Better at English

051 – The good, the bad, and the flat-out liars. Real English Conversation


Listen Later

Imagine if you will, the following scenario. You’ve volunteered to take part in a psychology study, say, at your university. All you have to do is show up to the lab, sit by yourself in a little booth and play a very simple game of chance, something like flipping a coin, where there's no skill involved, only luck. You get paid one dollar just for showing up, that’s guaranteed. And if you’re lucky and win the game, you’ll get paid 5 dollars cash. But if you lose, you get nothing.

Here’s the kicker: it's up to you to tell the researchers if you won or lost, they won't be able to tell.

So there are three possible outcomes: you can win and get 5 dollars, you can lose and get nothing, or....you can lose, but lie and still get the 5 dollars. And nobody will know. What would you do? What do you think other people would do?

As it happens, a recent study just looked at this, and there was a cunning little twist: those crafty researchers actually DID know if people won or lost. So they also knew if people told the truth about it or if they lied.

The study, called "Cheaters, Liars, or Both? A New Classification of Dishonesty Profiles" is absolutely fascinating. And today you'll hear a conversation ‒ in American English – with some people discussing it. The conversation is from one of my favorite podcasts, The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe. It's a podcast featuring smart people having interesting discussions about science, technology, and critical thinking. If you are at all interested in those topics, I highly recommend it for your English listening practice. This is definitely a show that will make you smarter, and will teach you lots of vocabulary. The episodes don't always have transcripts, but I've transcribed the part you're going to hear today and put it in the show notes, which you can find at betteratenglish.com/transcripts.

You know, if you like, you can turn this episode into a more challenging task for yourself. In the show notes you'll also find a link to a New York Times article about the study. In the conversation you'll hear a woman summarizing this same article to her friends. So before you continue listening, you can hit pause and go read the article yourself. Then imagine how you might summarize it for friend and what you might discuss. What language would you use? What vocabulary would you need? Spend a few moments imagining how you might talk about it with a group of friends. Then listen to the rest of this podcast and compare your ideas with what you hear in the conversation.

All right, let's get to it. You'll hear a woman named Cara doing most of the talking. She explains the study's findings to her friends Steve, Bob, Jay, and Evan. They they all discuss what they make of it. Are you ready? Let's go:

TRANSCRIPT PREVIEW
Get the full transcript here

Steve: All right, Cara, you're gonna tell us about the psychology of lying and cheating.

Cara: Right! So this is a field of psychological inquiry that goes back basically to the beginning of experimental psychology, right? Psychologists, psychologists have always been interested in deception. So a new paper said, OK, well, we want to do is we want to see if we can sort of beef up and retest some old concepts in the kind of construct of lying, cheating deception, but we want to go beyond that. And we want to say, Okay, this is not an all or nothing phenomenon, right? Like, you could say, That person's a liar, or that person lied, or that person's a cheater, that person's dishonest, but there are shades of grey, aren't there?

Steve: Mm hmm.

Evan: Of course, of course.

Bob: Yeah, absolutely. Little white lies.

Cara: Totally. There lies that actually help us.

Bob: There are lies that actually get people killed.

Cara: Yep.
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Better at EnglishBy Lori Linstruth

  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3

4.3

122 ratings


More shows like Better at English

View all
Big Picture Science by Big Picture Science

Big Picture Science

938 Listeners

Speak English with ESLPod.com - Learn English Fast by ESLPod.com

Speak English with ESLPod.com - Learn English Fast

2,543 Listeners

Scott Sigler Slices: SLAY 3 by Scott Sigler

Scott Sigler Slices: SLAY 3

1,072 Listeners

Radio Detective Story Hour by Dennis Humphrey

Radio Detective Story Hour

393 Listeners

Common Sense with Dan Carlin by Dan Carlin

Common Sense with Dan Carlin

11,313 Listeners

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History by Dan Carlin

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History

63,451 Listeners

Astronomy Cast by Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela Gay

Astronomy Cast

2,865 Listeners

Meditation Oasis by Mary and Richard Maddux

Meditation Oasis

3,919 Listeners

Philosophy Bites by Edmonds and Warburton

Philosophy Bites

1,531 Listeners

6 Minute English by BBC Radio

6 Minute English

1,791 Listeners

Learning English Conversations by BBC Radio

Learning English Conversations

1,052 Listeners

KunstlerCast - Conversations: Converging Catastrophes of the 21st Century by James Howard Kunstler & Duncan Crary

KunstlerCast - Conversations: Converging Catastrophes of the 21st Century

439 Listeners

Culips Everyday English Podcast by Culips English Podcast

Culips Everyday English Podcast

1,011 Listeners

Learn English | EnglishClass101.com by EnglishClass101.com

Learn English | EnglishClass101.com

857 Listeners

All Ears English Podcast by Lindsay McMahon and Michelle Kaplan

All Ears English Podcast

2,230 Listeners

Daily Easy English Expression Podcast by Coach Shane

Daily Easy English Expression Podcast

826 Listeners

Espresso English Podcast by Shayna Oliveira

Espresso English Podcast

430 Listeners

Real English Conversations Podcast – English for Global Professionals | Speak Clearly & Confidently at Work by Real English Conversations: Amy Whitney & Curtis Davies - English Podcast

Real English Conversations Podcast – English for Global Professionals | Speak Clearly & Confidently at Work

398 Listeners

Speak English Now Podcast: Learn English | Speak English without grammar. by Georgiana, founder of SpeakEnglishPodcast.com

Speak English Now Podcast: Learn English | Speak English without grammar.

571 Listeners

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History: Addendum by Dan Carlin

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History: Addendum

8,220 Listeners

American English Podcast by Shana Thompson

American English Podcast

580 Listeners

Thinking in English by Thomas Wilkinson

Thinking in English

96 Listeners

Listening Time: English Practice by Sonoro |  Conner Pe

Listening Time: English Practice

555 Listeners

Learning English For Work by BBC News

Learning English For Work

39 Listeners

Learning Easy English by BBC

Learning Easy English

94 Listeners