SYSK Choice: The Science Behind Human Quirks & Why Counting is Complicated

During the holiday season, you likely use a lot of power strips to plug in lights and decorations. This episode begins with some advice about what NEVER to plug in to a power strip for the safety of everyone in your home. And you will probably be surprised by what you hear. https://www.familyhandyman.com/article/things-you-should-never-do-with-power-strips/

Human beings are quirky. We do things and behave in ways that are frankly a bit odd. Where do these quirks come from and why do we do them? Here to explore some of the fascinating quirks of our humanness is Marty Jopson. Marty is the resident science reporter on BBC TV’s “The One Show” and is author of the book, The Science of Being Human: Why We Behave, Think and Feel the Way We Do (https://amzn.to/2VYTZqY).

What could be more objective than counting? If you want to find out how many of something you have – you count them. It seems pretty obvious. However, counting turns out to be a bit trickier than you might think. People can and do use numbers and counting to deceive you if you don’t understand what they are doing. Joining me to explain the interesting world of counting is Deborah Stone. She is a scholar who has taught at Brandeis, MIT, Duke, Dartmouth, Yale, Tulane, among others and she is author of the book Counting: How We Use Numbers to Decide What Matters (https://amzn.to/33UeKZ1)

One important difference between men and women is that men are generally better at asking for what they want. Listen as I describe the consequences of that and what women can do to get more of what they want – and the solution is fairly simple. Source: Linda Babcock author of Women Don't Ask (https://amzn.to/3AHEjNj).

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