Big Brains
What Our Hand Gestures Reveal About Our Thoughts, with Susan Goldin-Meadow
Jan 25, 2024
Susan Goldin-Meadow, distinguished scholar of psychology at the University of Chicago, discusses the significance of hand gestures in communication, exploring their ability to reveal thoughts, enhance learning, and reshape thinking patterns. She highlights research on deaf children inventing their own gesture languages and explores the implications of gestures in education and law. The impact of gesturing in learning and communication, as well as the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic for gesturing, are also discussed.
26:23
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Quick takeaways
- Gestures can reveal unconscious thoughts and biases, providing insights into underlying beliefs.
- Using gestures alongside spoken words enhances learning outcomes and can predict language learning abilities later in life.
Deep dives
The Power of Gestures
Gestures, the movements made with our hands while we speak, may hold more significance than we realize. Susan Golden-Medo, a psychology professor at the University of Chicago, discovered that even deaf children who are not taught sign language developed their own hand language through gestures that resembled actual language. This led her to question the role and importance of gestures in communication. It turns out that our hands can convey additional information beyond our spoken words, and they provide insights into our thoughts, beliefs, and intentions. By understanding and leveraging gestures, we can potentially improve communication, express our deepest thoughts, and enhance learning.
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