Is It Better to Know?

Hidden Brain

Hidden Brain Media

Arts, Science, Performing Arts, Social Sciences

4.6 • 40.4K Ratings

🗓️ 16 February 2021

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Being able to see what’s happening around us can help us make smart decisions. But knowledge — especially knowledge of how others perceive us — can also hold us back, mire us in needless worry, and keep us from achieving our potential. This week, we look at the paradox of knowledge.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedantam.
0:03.0	Ty Winn was living in Virginia when he heard some news.
0:07.5	Halfway around the world in Australia, people on social media were saying awful things about his parents.
0:14.8	So I'm sitting there on the computer just reading through all these horrible comments, you know,
0:19.6	you stupid,
0:21.2	having Asians and racially-laced comments about boycotting their shop.
0:27.8	Ty's parents owned a takeaway fast food shop near Brisbane.
0:31.9	The outcry on social media had grown out of what Ty says was a misunderstanding with a customer.
0:38.7	Some out one of the largest Australian publications picked up on the story
0:43.6	and it just created this absolute storm of negativity on social media.
0:51.6	These dirt bags need to be named and shamed.
0:55.1	Their business page on Google just got bombed with all of these negative reviews.
1:01.1	They are self-absorbed snobs with no respect.
1:05.4	And it just, it caught on, it went viral.
1:08.0	Feeling sick with anger and worry, Ty called his mom.
1:15.3	He expected she was going to be devastated.
1:18.3	And she responded, no.
1:22.0	Things are fine really.
1:23.8	I saw the article in the newspaper but really wasn't able to understand all of it.
1:30.0	Ty's parents were not native English speakers.
1:33.1	They were also not on social media.
1:34.7	They didn't know what was happening online.
	...

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