Hello and welcome to Being Well, I'm Forest Hanson.

If you're new to the podcast, this is where we explore the practical science of lasting

well-being.

And if you've listened before, welcome back.

I'm joined today as usual by Dr. Rick Hanson, Rick as a clinical psychologist, stand

at bestselling author, and he's also my dad, so dad, how are you doing today?

I'm doing great, and I'm thoroughly psyched about our topic today.

Yeah, same, we are social animals, and that's part of what we're going to be exploring today.

A big part of that includes finding the groups that we belong to, and constructing our identity

and part on the basis of what we think will lead to acceptance by those groups.

We evolve tendencies that push us to conform and fit in, not just because it's easier, but

because there are clear, survival benefits, and certainly we're back in the day associated

with doing so.

Alongside that pressure is the desire most of us have to be true to ourselves, follow

our own intuition, and speak up for what's right even when it's not popular.

So there's this tension we've all felt at some point between the benefits of conformity

and the desire to dissent.

That's what we're going to be focusing on today, and to help us do that, we're joined

by a professor of psychology, author, and expert on curiosity, anxiety, and dissent Todd

Cashden.

Todd is professor of psychology at George Mason University, and in 2004, he founded

the well-being lab at George Mason, which has produced, I think, over 200 peer-reviewed

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