Talkers Are Leaders, DNA Evidence Myth, Thinking Sans Brain

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Science

4.6 • 963 Ratings

🗓️ 30 August 2021

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Learn about a key trait in group leaders; why DNA evidence is overrated; and a brainless slime mold that can “think.”

The "babble hypothesis" of leadership says people who talk more are seen as leaders by Steffie Drucker

Dolan, E. W. (2021, July 17). New study finds people who speak more are more likely to be viewed as leaders. PsyPost; PsyPost. https://www.psypost.org/2021/07/new-study-finds-people-who-speak-more-are-more-likely-to-be-viewed-as-leaders-61540
MacLaren, N. G., Yammarino, F. J., Dionne, S. D., Sayama, H., Mumford, M. D., Connelly, S., Martin, R. W., Mulhearn, T. J., Todd, E. M., Kulkarni, A., Cao, Y., & Ruark, G. A. (2020). Testing the babble hypothesis: Speaking time predicts leader emergence in small groups. The Leadership Quarterly, 31(5), 101409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2020.101409

Contrary To Popular Belief, DNA Evidence Is Far From Perfect by Ashley Hamer

Shermer, M. (2015). Forensic Pseudoscience. Scientific American, 313(3), 95–95. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0915-95
Shaer, M. (2016, May 17). The Atlantic. The Atlantic; theatlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/a-reasonable-doubt/480747/
Dolan, M. (2019, January 29). The danger of DNA: It isn’t perfect. Chicagotribune.com; Chicago Tribune. https://www.chicagotribune.com/la-me-dna26-2008dec26-story.html

There's a brainless slime mold that can do things often associated with thinking by Cameron Duke

Greenberg, A. (2020, September 21). Eight smart things slime molds can do without a brain. Pbs.org; Nova. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/slime-mold-smart-brainless-cognition/
Murugan, N. J., Kaltman, D. H., Jin, P. H., Chien, M., Martinez, R., Nguyen, C. Q., Kane, A., Novak, R., Ingber, D. E., & Levin, M. (2021). Mechanosensation Mediates Long‐Range Spatial Decision‐Making in an Aneural Organism. Advanced Materials, 2008161. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202008161
Thinking without a brain. (2021, July 15). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/762793

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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.
0:06.5	I'm Cody Gough.
0:07.5	And I'm Ashley Hamer.
0:08.5	Today you learn about why people who talk more are seen as leaders, why DNA evidence is far from perfect, and an organism
0:16.2	that can do things we associate with thinking, even though it doesn't have a brain.
0:20.8	Let's satisfy some curiosity.
0:23.0	In the musical, Hamilton, Aaron Burr advises Alexander Hamilton to talk less, smile more.
0:31.0	But a new study from The Leadership Quarterly explains why that's bad advice for power
0:36.9	hungry folks like Hamilton, because when it comes to leading a group, your best bet might be to talk more.
0:44.0	It might seem obvious that you have to talk if you want to be a leader,
0:48.0	but starting in the 1950s, some researchers started to wonder, does it matter what a leader actually talks about?
0:56.8	And that brings us to the so-called Babel hypothesis of leadership.
1:01.4	It says no when it comes to leadership it's only about the quantity of
1:06.7	the words, not the quality. Interesting hypothesis, but even after numerous studies looking into it,
1:14.0	researchers didn't have an answer on whether it's true.
1:17.0	So, researchers from Binghamton University and the University of Oklahoma
1:22.0	decided to settle this once and for all.
1:25.0	And to do that, they turns to the perfect way to learn about leadership.
1:29.0	A group project!
1:32.0	Dun-dun-dun! The team assembled Group Project. Dun, done, done!
1:34.0	The team assembled 33 groups of college students
1:37.1	to work through a computer simulation,
	...

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