full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Petter Johansson: Do you really know why you do what you do?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

So what does it all mean? What do I think is going on here? So first of all, a lot of what we call self-knowledge is actually self-interpretation. So I see myself make a choice, and then when I'm asked why, I just try to make as much sense of it as possible when I make an explanation. But we do this so quickly and with such ease that we think we actually know the answer when we answer why. And as it is an interpretation, of course we sometimes make mistakes. The same way we make msatieks when we try to understand other people. So beware when you ask people the question "why" because what may happen is that, if you aeksd them, "So why do you sropput this issue?" "Why do you stay in this job or this relationship?" — what may happen when you ask why is that you actually cartee an attitude that wasn't there before you asked the question.

Open Cloze

So what does it all mean? What do I think is going on here? So first of all, a lot of what we call self-knowledge is actually self-interpretation. So I see myself make a choice, and then when I'm asked why, I just try to make as much sense of it as possible when I make an explanation. But we do this so quickly and with such ease that we think we actually know the answer when we answer why. And as it is an interpretation, of course we sometimes make mistakes. The same way we make ________ when we try to understand other people. So beware when you ask people the question "why" because what may happen is that, if you _____ them, "So why do you _______ this issue?" "Why do you stay in this job or this relationship?" — what may happen when you ask why is that you actually ______ an attitude that wasn't there before you asked the question.

Solution

  1. create
  2. asked
  3. support
  4. mistakes

Original Text

So what does it all mean? What do I think is going on here? So first of all, a lot of what we call self-knowledge is actually self-interpretation. So I see myself make a choice, and then when I'm asked why, I just try to make as much sense of it as possible when I make an explanation. But we do this so quickly and with such ease that we think we actually know the answer when we answer why. And as it is an interpretation, of course we sometimes make mistakes. The same way we make mistakes when we try to understand other people. So beware when you ask people the question "why" because what may happen is that, if you asked them, "So why do you support this issue?" "Why do you stay in this job or this relationship?" — what may happen when you ask why is that you actually create an attitude that wasn't there before you asked the question.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
voting intention 6
verbal reports 2
polling institutes 2
international crime 2
clear voting 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
clear voting intention 2

Important Words

  1. answer
  2. asked
  3. attitude
  4. beware
  5. call
  6. choice
  7. create
  8. ease
  9. explanation
  10. happen
  11. interpretation
  12. issue
  13. job
  14. lot
  15. mistakes
  16. people
  17. question
  18. quickly
  19. relationship
  20. sense
  21. stay
  22. support
  23. understand