Dexa/Shankar Vedantam

Making It Up

Explore the complex motivations behind claiming identities or experiences that aren't truly yours. From using a disabled parking permit to fabricating traumatic pasts for sympathy, this episode delves into the ethics and psychology of deception. Listeners are invited to reflect on their own experiences and share their stories, fostering a deeper understanding of the human tendency to "make it up."

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From this podcast
Hidden Brain
Money 2.0: Emotional Currency
Related Questions
- I have a question about the episode You Don’t Actually Know What Your Future Self Wants | Shankar Vedantam | TED and the clip Identity and Change. If we can't forget traumatic events but can modify our emotional response to past events, can the changes to a person's character following an event also be reversed or altered? For example, if someone who was once very positive and engaging returns from war or suffers the loss of a parent/spouse and becomes guarded and distant, how much of our 'character' is malleable? Or can people truly become 'stuck in their ways'? This question relates to the episode Unstressable with Robert Sapolsky - Revealing Humanity's Inner Workings and the clip Defining Moments.