Exploring Human Communication, Language Variability, and Curiosity

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Exploring the challenges and triumphs of conveying thoughts and ideas through language, emphasizing the intricacies of interpretation and the resilience of effective communication. Unraveling the curious nature of humans and their continuous quest for knowledge, delving into the evolution of specialized interests and the pursuit of deeper understanding.

Is a hotdog a sandwich?

Well, that depends on your definition of a sandwich (and a hotdog), and according to the most recent research in cognitive science, the odds that your concept of a sandwich is the same as another person's concept are shockingly low.

In this episode we explore how understanding why that question became a world-spanning argument in the mid 2010s helps us understand some of the world-spanning arguments vexing us today.

Our guest is psychologist Celeste Kidd who studies how we acquire and conceptualize information, form beliefs around those concepts, and, in general, make sense of the torrent of information blasting our brains each and every second. Her most recent paper examines how conceptual misalignment can lead to semantic disagreements, which can lead us to talk past each other (and get into arguments about things like whether hotdogs are sandwiches).

Previous Episodes

Why can’t we settle the “is a hot dog a sandwich?” debate?

How Minds Change

David McRaney’s Twitter

YANSS Twitter

Newsletter

Celeste Kidd’s Website

Celeste Kidd’s Twitter

Latent Diversity in Human Concepts