes your thinking as a psychologist.

1:19.4

If at all, about non-human animals, their capabilities, the way we should think about

...

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