Did I Really Do That?

Hidden Brain

Hidden Brain Media

Arts, Science, Performing Arts, Social Sciences

4.6 • 40.4K Ratings

🗓️ 10 October 2022

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Have you ever been falsely accused of something? Many of us think there’s only one way we’d act in such a situation: we’d defend ourselves. We’d do whatever it takes to clear our name — and above all else, we’d never, ever confess to something we didn’t do. But psychologist Saul Kassin says that’s a myth. This week, why we sometimes act against our own self-interest — even when the stakes are at their highest.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedantam.
0:03.3	There is a reasonable assumption we make as we go through life.
0:07.3	Groups act in their own self-interest.
0:10.5	Merchant sell things in order to make money.
0:13.6	Employers want to hire the best employees.
0:16.6	Sports teams want to win matches.
0:20.8	The assumption of self-interest is also the lens through which we understand
0:25.1	how individuals behave.
0:26.8	We can see why someone might lie on a resume in order to get ahead.
0:31.6	We also know that no one would lie on their resume to make themselves look worse.
0:40.6	When people are accused of wrongdoing, it makes perfect sense that the guilty would claim to be innocent.
0:47.1	But every ounce of common sense tells us, no innocent person would ever confess to doing something wrong.
0:54.6	We understand as a matter of common sense and intuition that people behave in ways that favor their self-interest.
1:02.9	How and God's name does that favor your self-interest?
1:05.4	How and why people come to betray their self-interest? This week on Hidden Brain.
1:27.2	In the sixth grade, Saul Casson received an assignment from his teacher to write a book report.
1:32.2	It took him about a nanosecond to decide to write about his hero, Mickey Mantle.
1:37.7	I was a huge Yankees fan and I wanted to do a really good job.
1:44.2	The baseball star was not the only object of Saul's affections.
1:47.7	His sixth grade teacher was up on a pedestal too.
1:51.7	I loved Mrs. Avery. I had a crush to be honest on Mrs. Avery.
1:55.7	I wanted to impress Mrs. Avery.
	...

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