TED Intersections: What makes you "you"? An actor and a neuroscientist answer | Yara Shahidi and Anil Seth
Aug 31, 2024
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Yara Shahidi, a talented actor and producer, explores how acting touches on the essence of consciousness and identity. Joining her is Anil Seth, a cognitive neuroscientist who delves into the brain’s role in shaping our self-perception. Together, they discuss the emotional complexities actors face and how immersive performances can lead to deeper personal insights. They also tackle the intriguing implications of AI and the fluid nature of self, examining the rich interplay between neuroscience and individual experiences.
Yara Shahidi illustrates how immersing in diverse roles through acting reshapes her self-perception and empathy toward others.
Anil Seth emphasizes the complexity of consciousness, advocating for a holistic view of personal identity that intertwines experiences and emotions.
Deep dives
The Intersection of Acting and Self-Understanding
Acting influences personal identity and self-perception significantly, as actors often adopt and embody various characters over time. Yara Shahidi shares how starting her acting career at a young age shaped her understanding of self, emphasizing that the act of immersing in roles forced her to reinterpret reality. As she developed her craft, embodying characters became a vital tool for exploring her identity, enhancing her ability to perceive her surroundings almost intuitively. This ongoing engagement in acting helps her understand her own experiences and worldviews through the lens of different personas.
Consciousness and the Complexity of Self
Cognitive neuroscientist Anil Seth delves into the intricate nature of consciousness, acknowledging it as a longstanding enigma that intertwines with personal experiences and emotions. He articulates how human beings coexist as complicated entities, where our existence as physical objects contrasts with the richness of our experiences and sentiments. By examining the various facets of self, such as agency, personal identity, and emotional regulation, Seth highlights the importance of recognizing these elements as interconnected rather than singular. This understanding contributes to a greater awareness of how fluctuating perceptions of self impact our daily lives.
The Role of Performance in Perception and Empathy
Engaging in performance not only challenges actors' perceptions of themselves but also influences their emotional connections to their roles. Shahidi expresses how adopting different characters creates empathy by allowing her to project her emotions and experiences onto the fictional narratives she portrays. This empathetic process often leads to deep emotional investment that can blur the lines between her reality and that of her character, affecting her emotional state even after the performance concludes. Both Shahidi and Seth suggest that such immersive experiences in performance may serve a reflective purpose, helping individuals better understand their identities by stepping into the lives of others.
What can acting reveal about the mystery of consciousness? Actor and producer Yara Shahidi and cognitive neuroscientist Anil Seth unpack the surprising ways that portraying different characters can reveal insights about our authentic selves — even if we're not actually performing onstage or onscreen. Explore the intersection of consciousness and identity and discover how our brains and bodies work in tandem to form our understanding of ourselves. (This conversation is part of “TED Intersections,” a series featuring thought-provoking conversations between experts navigating the ideas shaping our world.)