Lying to Seem Honest, The Physics of the ‘Cheerios Effect,’ and Wasps that Recognize Faces

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Self-improvement, Science, Astronomy, Education

4.6 • 935 Ratings

🗓️ 27 February 2020

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Learn about why sometimes people lie to seem more honest; how researchers finally figured out how to explain the Cheerios effect; and what we learned about evolution from studying Northern paper wasps, which can recognize each other’s faces.

Sometimes, People Lie to Seem Honest by Kelsey Donk

People may lie to appear honest. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-01/apa-pml012820.php
Meera Senthilingam, CNN. (2020, January 30). People lie to seem more honest, study finds. CNN. https://us.cnn.com/2020/01/30/health/lying-to-seem-honest-reputation-wellness/index.html
Choshen-Hillel, S., Shaw, A., & Caruso, E. M. (2020). Lying to appear honest. Journal of Experimental Psychology. General, 10.1037/xge0000737. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000737

Researchers Finally Explain the "Cheerios Effect" by Andrea Michelson

Researchers directly measure “Cheerios effect” forces for the first time. (2019, December 19). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-12/bu-rdm121919.php
Crash Chemistry Academy. (2018, January 5). surface tension - what is it, how does it form, what properties does it impart [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMzqiAuOSz0
It’s Okay To Be Smart. (2017, October 25). The Cheerios Effect [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbKAwk-OG_w

Wasps Can Recognize Each Others' Faces by Cameron Duke

Staff, S. X. (2020, January 27). “Profound” evolution: Wasps learn to recognize faces. Phys.org; Phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2020-01-profound-evolution-wasps.html
Miller, S. E., Legan, A. W., Henshaw, M. T., Ostevik, K. L., Samuk, K., Uy, F. M. K., & Sheehan, M. J. (2020, February 11). Evolutionary dynamics of recent selection on cognitive abilities. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(6), 3045–3052. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1918592117

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Curiosity.com.
0:06.0	I'm Cody Goff. And I'm Ashley Hamer.
0:08.0	Today you learn about why sometimes people lie to seem more honest, how researchers finally figured out how to explain
0:15.1	the Cheerios effect, and what we learned about evolution from studying wasps that
0:20.0	can recognize each other's faces. Let's satisfy some curiosity.
0:24.2	Is it better to look honest or to actually be honest?
0:27.5	That sounds like a trick question, right?
0:29.5	Of course, it's probably best to just be as honest as you seem.
0:33.4	But science says it's not that simple.
0:36.4	According to new research published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology
0:39.7	General, sometimes people lie to look honest if the truth sounds too good to be true.
0:45.0	This motivation kind of makes sense. I mean no one wants to be untrustworthy
0:50.0	and most people care about their reputation and how other people see them.
0:55.0	So like imagine you're paid by the hour for a project that your client thinks should take
0:59.8	between six and eight hours to finish.
1:02.4	You time it out and it ends up taking you exactly eight hours. Do you charge the clients
1:07.3	for the whole eight hours that you worked or do you under report your time
1:10.9	because it might look suspicious not to. That's the gist of this
1:14.9	new research. We can predict what will make people jealous or suspicious and we
1:19.8	sometimes lie to prevent that reaction.
1:23.1	We might rationalize that it's just simpler for everyone.
1:26.4	The study found this is especially likely to happen when people have a really lucky moment.
	...

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