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The Grinch syndrome 3/3

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The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Read Along With Us.

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The Grinch syndrome 2/3

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Dealing With Depression During The Holidays

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The Grinch syndrome 1/3

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Neuroscience Explains Why the Grinch Stole Christmas

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If Cacioppo could persuade the Grinch to step into his fMRI, he’d likely observe a result consistent with those of a brain imaging study he conducted to identify differences in the neural mechanisms of lonely and nonlonely people.

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Digital Addiction 3/3

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Why Smart Leaders Kill Breakthrough Ideas | Phil McKinney | HP

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Do you constantly check your phone? Are you anxious and irritable when you're away from your digital devices? Are you too engrossed in the screens of your gadgets?

If your answer to any of these questions is yes, you may suffer from digital addiction. In today's world, we depend increasingly on digital devices, but the consequences of this dependence can be dire.

The Rise of Digital Addiction

Digital addiction is a growing trend, and the numbers are staggering. According to a recent survey, people spend 6 hours and 42 minutes online daily on average. The number of internet users has increased by 1.3 billion since 2017-a trend that is expected to continue. Personally, I have seen my friends and family members become increasingly addicted to their digital devices. Their phones are always within arm's reach, and they check their notifications constantly, even during conversations.

I am especially concerned about future generations, such as my grandkids, adolescents, and young adults, who are growing up in an environment where digital devices are the norm. In the US alone, over half of teenagers have smartphones and spend 8 hours or more on their phones daily. Even more concerning is the fact that this trend is becoming increasingly common-to where it is now considered socially acceptable behavior.

Understanding Digital Addiction

Digital addiction can be defined as excessive use of digital devices to the point where it interferes with daily life. Symptoms of digital addiction can include insomnia, anxiety, depression, and even physical issues like eye strain and carpal tunnel syndrome. Scientific research has shown that digital addiction affects the same parts of the brain as substance abuse, and the withdrawal symptoms can be similar too.

Digital addiction does not just manifest as a straightforward dependence on devices - it extends to specific activities on these platforms, such as social media usage, online gaming, and constant streaming of digital content. Each of these can form its own subset of digital addiction, drawing users into a cycle of dependency that is hard to break.

When people engage in these activities, their brains release dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and satisfaction. This reward system can create a loop, encouraging repeated behaviors and making it harder for individuals to disengage from the addictive activity. This loop can be compared to other forms of addiction, such as gambling, where the person engages in a behavior that provides a temporary sense of pleasure but ultimately causes harm.

Moreover, digital addiction can exacerbate issues of self-esteem and social anxiety. The curated lives displayed on social media platforms can lead to feelings of inadequacy, while the anonymous nature of online interactions can foster a disconnect from real-world social situations. This can cause individuals to find solace in the digital world, further fuelling their dependence.

The Impact of Digital Addiction

The impact of digital addiction is not limited to mental health. Studies have shown that digital addiction can significantly impact physical health, too. This includes eyestrain, headaches, neck pain, and carpal tunnel syndrome. Digital addiction can hamper social relationships and work productivity. It can lead to reduced face-to-face interactions and lack of concentration.

The insidious nature of digital addiction seeps into various facets of life, leaving lasting repercussions. It has been observed that excessive screen time triggers sleep disorders due to the suppression of melatonin, the hormone responsible for regulating sleep-wake cycles. This can lead to chronic sleep deprivation, adversely affecting mood, cognitive function, and overall health.

The continuous bombardment of information and the need to keep up with the digital world can lead to chronic stress and burnout. This constant state of alertness can induce anxiety disorders and feelings of isolation and loneliness, further escalating into more severe mental health issues like depression.

In children and adolescents, digital addiction can hamper their developmental and academic progress. Excessive screen time can interfere with homework, reading, and extracurricular activities. It can also inhibit the development of essential skills, such as problem-solving, communication, and social interaction.

"In the digital era of endless possibilities, remember, the power to unplug lies within you."

Addressing the Issue

To tackle digital addiction, promoting the balanced use of technology is necessary. We must be mindful of our digital usage and set boundaries. Setting aside time for activities such as exercising, reading a book, or spending time with friends and family is critical to maintaining a healthy relationship with technology. Schools and workplaces must also have policies limiting digital usage and promoting breaks. As a society, we must encourage schools and community centers to offer alternatives to digital activities.

Some steps to combat digital addiction:

Self-Regulation: Be aware of your current online habits and take steps to control the time spent on the internet. You can use timer apps or your devices' built-in digital wellness features to limit the time spent on certain apps.

Digital Detox: Dedicate specific time slots for digital breaks. Start with small durations, like one hour a day, and gradually increase.

Engage in Physical Activities: Engage in physical activities such as sports, exercise, or even simple walks. These activities promote health and serve as a great distraction from digital devices.

Prioritize In-Person Interactions: Prioritize face-to-face communication over digital communication. Physical and social interactions are more fulfilling and can help reduce dependency on digital platforms.

Set Tech-Free Zones: Have designated areas in your home that are free from digital devices. This can include the dining area or the bedroom, encouraging more personal interactions and better sleep hygiene.

Create Realistic Goals: Set realistic goals for reducing screen time and try your best to stick to them. Gradual changes are more sustainable than drastic alterations to your routine.

Professional Help: If digital addiction seems to be severely affecting your life and self-help strategies aren't working, it may be time to seek professional help. Some therapists and counselors specialize in dealing with digital addiction.

Remember, the goal is not to completely eradicate the use of digital devices but to create a balanced and healthy relationship with technology.

Conclusion

Digital addiction is a silent epidemic that is taking over our lives. It is essential to be aware of the impact of excessive digital usage and take steps to mitigate it. By investing time in relationships, picking up a new hobby, and setting boundaries with technology, we can better balance our digital and non-digital lives.

Awareness and intervention by schools, workplaces, and policymakers can also make a difference. Given my career, I know it's strange for me to say this, but let's all take a moment to reflect on our digital habits and take steps to reclaim our lives from the digital world's grip.

Additional Articles/Resources

Numerous resources are available for those seeking to delve deeper into understanding digital addiction. These materials offer practical strategies, expert insights, and research-based information on mitigating this modern-day epidemic's impacts.

By sharing these resources, I am not endorsing them. It is for informational purposes only and not medical advice. Please check with a professional before taking any action.

Phil McKinney is an innovator, podcaster, author, and speaker. He is the retired CTO of HP. Phil's book, Beyond The Obvious, shares his expertise and lessons learned on innovation and creativity.

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The Silent Epidemic: The Growing Problem of Digital Addiction

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Studies reveal that an average American checks their phone almost 96 times daily, fueling concerns about our dependence on technology.

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Digital Addiction 2/3

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Are you a phubber? Do you suffer from FOMO? These are words associated with smartphone addiction. 6 Minute English describes these words and discusses how you can kick the habit.

This week's question:

In what year did the term 'smartphone' first appear in print? Was it:

a) 1995
b) 2000
c) 2005

Listen to the programme to find out the answer.

Vocabulary

FOMO
(acronym) Fear of Missing Out

phubber
person who ignores the real people around them because they are concentrating on their phones

addicted (to something)
having a physical or mental need to keep on doing something

compulsively
unable to stop doing something again and again

keep in touch with
stay in contact with

in person
actually meeting someone face-to-face

Transcript

Note: This is not a word for word transcript

Rob
Hello, welcome to 6 Minute English. I'm Rob.

Catherine
And I'm Catherine.

Rob
So, Catherine, how long do you spend on your smartphone?

Catherine
My smartphone? Not that long really, only about 18 or 19 hours.

Rob
No, sorry, I meant in a day, not in a week.

Catherine
Er, that's what I meant too, Rob - a day.

Rob
Oh wow, so you've even got it right here...

So we could call you a phubber... Hello... I said, so you're a phubber? Someone who ignores other people because you'd rather look at your phone.

Catherine
Oh, yeah, that's right.

Catherine
Sorry, Rob, yes, well I think if I went more than a minute, I'd probably get sort of sweaty palms and I think I'd start feeling a bit panicky.

Rob
Oh dear! Well, if I can distract you for a few minutes, can we look at this topic in more detail please? Let's start with a quiz question first though. In what year did the term 'smartphone' first appear in print? Was it:

a) 1995
b) 2000
c) 2005

What do you think?

Catherine
OK, you've got my full attention now, Rob, and I think it's 2000, but actually can I just have a quick look on my phone to check the answer?

Rob
No, no, that would be cheating - for you - maybe not for the listeners.

Catherine
Spoilsport.

Rob
Right, Jean Twenge is a psychologist who has written about the damage she feels smartphones are doing to society. She has written that smartphones have probably led to an increase in mental health problems for teenagers. We're going to hear from her now, speaking to the BBC. What does she say is one of the dangers of using our phones?

Rob
So what danger does she mention?

Catherine
Well, she said that we can get so involved in our phones that we don't notice the time passing and when we finally look up, we realise that maybe an hour has gone. And I must say, I find that to be true for me, especially when I'm watching videos online. They pull you in with more and more videos and I've spent ages just getting lost in video after video.

Rob
Well that's not a problem if you're looking at our YouTube site, of course - there's lots to see there.

Catherine
Yes, BBC Learning English, no problem. You can watch as many as you like.

Rob
So, does she think it's a good idea?

Catherine
Well, she doesn't say so directly, but we can guess from her answer that she does, because she says these timers will make people spend more time in face-to-face interaction, which a lot of people think would be a good thing.

Catherine
I think I said 2005, without looking it up on my phone, Rob!

Rob
That's good to know, but maybe looking at your phone would have helped because the answer was 1995. But well done to anybody who did know that.

Catherine
Or well done to anyone who looked it up on their phone and got the right answer.

Rob
Mmm, right, before logging off let's review today's vocabulary.

Catherine
Bye!

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BBC Learning English - 6 Minute English / Smartphone addiction

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Are you a phubber? Do you suffer from FOMO? These are words associated with smartphone addiction. 6 Minute English describes these words and discusses how you can kick the habit. In what year did the term 'smartphone' first appear in print? Was it: a) 1995b) 2000c) 2005 Listen to the programme to find out the answer.

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Digital Addiction 1/3

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Cell Phone Addiction | Tanner Welton | TEDxLangleyED

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Reality tv 2/2

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What is our fascination with reality television? I believe we're all allowed one or two guilty pleasures. I admit that I have been known to "escape" into the worlds of the The Real Housewives of Atlanta, The Amazing Race, or The Bachelor from time to time. Obviously, a large number of us do, based on television ratings. But why?

Reality television provides viewers with an opportunity to escape the monotony of their own lives, escape the problems and burdens of their own circumstances, and offers opportunities for emotional release. During the time that we are watching other people's challenges and conflicts, we are able to forget our own lives. We find ourselves having thoughts like, "Well, at least my life isn't that bad." We may even think, "So-and-so is gorgeous and rich and even SHE doesn't have it all together."

Of course, there are varying types of reality television shows. Some programs focus on positive situations. Some focus on drama and turmoil. The "drama and turmoil-based" shows appear to be some of the most popular. You can turn on this type of program knowing that there is a very good chance that you will witness fist fights, heated arguments, or back stabbing. I liken this to the car accident on the highway, causing bumper-to-bumper traffic. People can't help but to stop and stare because it is human nature to be fascinated by tragedy and extreme conflict. It can be hypnotic to watch - even when it's happening on television.

People who watch reality television are also able to establish "connections" with its characters. Since viewers are able to live under the illusion that they are witnessing the "real", everyday lives of the show's characters, viewers are able to convince themselves that they know these characters and have a sort of "relationship" with them. What's more, given the popularity of these programs, viewers are able to connect with other viewers who also watch these shows. by talking about the events of these programs and one another's opinions of these shows. Reality television is, in many cases, a rapport-builder and relationship-builder.

Reality television has the ability to blend information and entertainment. One of the things that I find appealing about reality television is that certain programs can be viewed as experiments in human behavior. While it has become common knowledge that reality television is actually "scripted", many of the responses of these characters are realistic. Of course, this depends on the program. These programs appeal to the voyeuristic nature in most of us - we are getting a window into the way different people respond to varying circumstances. This is valuable information that can enable us to learn about others and ourselves. How would WE handle that same situation? And why?

Also, in regard to reality television's ability to provide information, I have learned a lot about a lot of different things - from medical illnesses to fashion to dance. I learned a lot about dance from programs like "So You Think You Can Dance" and "Dancing With The Stars". I am a social dancer who has spent some time in the social dancing scene. I once met a young woman at a dance conference who told me that she began taking ballroom dancing classes and salsa lessons solely because she became a fan of "Dancing With The Stars". She is actually a very good dancer with great technique and great passion for the art form. Reality programs have the ability to inspire us to try new things. They have the power to increase our knowledge and the ability to ignite new interests that can enrich our lives.

As the saying goes, however, too much of anything is not a good thing. As a therapist, I believe that a certain amount of escapism is healthy. I believe escaping from our lives gives us the ability to recharge, in a sense, enabling us to go into the next day feeling more energized than we would be without the escape. However, there comes a point when "escaping" could be considered "running" and "avoiding". If we have issues or emotions that need to be dealt with, escaping into reality television is not going to solve these issues or erase these emotions. Once the program is off, we go back to OUR lives and OUR issues. So what do we do to balance this escapism with reality? Where is the healthy balance? Find adequate time to deal with your own issues. Remind yourself that pushing things below the surface does not push them out of existence. Put at least as much time and energy into facing your issues and being present in your own life, as you put into escaping them through television and/or any other form of coping strategy.

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What is our fascination with reality television? I believe we're all allowed one or two guilty pleasures. I admit that I have been known to "escape" into the worlds of the The Real Housewives of...

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Reality tv 1/2

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Ethics of reality TV: How far would you go? | Kobi Kassal & Arjun Padmanabhan | TEDxPineCrestSchool

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Sense of humor 3/3

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Laughter can be a serious business. There's evidence that people who laugh recover more quickly from illness. Neil and Sam share a silly joke as they talk about the topic and teach you related vocabulary.

This week's question

There's a scientific field of study into laughter and its effects on the human body. What is this study called?

a) gigglology

b) gelotology

c) guffology

Listen to the programme to find out the answer.

Vocabulary

rib cage
structure in the human chest made of bones called ribs which protects your lungs and heart

primitive
relating to the simple, natural way humans lived in their early stages of development, before money, machines or writing were invented

giggle
a quiet, childlike but uncontrolled way of laughing

guffaw
laugh out loud, often at something stupid or rude someone has said

mammals
animals, including humans, dogs and whales, which give birth to live young, rather than laying eggs, and who feed their young with milk

juvenile
young animal which is not fully grown

Transcript
Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript.
Sam
Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Sam.

Neil
And I'm Neil.

Sam
Have you heard this joke, Neil? Question: what's a rat's favourite game?

I don't know, Sam, what is a rat's favourite game?

Sam
Hide and squeak!

Neil
Ha-ha-ha! Very funny!

Sam
Well, I'm glad you're laughing because, as we'll be finding out in this programme, laughter is good for you! In fact, laughter is often called 'the best medicine'.

Neil
And it seems that's really true, medically speaking. Laughing releases anti-stress endorphins into the body and there's evidence that people who laugh recover more quickly from illness, including Covid.

Neil
And who can hear a baby laugh without laughing themselves? Laughter is catching.

But before we start tickling our funny bones, I have a quiz question for you, Neil, and it's no laughing matter. Laughter can be a serious business. In fact, there's a scientific field of study into laughter and its effects on the human body. But what is this study called? Is it:
a) gigglology?
b) gelotology? or
c) guffology?

Neil
Did you make those words up, Sam? They sound a bit funny to me! I'll say the study of laughter is called b) gelotology.

Sam
OK, Neil, but you'll be laughing on the other side of your face if you're wrong! Anyway, we'll find out the correct answer later in the programme.

Neil
Someone who's an expert in the study of laughing - whatever it's called - is cognitive neuroscientist, Professor Sophie Scott. Here she explains to David Edmonds, presenter of BBC World Service programme, The Big Idea, exactly how a laugh is produced.

Prof Sophie Scott
When you laugh you get these very, very large, very fast contractions of the rib cage. And it's a very primitive way of making a sound, so you're really just squeezing air out in big bouts. Each of those individual squeezes gives you a 'ha!' sound.

Neil
It's the reason why jokes are sometimes called 'rib-ticklers'.

Sam
Primitive human noises, like crying and laughing, link to a universal human experience, and this can be seen in the large number of words we use to talk about them. In English, 'chuckle', 'giggle', 'chortle', 'cackle' and 'guffaw' all describe different types of laughter.

Neil
Right, so how would you describe a 'giggle', Sam?

Sam
But humans aren't the only animals to laugh. We belong to the same family as other primates like chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans, all of whom laugh.

Neil
Even rats tickle each other and make squeaky noises like laughter when they play. Here's Professor Scott again to take up the story for BBC World Service programme, The Big Idea.

Prof Sophie Scott
Play is a very important behaviour for mammals - all mammals play when they're juveniles and some mammals play their whole lives, and laughter is a sort of an invitation to play, it's a sign that you're playing.

Sam
What a lot of facts we've learned about laughter, Neil!

Neil
Yes, we could almost be experts on laughter... 'Guffologists', isn't that what you called them, Sam?

Sam
Ah yes, in my quiz question I asked you to name the scientific study of laughter and its effects on the body.

Neil
I'm almost certain it's not 'gigglology' or 'guffology'! So, the answer must be...

Sam
Gelotology! The correct answer! Well done, Neil, I knew you were good for a laugh!

And guffaw is when you laugh out loud, often at something someone has said.

Neil
Well, it's been a laugh a minute, Sam, but unfortunately our six minutes are up.

Sam
Join us again soon for more trending topics, useful vocabulary, and, who knows, maybe some terrible jokes, here at 6 Minute English. Bye for now!

Neil
Goodbye!

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BBC Learning English - 6 Minute English / Why laughter is the best medicine

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Laughter can be a serious business. There's evidence that people who laugh recover more quickly from illness. Neil and Sam share a silly joke as they talk about the topic and teach you related vocabulary. There's a scientific field of study into laughter and its effects on the human body.

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Sense of humor 2/3

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Several members of the ape family have been observed playing tricks on each other, behaviour which hints at a sense of humour (Pic: Getty Images)

We think of humour as a distinctly human emotion, but some animals may also use it to strengthen their bonds.

When you think about what sets our species apart from other animals, a good sense of humour probably features fairly high up on the list.

We love to laugh - so much so, that an appreciation of comedy seems almost ingrained into our species. Babies as young as three months old giggle and find it hilarious when their parents pull funny faces. By eight months, infants have learned how to use their own faces, bodies and voices to make grown-ups laugh. Soon after, parents may notice that their child has turned into a full-time comedian, deliberately playing with things they know they shouldn't with a cheeky grin on their face.

However, a new study shows that humans may not be alone in their love of playing practical jokes. Animals can tease each other too. Together with colleagues, Isabelle Laumer, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), watched over 75 hours of videos of great apes interacting with each other. Great apes are our closest living relatives, and include orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas. The apes in the study all lived in zoos, and were filmed attending to their daily routines.

Members of all four species were observed teasing one another. The researchers identified 18 distinct teasing behaviours, with the top five including poking, hitting, hindering the movement of a fellow ape, body slamming, and pulling on a body part. Some apes repeatedly waved body parts or objects in front of their fellow apes' faces, or, in the case of orangutans, pulled each other's hair.

Dogs can be encouraged to play by approaching with a loping gait and then suddenly running away (Credit: Getty Images)

"What we saw often was that a juvenile would sneak up behind an adult that was busy grooming another ape, and proceed to poke them or hit them on the back, sometimes even surprising them," says Laumer, first author of the study.

"They'd then wait and watch for the adult's response. Usually, the target would just ignore them, and so they'd persist in their teasing, making the behaviour more and more elaborate and difficult to ignore, until they sometimes ended up slamming the adult with their entire body."

The teasing behaviour was similar to that adopted by young human children, according to the researchers, in that it was intentional, provocative, persistent and included elements of surprise, play and checking for the recipient's response. The human equivalent might be sticking your tongue out at someone and then running away to gauge their reaction.

Many scientists believe that humour is far more widespread amongst the animal kingdom

This style of teasing could even form the foundation for more complicated forms of humour. "Joking in humans requires quite complex cognitive abilities," says Laumer. "You need theory of mind (the ability to imagine the world from someone else's perspective), knowledge of social norms, the ability to anticipate others' responses and to appreciate the violation of other's expectations," she says.

As all four great ape species are capable of playful teasing, it suggests that a sense of humour may have been present in our last common ancestor, who lived 13 million years ago.

However, many scientists believe that humour is far more widespread amongst the animal kingdom than this. For example, in his book The Descent of Man, biologist Charles Darwin suggests that dogs may have a sense of humour, writing:

"If a bit of stick or other such object be thrown to one, he will often carry it away for a short distance; and then squatting down with it on the ground close before him, will wait until his master comes quite close to take it away. The dog will then seize it and rush away in triumph, repeating the same manoeuvre, and evidently enjoying the practical joke."

Wolves and other species related dogs also seem to share some of the traits related to play (Credit: Getty Images)

Anyone who owns a dog may have also noticed that during play, they produce a sort of breathy snorting sound that almost sounds like laughter. In a 2005 study, animal behaviourist Patricia Simonet played the sound to dogs at a rescue shelter. She found that listening to dog "laughter" made the shelter dogs less stressed out.

Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, says he has collected decades worth of data showing dogs engage in teasing behaviour similar to that shown by Laumer and her colleagues.

For example, when trying to get an otherwise reluctant dog to play, one dog may approach another with a loose gambolling gait before running away.

"I've seen this in dogs, foxes, wild coyotes and wild wolves," says Bekoff.

In fact, Bekoff says that during his career he has heard stories about many species who act like stand-up comedians and jokesters, including horses, Asian black bears and the scarlet macaw.

There's even evidence that rats enjoy a good laugh

Meanwhile, other researchers have noted that dolphins appear to produce sounds of joy while they are play-fighting, and elephants trumpet in excitement when playing. Some parrots have been known to tease other animals for fun, for example by whistling at and confusing the family dog.

There's even evidence that rats enjoy a good laugh. For the last decade or so, Jeffrey Burgdorf, research associate professor at Northwestern University in the US, has been tickling rats for a living. When the rats are tickled, they squeak joyfully in a high-pitched noise similar to a giggle. They come back again and again for more, and can even be taught to play hide and seek for a "tickling reward", according to work done by a separate group at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Now Burgdorf and his team are using their findings to inform treatments for depression.

"What we've been learning is that the animals are most attentive when they are making these vocalisations," says Burgdorf.

Rats have been observed emitting a high-pitch "giggle" when tickled (Credit: Getty Images)

"My supervisor [neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp] would always say play is the fertiliser for the brain, and it's true. Their brains are connecting. They're making new synapses and new neural connections. And so I think that tells us that when we're in those playful humorous moods, we're actually performing at our best and we are being our best selves," says Burgdorf.

However, while rats clearly love being tickled, is their high-pitched giggle really evidence that they have a sense of humour? Most of the evidence for animals having a sense of humour is predominantly anecdotal, as few large-scale studies have been conducted. It's also difficult to know why an animal engages in a certain behaviour. Are the apes in Laumer's study simply playing a practical joke, or are they trying to defuse tension, initiate play, or even just get attention?

What better way to make friends, after all, than to share a good joke?

"Do I think that animals have a sense of humour? Yes, I think they do, but it's difficult to prove," admits Bekoff.

"For example, I've come across households with two dogs, where at feeding time one dog runs to the front door and barks. The other dog then runs to see who's there, while the first dog runs back and eats their food. So, you could say that's showing a sense of humour, but the first dog may have just learned that that's how they get more food," says Bekoff.

There's also the question of what evolutionary purpose humour could serve in animals. In humans, it's thought that laughter evolved as a way of help individuals bond. What better way to make friends, after all, than to share a good joke?

Is it possible that humour serves the same role in animals?

"In humans, humour can serve as like an ice-breaker, removing social barriers and strengthening relationships," says Laumer. "We don't know if it's the same in apes or other animals, but it's possible. To know for sure we would need to test and observe more groups of primates and other species," she says.

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Why some animals have evolved a sense of humour

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We think of humour as a distinctly human emotion, but some animals may also use it to strengthen their bonds.

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Sense of Humor 1/3

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Hikikomori 3/3

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Hikikomori -- the isolated young people of Japan | Elliot Frields | TEDxValenciaHighSchool

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Hikikomori 2/3

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Hikikomori is a form of severe social withdrawal amongst adolescents and young adults that was first described in Japan in the 1990s. However, now one of the leading researchers in the field, Dr Alan Teo, has argued that we need to stop viewing hikikomori as a uniquely Japanese phenomenon and start treating it as a global condition.

Created by director and designer Bunmi Oyateru, this film looks at the issue of social withdrawal in Japan, as a result of cultural expectations, drawing parallels with the experience of the African diaspora. He explores the need to isolate in order to regenerate and reconnect with the self.

Found in Translation is a series made as part of the In The Mix project, in partnership with BBC Studios TalentWorks, Black Creators Matter and the Barbican.

Directed and edited by Bunmi Oyateru
Written by Bunmi Oyateru and Kiki Gukas

Director of Photography: Cassius Adams
Executive Producer: Dan John

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Hikikomori: What drives us to withdraw from society?

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Do we need to isolate in order to regenerate and reconnect with the self?

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Hikikomori 1/3

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As many as a million young people in Japan are thought to remain holed up in their homes - sometimes for decades at a time. Why?

For Hide, the problems started when he gave up school.

"I started to blame myself and my parents also blamed me for not going to school. The pressure started to build up," he says.

"Then, gradually, I became afraid to go out and fearful of meeting people. And then I couldn't get out of my house."

Gradually, Hide relinquished all communication with friends and eventually, his parents. To avoid seeing them he slept through the day and sat up all night, watching TV.

"I had all kinds of negative emotions inside me," he says. "The desire to go outside, anger towards society and my parents, sadness about having this condition, fear about what would happen in the future, and jealousy towards the people who were leading normal lives."

Hide had become "withdrawn" or hikikomori.

In Japan, hikikomori, a term that's also used to describe the young people who withdraw, is a word that everyone knows.

Find out more

The Truth about Mental Health: Hikikomori will be broadcast on the BBC World Service at 14:30 GMT on Friday 5 July

Read more from the Mental Health series

When does your mental health become a problem?

Tamaki Saito was a newly qualified psychiatrist when, in the early 1990s, he was struck by the number of parents who sought his help with children who had quit school and hidden themselves away for months and sometimes years at a time. These young people were often from middle-class families, they were almost always male, and the average age for their withdrawal was 15.

It might sound like straightforward teenage laziness. Why not stay in your room while your parents wait on you? But Saito says sufferers are paralysed by profound social fears.

"They are tormented in the mind," he says. "They want to go out in the world, they want to make friends or lovers, but they can't."

Otaku v hikikomori

An overlapping group of people with the hikikomori, otaku are "geeks" or "nerds"

They are known for their obsessions, especially manga cartoons and anime

"Otaku" is the formal word for "you" in Japanese - it's thought that the term came about from the tendency of socially awkward manga fans to use over-formal language

In press coverage, both otaku and hikikomori have been linked with serious sex crimes

Symptoms vary between patients. For some, violent outbursts alternate with infantile behaviour such as pawing at the mother's body. Other patients might be obsessive, paranoid and depressed.

When Saito began his research, social withdrawal was not unknown, but it was treated by doctors as a symptom of other underlying problems rather than a pattern of behaviour requiring special treatment.

Since he drew attention to the phenomenon, it is thought the numbers of hikikomori have increased. A conservative estimate of the number of people now affected is 200,000, but a 2010 survey for the Japanese Cabinet Office came back with a much higher figure - 700,000. Since sufferers are by definition hidden away, Saito himself places the figure higher still, at around one million.

The average age of hikikomori also seems to have risen over the last two decades. Before it was 21 - now it is 32.

So why do they withdraw?

The trigger for a boy retreating to his bedroom might be comparatively slight - poor grades or a broken heart, for example - but the withdrawal itself can become a source of trauma. And powerful social forces can conspire to keep him there.

One such force is sekentei, a person's reputation in the community and the pressure he or she feels to impress others. The longer hikikomori remain apart from society, the more aware they become of their social failure. They lose whatever self-esteem and confidence they had and the prospect of leaving home becomes ever more terrifying.

Parents are also conscious of their social standing and frequently wait for months before seeking professional help.

A second social factor is the amae - dependence - that characterises Japanese family relationships. Young women traditionally live with their parents until marriage, and men may never move out of the family home. Even though about half of hikikomori are violent towards their parents, for most families it would be unthinkable to throw them out.

What about the girls?

Hikikomori are seen as predominantly male - Tamaki Saito says males occupy 70%- 80% of the group

However, an internet survey by NHK found just 53% to be male

Female withdrawal into the home seems so natural to Japanese society that it may remain unreported, speculates Andy Furlong at the University of Glasgow

But in exchange for decades of support for their children, parents expect them to show respect and fulfil their role in society of getting a job.

Matsu became hikikomori after he fell out with his parents about his career and university course.

"I was very well mentally, but my parents pushed me the way I didn't want to go," he says. "My father is an artist and he runs his own business - he wanted me to do the same." But Matsu wanted to become a computer programmer in a large firm - one of corporate Japan's army of "salarymen".

"But my father said: 'In the future there won't be a society like that.' He said: 'Don't become a salaryman.'"

Like many hikikomori, Matsu was the eldest son and felt the full weight of parental expectation. He grew furious when he saw his younger brother doing what he wanted. "I became violent and had to live separately from my family," he says.

One way to interpret Matsu's story is see him as being at the faultline of a cultural shift in Japan.

"Traditionally, Japanese psychology was thought to be group-oriented - Japanese people do not want to stand out in a group," says Yuriko Suzuki, a psychologist at the National Institute for Mental Health in Tokyo. "But I think especially for the younger generation, they want more individualised or personalised care and attention. I think we are in a mixed state."

But even hikikomori who desperately want to fulfil their parents' plans for them may find themselves frustrated.

Andy Furlong, an academic at the University of Glasgow specialising in the transition from education to work, connects the growth of the hikikomori phenomenon with the popping of the 1980s "bubble economy" and the onset of Japan's recession of the 1990s.

It was at this point that the conveyor belt of good school grades leading to good university places leading to jobs-for-life broke down. A generation of Japanese were faced with the insecurity of short-term, part-time work.

And it came with stigma, not sympathy.

Job-hopping Japanese were called "freeters" - a combination of the word "freelance" and the German word for "worker", arbeiter. In political discussion, freeters were frequently bundled together with "neets" - an adopted British acronym meaning "not in education, employment or training". Neets, freeters, hikikomori - these were ways of describing the good-for-nothing younger generation, parasites on the flagging Japanese economy. The older generation, who graduated and slotted into steady careers in the 1960s and 1970s, could not relate to them.

"The opportunities have changed fundamentally," says Furlong. "I don't think the families always know how to handle that."

A common reaction is for parents to treat their recalcitrant son with anger, to lecture them and make them feel guilty for bringing shame on the family. The risk here is that - as with Hide - communication with parents may break down altogether. But some parents have been driven to extreme measures.

For a time one company operating in Nagoya could be hired by parents to burst into their children's rooms, give them a big dressing down, and forcibly drag them away to a dormitory to learn the error of their ways.

Hikikomori - just a Japanese thing?

Hikikomori has entered the Oxford English Dictionary as "In Japan: abnormal avoidance of social contact"

But Saito Tamaki believes it is also a problem in Korea and Italy

After a 2002 BBC documentary, Saito received a flurry of emails from British parents who said their children were in a similar condition

Andy Furlong points out that young people in Western societies frequently "take time out" in gap years or have "false starts" on careers or courses without attracting stigma

He adds that the preconditions for a hikikomori-like problem are falling into place in Europe, with 50% youth unemployment in some countries, forcing young people to continue living at home

Kazuhiko Saito, the director of the psychiatry department at Kohnodai Hospital in Chiba, says that sudden interventions - even by healthcare professionals - can prove disastrous.

"In many cases, the patient becomes violent towards the staff or the parents in front of the counsellors, or after the counsellors have left," he says.

Kazuhiko Saito is in favour of healthcare professionals visiting hikikomori, but he says they must be fully briefed on the patient, who must know in advance that they are coming.

In any case, the do-nothing approach has been shown not to work. Tamaki Saito likens the hikikomori state to alcoholism, in that it is impossible to give up without a support network.

His approach is to begin with "reorganising" the relationship between the patient and his parents, arming desperate mothers and fathers with strategies to restart communication with their children. When the patient is well enough to come to the clinic in person he can be treated with drugs and therapy. Group therapy is a relatively new concept to Japanese psychology, but self-help groups have become a key way of drawing hikikomori into wider society.

For both Hide and Matsu, the journey to recovery was helped by visiting a charity-run youth club in Tokyo known as an ibasho - a safe place for visitors to start reintroducing themselves to society.

Both men have made progress in their relationships with their parents. Matsu has been for a job interview as a computer programmer, and Hide has a part-time job. He thinks that by starting to talk again with his parents, the whole family has been able to move on.

"They thought about their way of life in the past and in the future," he says. "I think that before - even though they were out working - their mental attitude was just like a hikikomori, but now they're more open and honest with themselves. So as their child I'm very happy to see them change."
You can listen to The Truth about Mental Health: Hikikomori on the BBC World Service at 14:30 GMT on Friday 05 July.
Many parents of hikikomori visit the ibasho even though their children may never be well enough to come with them.

Yoshiko's son withdrew from society very gradually when he was 22.

At first he would go out to buy shopping, but she observes ruefully that internet shopping means this is no longer necessary and he no longer leaves the house. He is now 50 years old.

"I think my son is losing the power or desire to do what he wants to do," she says. "Maybe he used to have something he wanted to do but I think I ruined it."

Readers shared their stories about refusing to leave the bedroom.

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Why are so many Japanese men refusing to leave their rooms?

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As many as a million young people in Japan are thought to remain holed up in their homes - sometimes for decades at a time. Why? For Hide, the problems started when he gave up school. "I started to blame myself and my parents also blamed me for not going to school.

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Which diet is best? 3/3

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Which diet will help save our planet: climatarian, flexitarian, vegetarian or vegan?

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A climate-friendly diet is a relatively easy way to reduce your environmental impact.

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Which diet is best? 2/3

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Is a vegan diet healthier than eating meat and dairy? - BBC Reel

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Identical twins Hugo and Ross Turner are adventure athletes that are always trying to find ways to improve their performance. With the help of scientists at King's College London, they went on a 12-week fitness program with a twist: Hugo turned vegan, and Ross continued to eat meat.

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Which diet is best? 1/3

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Many diets claim to improve health or help you lose weight, recent research shows that what counts is not what you eat but how your body reacts. Neil and Sam discuss how microbes matter when it comes to food, and teach some related vocabulary.

This week's question

How long exactly is the average adult's gut?

a) 3.5 metres

b) 5.5 metres

c) 7.5 metres

Listen to the programme to find out the answer.

Vocabulary

gut (informal)
intestines; long tube inside the body which starts below the stomach and helps digest food

microbes
tiny, microscopic organisms living inside the human body

calorie
unit measuring the amount of energy that food provides

flimsy
weak and difficult to believe; not convincing

skinny
very thin

stick out of the crowd
be very easy to notice, in a positive sense

Transcript
Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript
Sam
Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Sam.

Neil
And I'm Neil.

Sam
In recent years new diets with names like 'vegan', 'keto' and 'paleo' have become very popular. Are you a vegetarian, Neil? Do you follow any particular diet?

Neil
Well, I eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables and only a little meat from time to time.

Well, while many diets claim to improve health or help you lose weight, recent research shows that what counts is not what you eat but how your body reacts.

Neil
Microbes help digest food, but they influence our bodies more than we know. Think of them as chemical factories that cause our individual reaction to the food we eat.

Sam
This mix of gut microbes is unique and different for everyone, even identical twins.

Neil
And it's the reason why some doctors now recommend a personalised diet, one that perfectly fits your own unique combination of microbes.

We'll hear more soon, but first I have a question for you, Neil, and it's about the gut - the tube which includes the large and small intestine. It's very long - but how long exactly is the average adult's gut? Is it:
a) 3.5 metres?
b) 5.5 metres? or,
c) 7.5 metres?

Neil
Well, everybody is different of course, but I'll say on average the gut is b) 5.5 metres long.

Sam
OK, Neil, I'll reveal the answer later in the programme.

Neil
Among the first to investigate gut microbes was Dr Tim Spector, author of bestselling book, The Diet Myth. He wanted to check whether the dietary advice he had heard and believed, advice like 'eat little and often' or 'avoid fat', was really true.

Sam
Listen as Dr Spector explains how he started to doubt some of this advice - 'food myths', he calls them - to BBC Radio 4 programme, The Life Scientific:

Tim Spector
All these so-called myths that I'd believed, whether it was about calories, about fats, when to eat, how to eat, were based on flimsy or no evidence, very old, very poor quality, and had been repeated so much that people didn't think to question them.

He discovered that much of the dietary advice he had heard was either incorrect or based on flimsy evidence. If evidence is flimsy, it's weak and unconvincing.

Neil
As Dr Spector questioned these food myths, he remembered an earlier study involving identical twins, pairs of brothers or sisters with the same genes.

Sam
It was the surprising differences in weight between one twin and another that made Dr Spector realise that no two people have the same gut - even identical twins' guts are different.

Neil
But, as he told BBC Radio 4's, The Life Scientific, the discovery came in a very smelly way - by asking his volunteers to send samples of their poo in the post!

Tim Spector
We collected lots of these samples, sequenced them, and looked at twins where one was overweight and one was skinny... and we found in every case, the skinnier twin had a more diverse microbiome, greater numbers of different species and they also nearly always had high numbers of a couple of microbes that just stuck out of the crowd - and one was called christensenella and the other was called akkermansia.

Neil
Because the weight difference could not be explained genetically, Dr Spector suspected the microbes in the skinnier twin's gut held the answer: the more diverse someone's microbes, the better their gut was at digesting food, regulating fat and maintaining health.

Two microbes, christensenella and akkermansia,were especially effective. Dr Spector says these microbes stuck out of the crowd,meaning they were easy to notice for their positive effect.

Neil
And since everyone's microbes are different, it follows that a personalised diet which selects the friendliest food for your gut, is best. Right, and all this talk of eating is making me hungry, so tell me, Sam, was my answer to your question, right?

Sam
Ah yes, I asked about the length of the gut in the average adult.

Neil
I said it was 5.5 metres.

Sam
Which was... the correct answer! Well done, Neil - that took 'guts', which is the second meaning of the word: courage.

Neil
Unfortunately, our six minutes are up, but remember: look after your gut, and your gut will look after you! Goodbye!

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BBC Learning English - 6 Minute English / Are personalised diets the best way to be healthy?

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Many diets claim to improve health or help you lose weight, recent research shows that what counts is not what you eat but how your body reacts. Neil and Sam discuss how microbes matter when it comes to food, and teach some related vocabulary. How long exactly is the average adult's gut?

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Minimalism 3/3

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Do you see yourself surrounded by many items you do not really need? Could you lead a simpler life? Alice and Rob discuss our world of possessions whilst teaching some related vocabulary.

This week's question

Which word means a belief that physical possessions are the most important thing in life? Is it...

a) metaphysics?

b) materialism?

c) existentialism?

You can hear the right answer at the end of the programme.

Vocabulary

cleaning a place very well, especially places you don't clean often

sentimental value
the importance of something because of personal or emotional feelings we attach to it

Transcript

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript

Alice
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I'm Alice...

Rob
And I'm Rob. Now, Alice, what did you get up to at the weekend?

I did some spring-cleaning, which means cleaning a place very well, especially places you don't clean often. So, I was tidying up my wardrobe, trying to organise things... and suddenly hundreds of shoes tumbled on my head!

Rob
Poor Alice! But why do you have so many shoes? And why do you keep them at the top of your wardrobe? I only have three pairs.

Alice
I like to match my shoes to my outfit - and three pairs wouldn't do the trick. Well, the subject of today's show is having too much stuff. And you're making me feel guilty, Rob. You must have too much of something.

Alice
You can recycle plastic bags, you know, Rob?

Rob
Well, you can recycle shoes too, you know, Alice!

Alice
Yes.

Rob
Yes, it would need to be a big bucket too.

Alice
Yes, it would.

Well, l think we could all live better with less. OK, well, let's have today's quiz question before we talk more about decluttering our lives: So which word, Alice, means a belief that physical possessions are the most important thing in life? Is it...
a) metaphysics?
b) materialism?
Or c) existentialism?

Alice
OK... I think it's b) materialism.

OK. Well, we'll find out if you got the answer right or wrong later on in the show. Now let's listen to Bea Johnson, author of Zero Waste Home talking about how she and her family have adopted a minimalist - or deliberately simple - lifestyle in their California home.

INSERT
Bea Johnson, minimalist and author of Zero Waste Home
We've really asked ourselves 'what is it that we really need?' We've asked really true questions, and evaluated every single thing that we have. There is nothing that we overlooked. I even came to one day look at my vegetable peeler for example and asked myself, 'Do I really need that vegetable peeler'?

Alice
She evaluated her vegetable peeler and decided to put it in the 'get rid of' bucket!

Alice
Very healthy, Rob!

Rob
We can really live with fewer things. But some people can't help looking for the latest version of something or go for designer goods. Writer and journalist James Wallman warns us about this. He wonders how much stuff is too much.

INSERT
James Wallman, writer and journalist
This thing about need is such a dangerous term because what do you need? And I'm not anti-stuff - stuff is good. I'm anti too much stuff and I'm anti the wrong stuff. Don't go out and buy that labelled good that you think is going to make people think something more of you. That's not going to make you happy.

Rob
James Wallman there. Now, Alice, do you buy labelled goods?

Rob
Yeah, that's true, but as he says, not everything is the wrong stuff. For example, I'm very fond of my large schoolboy collection of superhero comics. I might not need them, but they make me happy. So what stuff makes you happy, Alice?

Alice
Oh, well, I like my music CDs and my books - even though I've got the music on an mp3 player and I don't often pull a book out from the bookcase.

Alice
Yes.

Rob
And that means the importance of something because of a personal or emotional feeling that we attach to it. Well, I sold all my music CDs online ages ago.

Alice
That sounds like the sensible thing to do. OK, I think it's time for the answer to today's quiz question, Rob.

Rob
Yes, I asked you: Which word means a belief that physical possessions are the most important thing in life? Is it... a) metaphysics, b) materialism or c) existentialism?

Alice
I said b) materialism.

Rob
And you were right, Alice! Well done! The answer is indeed b) materialism. This is the word used to refer to a desire for material things and wealth and little or no interest in ethical values.Now, can we hear the words we learned today please, Alice?

Rob
Well, that's the end of today's 6 Minute English. Don't forget to join us again soon!

Both
Bye.

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BBC Learning English - 6 Minute English / Have you got too much stuff?

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You've decluttered and tidied but could you live life free of stuff? Alice and Rob discuss why we give objects emotional value

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Minimalism 2/3

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Downsize Your Life: Why Less is More | Rita Wilkins | TEDxWilmingtonWomen

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Minimalism 1/3

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Take your life back to the basics, slash costs and reclaim your time.

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City versus countryside 1/3

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Is it better to live in a city or in the countryside? While urban dwellers may benefit from more employment opportunities, better access to public services alongside cultural activities and entertainment, people who live in rural areas often argue they have a better sense of community and greater access to nature.
You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, here.
A number of studies have sought to determine whether city or country is better for mental health by drawing on national survey data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS). This is a national survey which has followed approximately 40,000 UK households since 2009. Each year, data is collected on a range of social, economic and behavioural factors.

This is what some of these studies have found when it comes to mental health and where you live:

Physical activity

Research has shown that physical activity can reduce anxiety and depression, alongside improving mood and wellbeing. Indeed, UK health guidelines recommend physical activity for the treatment of depression and improved quality of life.

One easy way of getting more physical activity in your life is through active travel - such as cycling or walking on your way to work or running errands.

So how does urban or rural dwelling impact on this? According to UKHLS research which looked at data from 35,295 people in the UK, urban residents were 64% more likely than rural residents to engage frequently in active travel. This is likely because there are more active travel opportunities in urban environments where there are shorter distances between facilities, shops, offices and homes.

Research shows that the more active travel a person does, the better their mental health. In fact, the mental health benefits of active travel may be just as good as physical activity for leisure. So, based on this measure, people living in the city may have better mental health overall.

But while urban life may offer more opportunities for active travel compared to living in the countryside, that doesn't mean there aren't still many ways to incorporate physical activity into your daily life for mental health benefits wherever you live.

Access to green space

Access to green space (such as parks) is believed to support many aspects of health and wellbeing - including your mental health.

To investigate whether nearby green space was related to mental wellbeing, data from the 2009-2010 UKHLS study was combined with data on the proportion of green space within different areas of England. The analysis found the amount of local green space did not actually predict mental wellbeing.

What this suggests is that while green space may be important for mental wellbeing, having it nearby doesn't necessarily mean people will engage with it. As such, we can't assume rural living is inherently more beneficial just because nature is more accessible.

This aligns with the findings of a 2021 study, which showed that living near green space did not improve mental health outcomes. However, the analysis did find that the more frequently a person visited green spaces, the better their mental wellbeing. Meaningful engagement with green spaces (such as taking photographs) may also be more important for reaping the mental health benefits of nature.

As such, urban living may be just as good as rural dwelling when it comes to the mental health benefits of green space.

Air quality

Numerous studies have found links between high levels of air pollution and poorer mental health. A review of 111 studies even suggests that polluted air may cause changes in the brain regions that control emotions. This may increase the risk of developing anxiety and depression compared to those who breathe cleaner air.

To investigate the impact of air pollution on mental health, researchers combined data on air pollution from the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs with UKHLS survey data, alongside data from the British Household Panel Survey (which looked at 10,000 UK households and ran from 1991 to 2009). This allowed them to analyse data from the years 1991-2014.

The analysis found that people who were exposed to higher levels of air pollution reported lower levels of life satisfaction. The study indicated that the negative effect of air pollution on life satisfaction can be equivalent to major life events, such as divorce.

In general, urban areas have between two to four times the levels of air pollution than rural areas, suggesting people who live in cities may be more likely to experience worse mental health as a result. However, the agricultural industry also generates high levels of air pollution meaning some rural dwellers in certain settings may also be at risk.

Regional variation in wellbeing

Of course, these are just a few of the factors that affect a person's day to day mental health - and it appears neither city nor country living is significantly better than the other when it comes to your mental health.

Indeed, research has found that the region of the country you live in may be more important when it comes to your mental health than whether you live in the city or the countryside. There are many factors that may explain this effect, including the cost of living in certain areas, alongside local politics and a person's economic status.

Where we live is clearly very important when it comes to our mental health. But the place that works best for your mental health will depend largely on broader social and economic factors as well as which aspects of your lifestyle are most important to you.

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Mental health: how living in the city and country compare

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City living and country living both have their benefits and downsides when it comes to mental health.

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City versus countryside 2/3

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City Quitters: why the future belongs to the country side | Karen Rosenkranz | TEDxBergamo

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City versus countryside 3/3

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Incontro in presenza del 23 gennaio 2025

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Incontro in presenza del 23 gennaio 2025

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The Evolution of Libraries 3/3

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Libraries across the U.S. offer more than books with new services

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Incontro in presenza del 23 gennaio 2025

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Incontro in presenza del 23 gennaio 2025

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2/3/ The Evolution of Libraries

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Beyond Books: A Look Into What Public Libraries Really Are | Tara Franzetti | TEDxYouth@RVA

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Incontro in presenza del 23 gennaio 2025

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Incontro in presenza del 23 gennaio 2025

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1/3 The Evolution of Libraries

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Designing Libraries Director, Ayub Khan, looks at the evolution of public libraries - and the implications for library design

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3/3 Sustainable festivities

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2/3 Sustainable festivities

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East Suffolk people urged to regift and recycle this Christmas

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A council says ’tis the season to reduce, recycle and donate to charity shops before Christmas.

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Christmas Gone Green: Sustainable Festivities

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The value of time 2/2

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The Value of TIME - Powerful Motivational Speech

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The value of time 1/2

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"How did it get so late so soon?" ― Dr. Seuss

In an increasingly competitive world, time is of the essence. Notions of productivity and timeliness have accelerated contemporary lifestyles to a dizzying, sometimes overwhelming pace, and our dependence on technology is doing little to help. As the clock grows to dominate the tempo of life, time itself seems to be increasingly fleeting. This is particularly true in large cities, where hours, days, and even weeks can sometimes seem to fly by in an instant.

Indeed, an increasing number of people report constantly feeling short of time. Such feelings of "time scarcity" emerge from how time is both used and perceived by people. Long working hours inevitably limit the time that people have available for other activities, but leading fast-paced lifestyles while packed into noisy, dynamic and crowded urban environments is mentally exhausting, and this can also influence how we perceive time.

In a recent publication, I propose that nature experiences offer a potential solution to the increasingly widespread feelings of time scarcity caused by contemporary urban lifestyles. This emerges from the unique nature of human time perception, which is highly subjective, and moulded by the experiences and environments in which we immerse ourselves.

Read more: Technology is stealing your time in ways you may not realise - here's what you can do about it

Human sense of time

Human time perception - our sense of time - is made up of three key dimensions. One of these is temporal succession, meaning the way we perceive the order and overlap of different events. For instance, pressing a light switch and the light turning on may seem like simultaneous events, but we have the capacity to perceive the order in which they happen, and this helps us to make sense of the world around us.

Another dimension is temporal duration, or how we perceive and estimate the duration of an event. An afternoon spent in the tax office, for example, can seem to last forever, while the same amount of time spent in the company of friends can seem short and swift. Popular expressions such as "time stood still" or "time flies when you're having fun" reflect our nuanced perception of temporal duration.

The third dimension is called temporal perspective, and it refers to the way we regard the past, present and future. Humans have a unique capacity to mentally "time travel" and focus on representations of the past, present and future. Most people have a natural tendency towards certain perspectives, either dwelling on the past or focusing on the future, but maintaining a balanced and dynamic time perspective is a sign of psychological wellbeing.

Together, these dimensions help humans make sense of time. However, the way we perceive them can be profoundly influenced by our own characteristics, what goes on around us, and what we do during a given period of time. Our perception of time changes hugely when, for example, work captures our attention, when we are stuck in traffic, or when we find ourselves in the dentist's chair undergoing a painful procedure.

In contrast, nature experiences can be mentally, physically and emotionally restorative, and this is reflected in our perception of time.

How nature experiences help regulate human time perception

Evidence from psychological experiments suggests that there are at least two ways natural surroundings can have a positive impact on human time perception.

One of these is expanding our perception of temporal duration. For example, one study reports that when people are inquired how long they have been walking in natural or urban settings, they tend to overestimate the time spent strolling in nature, but not in the city. In other words, time feels longer when we are immersed in natural settings in comparison to urban environments.

The other way nature experiences can influence our time perception is by promoting a shift in perspective. In one experiment, participants spent a short period of silence either indoors or outdoors, and were later asked how this experience influenced their temporal orientation towards the past, present and future. People who experienced the natural setting reported feeling more focused on the present, and less on the past.

Other studies have provided similar evidence suggesting nature experiences can help us shift our perspective on time, and induce a more positive outlook of the present moment.

While there is plenty of evidence that nature experiences have various physical and mental benefits, the idea that such experiences can help people uplift their relationship with time is new, and provides a unique perspective on the importance of nature for human well-being.

Further enhancing our understanding of how nature benefits human sense of time can help us design cities and other urban environments in healthier and more sustainable ways.

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The frantic pace of modern life is damaging our sense of time, but nature can help us heal - new study

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Feelings of "time scarcity" are on the rise, but research shows that natural surroundings can help us to slow down.

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Natural medicine vs conventional medicine2/2

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Mushrooms have been used as medicine throughout history, and today the medicinal mushroom industry is big business. But how much scientific evidence is there for their benefits? Beth and Neil discuss this and teach you some useful vocabulary.

This week's question

Neither plant, nor animal, mushrooms are mysterious and amazing things. But which of the following statements about mushrooms is actually true?

Is it:
a) Most mushrooms are poisonous?
b) Some mushrooms can fly? or,
c) Some mushrooms glow in the dark?

Listen to the programme to hear the answer.

Vocabulary

having a moment
to be very popular or fashionable at a particular time

claim
statement that something is true or is a fact, although it cannot be proved and others might not believe it

overblown
exaggerated to seem bigger or more important than it really is

ancient wisdom
pre-Christian knowledge, philosophy and beliefs

give (something) a go
try doing something to see if you like it

intrigued
very interested in something which is unusual or mysterious, and therefore wanting to know more about it
TRANSCRIPT
Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript.

Neil
Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.

Beth
And I'm Beth. Do the names, 'Lion's Mane', or, 'Turkey Tail', mean anything to you, Neil?

Neil
Lion's Mane and Turkey Tail? Sounds like things you might find in the zoo!

Beth
Ha, good guess! But they're actually the names of mushrooms. Lion's Mane is a white hairy mushroom found across Asia, and Turkey Tail is a brown fan-shaped fungus which looks a bit like... well, a turkey's tail! But if you haven't already heard these names you probably will soon, because these mushrooms are becoming popular as medicine.

Neil
Throughout history our ancestors used mushrooms as food, but also as medicine for physical problems and mental illnesses like depression. In the 21st century, this medicine is being rediscovered and marketed. Today, mushrooms are big business. In 2021, the global medicinal mushroom market was valued at 26 billion dollars and growing.

Beth
But how real are the supposed health benefits of mushrooms? In this programme we'll be finding out, along with some useful new vocabulary.

Neil
But first, I have a question for you, Beth. Neither plant, nor animal, mushrooms are mysterious and amazing things. But which of the following statements about mushrooms is actually true?

a) Most mushrooms are poisonous?

b) Some mushrooms can fly? or,

c) Some mushrooms glow in the dark?

Beth
I think some mushrooms glow in the dark.

Neil
OK, Beth, we'll find out if that's true at the end of the programme. Scientific researcher, Dr Emily Leeming, has been studying the medicinal properties of mushrooms for King's College, London. She shared her discoveries with, Sheila Dillon, presenter of BBC Radio 4 programme, The Food Chain:

Dr Emily Leeming
So, I think these mushrooms are very much having a moment right now, they're kind of labelled as 'super brain drugs', so things are gonna potentially help with lessening anxiety, improving potentially depression. It's very much about these mind benefits that we're seeing the labels on the claims getting put out there.

Sheila Dillon
What do you think of those claims?

Dr Leeming says that right now medicinal mushrooms are having a moment. If something is having a moment, it's very popular or fashionable at a particular time.

Mushrooms are popular due to the claims about what they can do, for example, reduce depression. A claim is a statement that something is true, although it cannot be proved and others might not believe it. Dr Leeming thinks some of the claims made about mushrooms are overblown, exaggerated to seem more significant than they really are.

Beth
The problem is that to sell something as medicine, you need scientific proof of its benefits. You might feel less stressed after drinking chamomile tea, but that doesn't mean you can legally call chamomile a 'medicine', even though it's been used for centuries to help people relax.

Neil
However, that hasn't discouraged many from experimenting, especially young people. Emma Clifford works for food research organisation, Mintel. Here, she discusses young people's attitude towards mushrooms for BBC Radio 4 programme, The Food Chain:

Emma Clifford
Lots of people absolutely want there to be scientific proof for health claims on food and drink because there still is a fair amount of scepticism, distrust, and general confusion around functionality. However, I also think that for many consumers, the medicinal properties of certain ingredients, based on natural and holistic ancient wisdom, may be just as compelling, if not more so, than knowledge based on modern science and clinical trials, and I think many people, young people in particular, they're just really intrigued to give these ingredients a go.

Young people are especially prepared to give mushrooms a go. If you give something a go, you try doing something to see if you like it. They are intrigued about mushrooms - they find them interesting and want to know more... which is not surprising given some of the amazing things mushrooms can do.

Beth
I think it's time to reveal the answer to your question, Neil. I guessed one of the amazing things some mushrooms can do is glow in the dark.

And finally, when someone is intrigued by somethingstrange ormysterious, they're very interested and want to know more. Join us next time for more new useful vocabulary, here at 6 Minute English. Goodbye for now!

Neil
Bye!

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BBC Learning English - 6 Minute English / Mushrooms: Medicine or myth?

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Should we be using mushrooms as medicine?

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Natural medicine vs conventional medicine 1/2

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Traditional medicine provides health care to many around the globe – the WHO is trying to make it safer and more standardized

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More people are seeking out traditional forms of medicine, from acupuncture to herbal medicines. The WHO is working to develop standards to make these healing practices implementable on a wide scale.

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Ecotourism 2/2

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Ecotourism - Global tourism - National 4 Geography Revision - BBC Bitesize

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In National 4 Geography study how the growth of Tourism has resulted in it becoming a global issue and how global tourism must be managed effectively.

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Ecotourism 1/2

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Subject knowledge animation: What is Ecotourism?

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Mindfulness Meditation 3/3

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Relax, slow down and breathe. Neil and Catherine explore mindfulness in this episode of 6 Minute English. But what is it? And what benefits does it offer? Learn more about this form of meditation and pick up six items of useful vocabulary.

This week's question

How many teachers in the UK are now trained to teach mindfulness?

a) 500

b) 5,000

c) 50,000

Listen to the programme to find out the answer.

Vocabulary

mindfulness the practice of only focusing on 'now' for spiritual or relaxation purposes

fully aware of what's happening now

Transcript
Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript
means 'non-religious' by the way.

Let me focus really hard - I think it's 5,000.

A very practising mindful answer, Catherine. But I'll reveal the real answer later. Now let's hear from one teacher who's been mindfulness with students for many years. Alison Mayo, Head of Early Years at Dharma Primary School, thinks it's particularly suited to young children. Why?

's very natural for children - to be Alison Mayo, Head of Early Years, Dharma Primary School
That in the present . And we really kind of celebrate that because that is a place where they are learning. So, if they feel , then they can really develop their concentration and their focus, and relax. Learning happens so much more easily if you're relaxed and happy.

- means 'now'. You'll know it from the 'present tense' in grammar. And people who practise The present mindfulness use this phrase a lot - to be in the present , or in the present moment .

Grounded is another good adjective there - it means 'rational, sensible, clear thinking'.

Aha - that's not so easy to define. Meditation is the broader term. When you you spend time quietly - focusing your mind - often for relaxation or spiritual purposes. Mindfulness is a particular a kind of meditation - when you try to empty your mind of thought. Does that make sense?

Yeah, more or less. So we'll let our listeners meditate on that answer. And before we empty our minds, let's look back at today's words. We had mindfulness , and - they all relate to the particular practice of being only focused of what's happening now.

Or on the future - which can be full of worries. But by being in the present - you overcome these thoughts and fears. Next we had . It contrasts with 'religious'. So, while a church is a religious building, we also have buildings - like factories and shops and hospitals...

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BBC Learning English - 6 Minute English / Mindfulness

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Relax, slow down and breathe. Neil and Catherine explore mindfulness in this episode of 6 Minute English. But what is it? And what benefits does it offer? Learn more about this form of meditation and pick up six items of useful vocabulary. How many teachers in the UK are now trained to teach mindfulness?

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Mindfulness Meditation 2/3

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Improving your daily life with mindfulness meditation | Jessica Kotik | TEDxKentState

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Mindfulness Meditation 1/3

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In a world fraught with anxiety, stress, and environmental and humanitarian disasters, people are looking for ways to cope. Many have turned to practices originating in ancient eastern philosophies for guidance. Among these is mindfulness, which is linked to meditation. Lucy Draper-Clarke, researcher and author of The Compassionate Activist, spoke to health & medicine editor Nadine Dreyer about looking inwards and cultivating compassion, awareness and gratitude._

What does mindfulness actually mean?

The original translation of the Pali word sati is "remembering". It was about remembering your ethics, the right way to behave in each moment.

It's shifted within the modern context and is usually translated as "being conscious and aware of the present moment".

The word I prefer to use is "awareness".

A mindfulness practice would be a way to bring you back to the present. You'd use your senses, your breath, or your body as in a yoga practice.

To be mindful is to be present, to be open. You're not trapped in the past or in the future.

And that helps to calm you down because a lot of depression or depressive thoughts are linked to the past and things that we regret.

A lot of anxiety is linked to the future.

There is research on these particular tendencies. If people experience a lot of anxiety, it's often that their mind is in the future, worrying about what will happen next.

And the same thing for depression. The mind goes back into the past and goes into ruminating cycles of things that have happened or that we've done wrong, or what we perceive as wrong.

The present moment frees you from those aspects. Your attention is focused on exactly what's here and now. Within that you can bring a sense of discernment.

My work is also linking it to compassion. So if the present moment is uncomfortable - experiencing a friend suffering or our own suffering - you bring compassion to that. I find mindfulness and compassion go together.

How do we include meditation in our daily lives?

Mindfulness is often achieved through meditation, a practice of sitting still and focusing the mind on the senses or the breath, but we can also remain mindful throughout the day.

I think the word "habit" is a really good one. To make your meditation as familiar a practice as brushing your teeth or having a shower. It's mental hygiene.

Making it a daily practice, at a particular time of the day, helps people: it's less negotiable. As soon as we start negotiating with ourselves - should I practise, shouldn't I practise - we often default to the less healthy habits like scrolling the internet or watching repetitive news stories.

In The Compassionate Activist I distinguish between five categories of contemplative practices: calming, insight, positive qualities, engagement and shadow integration.

The soothing practices are ones that calm us down. For most people a deep abdominal breath can be like a switch that shifts them from chaos to calm. It can really help. Not everyone. If you've had asthma, if you've had trauma associated with your breath, then that's not always the best method to use.

Moving practices also help activate and then quieten the body, which in turn calms down the heart and mind. When expressive movement (a form of dance) or yoga are carried out with a real conscious awareness of the body, they can be very useful to prepare the mind for meditation.

How important are insight and self-awareness?

Insight practices help us gain an understanding of our own habits. If you tend to find yourself in a state of depression or anxiety, just bringing your mind back to the present again and again can shift you out of those tendencies. We often don't believe it's as simple as that, but it's amazing how much support we can give ourselves just by coming back to the present moment. Of course, if we have experienced traumatic incidents, then these practices are best done in parallel with psychotherapy.

There are also practices for cultivating positive, pro-social qualities such as curiosity, wonder, compassion, joy and gratitude, which are innate aspects of being human.

The mind has a negativity bias. The brain likes to learn quickly, so it tends to learn from negative experiences, but we have many wonderful experiences as well.

Training the mind to focus on gestures of care that people show us every day, even if it's just being let into the traffic, or someone making you a cup of tea, opens the mind to gratitude, appreciation and wonder.

Anger is often a result of fear. We go into fight and flight mode. Hurt is a result of sadness. So we don't need to demonise any of our difficult emotions. We use them to gather information. What am I feeling in this moment? And what do I need?

We learn to look at our experience rather than being swamped by it.

What is your advice for people wanting to refocus their lives?

There's a lovely saying, that there are 84,000 Dharma doors. Dharma means the truth. So 84,000 different ways to find the truth. Your own truth.

But the reason that number is given is that apparently in the audience where the Buddha spoke, there were 84,000 people. So what it's saying is: find your own way.

When do I feel content? When do I feel at ease? When do I feel joy? Use those positive emotions as a way to reassure you that you're on the right track.

Be tuned into your own happiness, your own joy, your own contentment and ease, and let them guide you to the type of practices that are going to bring you the most benefit at different stages in your life.

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Stressed out? Why mindfulness and meditation help us cope with the world

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Mindfulness, being in the present moment, is often achieved through meditation, the practice of sitting still and focusing on the breath. Both help relieve feelings of anxiety and depression

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Multitasking 3/3

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What multitasking does to your brain | BBC Ideas

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Multitasking 2/3

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We're all time-poor, so multi-tasking is seen as a necessity of modern living. We answer work emails while watching TV, make shopping lists in meetings and listen to podcasts when doing the dishes. We attempt to split our attention countless times a day when juggling both mundane and important tasks.

But doing two things at the same time isn't always as productive or safe as focusing on one thing at a time.

The dilemma with multi-tasking is that when tasks become complex or energy-demanding, like driving a car while talking on the phone, our performance often drops on one or both.

Here's why - and how our ability to multi-task changes as we age.

Read more: Women aren't better multitaskers than men - they're just doing more work

Doing more things, but less effectively

The issue with multi-tasking at a brain level, is that two tasks performed at the same time often compete for common neural pathways - like two intersecting streams of traffic on a road.

In particular, the brain's planning centres in the frontal cortex (and connections to parieto-cerebellar system, among others) are needed for both motor and cognitive tasks. The more tasks rely on the same sensory system, like vision, the greater the interference.

This is why multi-tasking, such as talking on the phone, while driving can be risky. It takes longer to react to critical events, such as a car braking suddenly, and you have a higher risk of missing critical signals, such as a red light.

The more involved the phone conversation, the higher the accident risk, even when talking "hands-free".

Generally, the more skilled you are on a primary motor task, the better able you are to juggle another task at the same time. Skilled surgeons, for example, can multitask more effectively than residents, which is reassuring in a busy operating suite.

Highly automated skills and efficient brain processes mean greater flexibility when multi-tasking.

Adults are better at multi-tasking than kids

Both brain capacity and experience endow adults with a greater capacity for multi-tasking compared with children.

You may have noticed that when you start thinking about a problem, you walk more slowly, and sometimes to a standstill if deep in thought. The ability to walk and think at the same time gets better over childhood and adolescence, as do other types of multi-tasking.

When children do these two things at once, their walking speed and smoothness both wane, particularly when also doing a memory task (like recalling a sequence of numbers), verbal fluency task (like naming animals) or a fine-motor task (like buttoning up a shirt). Alternately, outside the lab, the cognitive task might fall by wayside as the motor goal takes precedence.

Read more: TikTok may be bad for privacy, but is it also harming our cognitive abilities?

Brain maturation has a lot to do with these age differences. A larger prefrontal cortex helps share cognitive resources between tasks, thereby reducing the costs. This means better capacity to maintain performance at or near single-task levels.

The white matter tract that connects our two hemispheres (the corpus callosum) also takes a long time to fully mature, placing limits on how well children can walk around and do manual tasks (like texting on a phone) together.

For a child or adult with motor skill difficulties, or developmental coordination disorder, multi-tastking errors are more common. Simply standing still while solving a visual task (like judging which of two lines is longer) is hard. When walking, it takes much longer to complete a path if it also involves cognitive effort along the way. So you can imagine how difficult walking to school could be.

What about as we approach older age?

Older adults are more prone to multi-tasking errors. When walking, for example, adding another task generally means older adults walk much slower and with less fluid movement than younger adults.

These age differences are even more pronounced when obstacles must be avoided or the path is winding or uneven.

Older adults tend to enlist more of their prefrontal cortex when walking and, especially, when multi-tasking. This creates more interference when the same brain networks are also enlisted to perform a cognitive task.

These age differences in performance of multi-tasking might be more "compensatory" than anything else, allowing older adults more time and safety when negotiating events around them.

Older people can practise and improve

Testing multi-tasking capabilities can tell clinicians about an older patient's risk of future falls better than an assessment of walking alone, even for healthy people living in the community.

Testing can be as simple as asking someone to walk a path while either mentally subtracting by sevens, carrying a cup and saucer, or balancing a ball on a tray.

Patients can then practise and improve these abilities by, for example, pedalling an exercise bike or walking on a treadmill while composing a poem, making a shopping list, or playing a word game.

The goal is for patients to be able to divide their attention more efficiently across two tasks and to ignore distractions, improving speed and balance.

There are times when we do think better when moving

Let's not forget that a good walk can help unclutter our mind and promote creative thought. And, some research shows walking can improve our ability to search and respond to visual events in the environment.

But often, it's better to focus on one thing at a time

We often overlook the emotional and energy costs of multi-tasking when time-pressured. In many areas of life - home, work and school - we think it will save us time and energy. But the reality can be different.

Multi-tasking can sometimes sap our reserves and create stress, raising our cortisol levels, especially when we're time-pressured. If such performance is sustained over long periods, it can leave you feeling fatigued or just plain empty.

Read more: How much energy do we expend thinking and using our brain?

Deep thinking is energy demanding by itself and so caution is sometimes warranted when acting at the same time - such as being immersed in deep thought while crossing a busy road, descending steep stairs, using power tools, or climbing a ladder.

So, pick a good time to ask someone a vexed question - perhaps not while they're cutting vegetables with a sharp knife. Sometimes, it's better to focus on one thing at a time.

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Think you're good at multi-tasking? Here's how your brain compensates - and how this changes with age

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Doing two things at the same time isn't always as productive, healthy or safe as focusing on one thing at a time.

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Multitasking 1/3

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Multitasking Is a Myth, and to Attempt It Comes at a Neurobiological Cost  | Big Think

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15-minute cities 3/3

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SARANYA: I wish I could afford the rent. ELENA: There is a big problem with air pollution. RICARDO: The city is growing without any kind of order or any kind of planning. VO: Half the world's population live in them, and by the end of the century it will be more like 90%. ELLIE: Over the last sort of 20 years, we've been talking about urbanisation is the way forward, but we've seen during Covid, people's dynamics and priorities are really changing so this is a real moment in time where we have to rethink and almost get behind a new vision of the city. ARCHIVE NARRATOR: Ever watch the morning traffic when people are going to work? Mostly it's one car, one person, a ton or two of metal that takes up 130 square feet of space, more or less. TON: The main issue of cities is that they are suffering from too many cars. RICARDO: Excessive traffic, the noise... It's very difficult to stay calm in such a stressful environment as a big city. ELLIE: So often we design the city with a view to optimising the city for the paid daytime labour market. So we think about, how many people can we get into the city in the morning and out of the city in the evening? VO: Rather than travelling in from the suburbs to the centre to work, shop and socialise, the 15-minute city takes a different approach. ELLIE: The 15-minute city is a really simple concept, in many ways. It's really just saying that every urban citizen should be able to meet their basic needs within a 15-minute walk or cycle ride from their house. VO: The concept of the 15-minute city was proposed by French-Colombian scientist Carlos Moreno, and aspects of it are starting to be adopted in cities like Paris, Barcelona and Bogotá. It's been described as a return to a local way of life. TON: New technologies creates a lot of opportunities to work from home, to do more things in the neighbourhood, to get rid of this separation of work and living. That also would reduce the pollution that goes with traffic. VO: The 15-minute city revolves around three basic principles. Before the Covid pandemic, the average UK worker spent 400 days of their lives commuting. That's enough time to read the entire Harry Potter series 159 times. ELLIE: When we foreground infrastructure or we foreground cars, we strip out the thing that makes the city the city, which is the interaction of people and creation of culture. TON: When we get rid of all those parked cars in the roads and all the traffic, we create lots of space for greening the city with trees and this also creates lots of opportunities to meet your friends in the street. ELENA: My favourite thing about living in the city - the quality of public space, which encourage you of spending a lot of time outside and meeting with other people. VO: Implementing the 15-minute city would mean a significant redesign of our infrastructure. Is that feasible? ELLIE: In many cities across the world, we've had kind of 50 years of planning policy that is about zoning, which is about separating different types of activity in the city where you would go for shopping or for work or for home life. And so to be able to make that kind of pivot into a 15-minute or a localised neighbourhood is a huge stretch for some places. VO: The concept of the 15-minute city also has its critics. Some fear it could ghettoise poorer people whose neighbourhoods don't have the jobs and amenities found in more affluent communities. SARANYA: A lot of places do not have enough infrastructure, especially places where low-income groups live. And it's a major, major wealth and economic gap there. ELLIE: It's clear that there are different levels of liberty and freedom to access public space, depending on all sorts of categories of identity, including gender, but also race, also levels of poverty. We have an imbalance about who gets to shape public spaces, who gets to make those decisions. So if we can democratise that and if we can open up and have more participation about what kind of spaces do we want to live in, then we have more likelihood that our spaces are going to suit more people. TON: Currently we have a very strong decline of biodiversity, partially due to agriculture practices, but also because of urbanisation. If we green the city, we create more opportunity for rainwater infiltrating in the soil. That will also enhance a healthy ecosystem and I think if we look into the future, the next generations, what do we want to have those people experience - a rich biodiversity or a poor biodiversity? This is the choice that we have to make, and with the 15-minute city, this is a way to solve this crisis.

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The simple idea that could transform city life - BBC Ideas

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SARANYA: I wish I could afford the rent. ELENA: There is a big problem with air pollution. RICARDO: The city is growing without any kind of order or any kind of planning. VO: Half the world's population live in them, and by the end of the century it will be more like 90%.

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15-minute cities 2/3

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How ’15-minute cities’ became a lockdown conspiracy - BBC Newsnight

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15-minute cities 1/3

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The idea of the 15-minute city, according to its originator Carlos Moreno, is that people are no more than a 15-minute walk or bike ride away from all the services they need to live, learn and thrive.

The idea is appealing in its simplicity: it puts people and the environment at the centre of urban planning. It involves building new urban centres and restructuring existing ones to ensure the services people need for work, food, health, education, culture and leisure are all close by - a walk or bike ride from home. Key elements are: the proximity of necessities; local participation and decision-making; community solidarity and connection; and green and sustainable urban living.

This re-imagining of local living is quickly going global. Its proponents are many and growing, and the idea is being applied on big city stages. Most notably, the 15-minute city was a feature of Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo's successful re-election campaign in 2020.

The United Nations has hailed the 15-minute city as a means by which cities can emerge from COVID, as well as reduce the damaging dependence on cars. The potential to promote mental health and wellbeing is significant.

Read more: We're at a fork in the road: do we choose neighbourhoods to live, work and play in?

Enter the conspiracists

In 2023, though, conspiracy theories and protests have threatened to drown out the discussion of such positives.

How did that happen? By finding itself sitting at the centre of debates about COVID living, climate change and car-centric societies, the 15-minute city has become a focal point of attention for those who imagine more sinister motives are at work. Conspiracists have spouted misdirected fears of the forced loss of cars, the creation of locked urban zones people cannot leave, and government surveillance and control.

These notions were even raised recently in the UK parliament. Conservative MP Nick Fletcher called the 15-minute city an "international socialist concept" that "will cost us our personal freedom".

Read more: 15-minute cities: how to separate the reality from the conspiracy theory

A chance to improve mental health and wellbeing

In fact, personal and community freedom, by way of giving people back meaningful time currently lost to commuting and other travel, is exactly what Moreno and proponents of 15-minute cities are focused on. In their drive to grow, cities tend to push people, the environment and their health to the periphery. Through their sprawl, Moreno argues, cities take away freedom by taking time and disconnecting their inhabitants from services and each other.

Importantly, these effects increase the risks to people's mental health. Moreno wants us to move away from fracturing our living into "inhuman bigness", and towards planning that focuses on what access to services, local connection and community means for the wellbeing of people and communities.

Read more: People love the idea of 20-minute neighbourhoods. So why isn't it top of the agenda?

This is why the 15-minute city presents a great opportunity for better mental health. Long commuting times and the stressors of traffic congestion, road conditions and punctuality are linked to declines in subjective measures of mental health and wellbeing for workers. The benefits of reducing these stressors could be immediate.

Physical activities like walking and cycling are also widely understood to benefit mental health, as does exposure to natural, green spaces. Creating local spaces for leisure and play is vital for children and parents alike.

But, deeper than that, we need cities and urban spaces purposefully designed to promote mental health in ways that are globally recognised as impactful and essential. This process involves improving a range of social and environmental factors for individuals and community.

Read more: 1 in 4 Australians is lonely. Quality green spaces in our cities offer a solution

COVID sharpened the focus on wellbeing

Lessons learned from COVID lockdowns have sharpened global understanding of the mental health crises and harm done to people's wellbeing by loneliness, social isolation and disconnectedness. These conditions damage the wellbeing of communities too, by fostering stigma and promoting exclusion.

We need to move quickly towards ways of living that promote connection, inclusion and healthy communities and environments. We can achieve these goals through participation, local decision-making and sustainable ecologies.

Imagine cities with accessible housing, work and education. Imagine cities with mental health service where the focus is on inclusion, participation, connection and equitable access. Where health workers and essential services are local and available, with minimal obstacles. Imagine mental health service that is threaded through the community in meaningful, impactful ways - where every square metre is considered for its potential to improve health and wellbeing.

Mental health, wellbeing and recovery require social connection, inclusion and accessible health services. These are, without doubt, key factors in achieving better mental health. And the 15-minute city could be the template for its delivery.

Read more: Greening the greyfields: how to renew our suburbs for more liveable, net-zero cities

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Forget the conspiracies, 15-minute cities will free us to improve our mental health and wellbeing

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A big reason the idea is gaining momentum globally is that the benefits for the health of individuals, communities and the environment are clear and almost immediate.

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Poem "My name is" by Loredana Cornacchio ( in English and Italian) - 14 Febbraio 2024

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Poem "My name is" by Loredana Cornacchio ( in English and Italian) - 14 Febbraio 2024

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“MY NAME IS…

If only you smile

I'll be everywhere you see.

The moment when you cry

I'll be everything you need.

If you want to hurt somebody

please don't think about me.

Would you like to be glad?

Take my hand and stay closer

but if you want to make me sad

it only takes to say "it's over".

When you want to make suffer

please forget about my name

I will never be a partner

when the intention is to blame.

If you have faith in me

the fairy tale can last forever,

but please don't deceive

I will notice… sooner or later.

The moon for you: just a satellite?

For me instead a romantic light

and the moment when you say

you have enough of me

I can tell, in some way

that moonlight will disappear.

Even when I’m down on my knees

I don't know what hate is

I was born and I'll die this way.

Here’s what I’d like to convey...

Please remember, in your heart

there's a place made for me,

but if you're going to close the door

cause you don't want to let me in

well, I’d like to say once more

these few words from the deep:

you see... my name is LOVE

so, don't be unkind to me.

When I’m there don’t let me go...

And let it be...

Se solo tu sorridi

sarò ovunque guarderai

ma anche se piangi e gridi

comunque qui mi troverai.

Quando vuoi far del male, mi sfidi

in quel caso non pensarmi. Mai.

Vuoi la tua vita come un cielo sereno?

Dammi la mano e stammi vicino

ma può d’improvviso diventare scuro

se dici che per noi non c'è futuro.

E il mio nome comunque dimentica

quando hai intenzione di ferire

non sarò complice di chi si vendica

o se qualcuno vuoi far soffrire.

Se ti fidi di me potrà resistere

quella magia che è nata tra noi

e poi promettimi di non fingere

perché me ne accorgo, prima o poi...

Per te la luna è solo un satellite?

Per me una romantica luce soffusa

ma che si spegne appena dici che

tra di noi la storia è ormai chiusa.

Seppure in ginocchio mi dovessi trovare

non saprò mai l'odio cos'è

così sono nato e così andrò a morire:

questo... devi sapere di me.

Ricordati quindi che nel tuo cuore

c'è un posto per me creato apposta

ma se chiudi la porta per non farmi entrare

ancora una cosa voglio dire ed è questa...

sai, il mio nome è AMORE

ti chiedo solo una cortesia

quando ci sono… dammi il giusto valore

non farmi andar via

e lascia che sia.

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Love 2/2

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From songs and poems to novels and movies, romantic love is one of the most enduring subjects for artworks through the ages. But what about the science?

Historical, cultural and even evolutionary evidence suggests love existed during ancient times and across many parts of the world. Romantic love has been found to exist in 147 of 166 cultures looked at in one study.

The complexity of love has much to do with how people experience it differently and how it can change over time.

Like, love, or 'in love'?

Psychological research over the past 50 years has investigated the differences between liking someone, loving someone and being "in love".

Liking is described as having positive thoughts and feelings towards someone and finding that person's company rewarding. We often also experience warmth and closeness towards the people we like. In some instances we choose to be emotionally intimate with these people.

When we love someone we experience the same positive thoughts and experiences as when we like a person. But we also experience a deep sense of care and commitment towards that person.

Being " in love " includes all the above but also involves feelings of sexual arousal and attraction. However, research into people's own views of love suggests that not all love is the same.

Passionate vs companionate love

Romantic love consists of two types: passionate and companionate love. Most romantic relationships, whether they be heterosexual or same sex, involve both these parts.

Passionate love is what people typically consider being "in love". It includes feelings of passion and an intense longing for someone, to the point they might obsessively think about wanting to be in their arms.

The second part is known as companionate love. It's not felt as intensely, but it's complex and connects feelings of emotional intimacy and commitment with a deep attachment toward the romantic partner.

How does love change over time?

Research looking at changes in romantic love over time typically finds that although passionate love starts high, it declines over the course of a relationship.

There are various reasons for this.

As partners learn more about each other and become more confident in the long-term future of the relationship, routines develop. The opportunities to experience novelty and excitement can also decline, as can the frequency of sexual activity. This can cause passionate love to subside.

Although a reduction in passionate love is not experienced by all couples, various studies report approximately 20-40% of couples experience this downturn. Of couples who have been married in excess of ten years, the steepest downturn is most likely to occur over the second decade.

Life events and transitions can also make it challenging to experience passion. People have competing responsibilities which affect their energy and limit the opportunities to foster passion. Parenthood is an example of this.

In contrast, companionate love is typically found to increase over time.

Although research finds most romantic relationships consist of both passionate and companionate love, it's the absence or reductions in companionate love, moreso than passionate love, that can negatively affect the longevity of a romantic relationship.

But what's the point of love?

Love is an emotion that keeps people bonded and committed to one another. From an evolutionary psychology perspective, love evolved to keep the parents of children together long enough for them to survive and reach sexual maturity.

The period of childhood is much longer for humans than other species. As offspring rely on adults for many years to survive and to develop the skills and abilities needed for successful living, love is especially important for humans.

Without love, it's difficult to see how the human species could have evolved.

A biological foundation too

Not only is there an evolutionary foundation to love, love is rooted in biology. Neurophysiological studies into romantic love show that people who are in the throes of passionate love experience increased activation in brain regions associated with reward and pleasure.

In fact, the brain regions activated are the same as those activated by cocaine.

These regions release chemicals such as oxytocin, vasopressin and dopamine, which produce feelings of happiness and euphoria that are also linked to sexual arousal and excitement.

Interestingly, these brain regions are not activated when thinking about non-romantic relationships such as friends. These findings tell us that liking someone is not the same as being in love with someone.

What's your love style?

Research has found three primary styles of love. First coined by psychologist John Lee, the love styles are eros, ludus and storge. These styles include people's beliefs and attitudes about love and act as a guide for how to approach romantic relationships.

Eros

This style of love refers to erotic love and is focused on physical attraction and engaging in sex, the quick development of strong and passionate feelings for another and intense intimacy.
Ludus
This style involves being emotionally distant and often involves "game-playing". It's not surprising people who endorse this love style are unlikely to commit, feel comfortable ending relationships and often start a new relationship before ending the current one.
Storge
Storge is often regarded as a more mature form of love. Priority is given to having a relationship with a person who has similar interests, affection is openly expressed and there is less emphasis on physical attractiveness. People high on storge love are trusting of others and are not needy or dependent on others.

Or is a mixture more your style?

You may see yourself in more than one of these styles.

Evidence suggests some people possess a mixture of the three main love styles; these mixtures were labelled by Lee as mania, pragma and agape.

Manic love includes intense feelings for a partner as well as worry about committing to the relationship. Pragmatic love involves making sensible relationship choices in finding a partner who will make a good companion and friend. Agape is a self-sacrificing love that is driven by a sense of duty and selflessness.

Why do you love the way you do?

A person's love style has little to do with their genetics. Rather, it's associated with the development of personality and a person's past relationship experiences.

Some studies have found people who are high on dark traits, such as narcissism, psychopathy and machiavellianism, endorse more of a ludus or pragma love style.

People who have an insecure attachment style, involving a high need for validation and preoccupation with relationship partners, endorse more mania love, while those who are uncomfortable with intimacy and closeness do not endorse eros love.

No matter the differences in the way love is experienced, one thing remains common for all: we as humans are social animals who have a deep fascination for it.

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From songs and poems to novels and movies, romantic love is one of the most enduring subjects for artworks through the ages. But what about the science? Historical, cultural and even evolutionary evidence suggests love existed during ancient times and across many parts of the world.

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Love 1/2

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The difference between healthy and unhealthy love | Katie Hood

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The psychology of colors 3/3

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The psychology of colors 2/3

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Do red and yellow make you happy? Are you sad in a environment with a lot of blue? This is the programme where Neil and Georgina hope to add some colour to your life by discussing how colour can make you feel. And they teach you useful vocabulary too.

This week's question

Do you know what the splitting of white light into its different colours is called?

a) dispersion
b) reflection
c) refraction

Listen to the programme to find out the answer.

Vocabulary

green with envy
the feeling someone has who wishes they had what someone else has

wavelength
distance between two waves of sound or light that are next to each other

govern
control or influence

sanctuary
peaceful, relaxing or safe place

stimulation
feeling of being excited, interested or enthused by something

pale
colour that lacks intensity

Transcript

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript

Georgina
And I'm Georgina.

Neil
This is the programme where we hope to add some colour to your life by talking about an interesting subject and teaching you some useful vocabulary.

Georgina
And colour is what we're talking about today. What's your favourite colour, Neil?

Neil
Oh, I like green - a fresh, bold colour, that reminds me of nature - it can have a calming effect. And you?

Georgina
It's got to be blue - it reminds me of the sea, the sky - and holidays, of course!

Colour - no matter which one we prefer - affects how we feel. And we'll be talking about that soon. But not before I challenge you to answer my quiz question, Georgina - and it's a science question. Do you know what the splitting of white light into its different colours is called? Is it...
a) dispersion
b) reflection, or
c) refraction?

OK, I'll reveal the right answer later on. But now, let's talk more about colour. Colour can represent many different things, depending on where you come from. You can be ' green with envy ' - wishing you had what someone else had.

Georgina
And someone can feel blue - so feel depressed. We choose colours to express ourselves in what we wear or how we decorate our home.

Neil
The BBC Radio 4 programme, You and Yours, has been talking about colour and whether it affects everyone's mood. Karen Haller is a colour psychologist and a colour designer and consultant - she explained how colour affects us...

Karen Haller, colour psychologist and a colour design and consultant
It's the way that we take in the wavelengths of light because colour is wavelengths of light, and it's how that comes in through our eye, and then it goes into the part of our brain called the hypothalamus, which governs our sleeping patterns, our hormones, our behaviours, our appetite - it governs everything and so different colours and different frequencies or different wavelengths of light, we have different responses and different reactions to them.

Neil
Interesting stuff - of course, colour can affect us differently. Seeing red can make one person angry but someone else may just feel energised.

Georgina
Homeware and furnishing manufacturers offer a whole spectrum - or range - of colours to choose to suit everyone's taste, and mood. But during the recent coronavirus pandemic, there was a rise in demand for intense, bright shades and patterns. This was referred to as 'happy design' - design that was meant to help lift our mood.

Neil
Yes, and Karen Haller spoke a bit more about this on the You and Yours programme...

Karen Haller, colour psychologist and a colour design and consultant
In the time when everyone was out and we were all working, and we lived very busy lives, quite often what people wanted - they wanted a quiet sanctuary to come back to, so they had very pale colours or very low chromatic colours in their house - low saturation - because that helped them unwind and helped them relax and to feel very soothed. But what I have found since the first lockdown is a lot of people, because they're not getting that outside stimulation, they're actually putting a lot of brighter colours in their home because they're trying to bring in that feeling that they would have got when they were out - that excitement and that buzz.

It seems that in our normal busy working lives, our homes were peaceful places and somewhere to relax - they were a sanctuary. To create this relaxing space, we use pale colours - ones that lack intensity, like sky blue.

Georgina
Hmmm, perhaps a little too bright for me! It is all about personal taste and the connections we make with the colours we see but it makes sense that brighter colours can certainly lift our mood.

Neil
Now, earlier I asked you, Georgina, do you know what the splitting of white light into its different colours is called? Is it...
a) dispersion
b) reflection, or
c) refraction?

Neil
Sorry Georgina, that's wrong. It is actually called dispersion. Back to school for you - but not before we recap some of today's vocabulary.

A sanctuary can be a peaceful or relaxing place - in some cases it can be a safe place for someone in danger.

Georgina
Stimulation describes the feeling of being excited, interested or enthused by something. And pale describes a colour that lacks intensity, it's not very bright - and for me, they're much better than a bold bright yellow!

Georgina
Don't forget you can hear other 6 Minute English programmes and much more on our website at bbclearningenglish.com - and we're always posting stuff on our social media platforms. Bye for now.

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BBC Learning English - 6 Minute English / How colour affects us

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The psychology of colors 1/3

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Of course there will always be exceptions - the comment from the teacher saying "well done" is also written in red and raspberries are red, but perfectly edible. It is true that people do make different associations with different colours, but whether this translates into behaving in a certain way or succeeding at a particular task is a different question.

After so many mixed results in the past, in 2009 researchers at the University of British Columbia tried to clarify the situation once and for all. They sat their participants at computer screens coloured blue, red or "neutral" and tested them on various tasks. With a red screen people did better on tests of memory and proof-reading, tasks requiring attention to detail, but when the screen was blue they did better on creative tasks, such as thinking of as many uses as possible for a single brick. The authors speculated that red signalled "avoidance" and so they were more careful, while blue motivated the opposite: an "approach" behaviour that encouraged them to be freer with their thinking, resulting in more creativity. To test this idea, the researchers then asked the volunteers to solve anagrams of different words - relating to either avoidance or approach behaviours. The subjects tended to solve the avoidance words faster if they were presented on a red background, and the approach words more quickly if they were presented on a blue background - suggesting that the colours and behaviours were associated in their minds.

The team even speculated about the practical uses of their findings. For example, they wondered whether walls should be painted different colours depending on the task at hand - red for a team looking at the side effects of a new drug, for example, or blue for a room for creative brainstorming. In practice this might be tricky. In an office or a classroom you might want to think creatively some of the time and pay attention to detail at others.
Warning, or desire?
In any case, question marks are now hanging over the discovery itself. When another team tried to replicate the anagram part of the study with a larger group of people in 2014, the effect of colour disappeared. The initial study comprised just 69 people. In this new, bigger study, of 263 volunteers, background colour made no difference.

The same team also raised questions about another landmark finding, originally conducted by Oliver Genschow at the University of Basel in Switzerland. Genschow's team had offered their volunteers a plate of pretzels, and told them to eat as many as they felt they needed to make a judgement about the taste.

Rather sweetly, one in six people had to be excluded because they were kind enough to share their pretzels with others which defeated the object of the research. But when that was taken into consideration, the colour red once again seemed to serve as a warning, and people offered pretzels from a red plate took fewer. Yet when the team from Appalachian State University followed the same procedure their results were the exact opposite - people with red plates ate more pretzels.
Pink prisons
Clearly, studying the effect of colour is much harder than it looks - or maybe colours just don't have the effect that we expect. Yet we are convinced enough that they do for some prisons in the USA, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Austria and the UK to paint their cells in a particular shade of pink. In Switzerland 20% of prisons and police stations have at least one pink cell. It's a shade I'd call blancmange pink, but its proper name is Baker-Miller pink, after two US Naval officers who first studied the effects of pink walls on prisoners.

Back in 1979 prisoners were shown a blue card or a pink card and then had to try to resist the pressure of the experimenter pushing down on their arms. With the blue card they pushed harder, so was the pink card somehow reducing their aggression? Possibly not. The experimenter knew which card had been shown, so without even realising it they might have eased up a bit on the pink card. What's more they had a trial run, followed by the pink card and finally the blue, so perhaps they were just more practiced when it came to the blue card. Several attempts to replicate these results in better-designed studies have failed. But they did follow up with an experiment conducted in real prison cells which were either white or pink, mixing a pint of red paint with a gallon of white to obtain this lovely shade. Once again the order of the colours was the same for everyone, so maybe it was the repainting of the cell that made a difference, rather than its pinkness.

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Of course there will always be exceptions - the comment from the teacher saying "well done" is also written in red and raspberries are red, but perfectly edible. It is true that people do make different associations with different colours, but whether this translates into behaving in a certain way or succeeding at a particular task is a different question.

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Poem "Closed for holiday" by Loredana Cornacchio ( in English and Italian)

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Poem "Closed for holiday" by Loredana Cornacchio ( in English and Italian)

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CLOSED FOR HOLIDAYS
I've closed the door: now down the stairs

the destination is... everywhere!!!

I'm on holiday: what a wonderful word

finally the time has come

I could travel around the world

this lovely planet's gonna be my home

But supposing money is too tight

well, don't panic: what's the matter?

there's my head : it takes flight

and for sure nothing is better

than the power of imagination

the cheapest way in a hard situation.

I could conquer the tallest peak

even though I'm not a climber

or diving into the deep blue sea

while I'm not an excellent swimmer.

I don't need any plane

to fly up in the sky

neither a car nor a fast train

if I travel with the help of my mind.

But even when

I've got money to spend

my holiday must begin in my brain.

The heaviest luggage to take with me

are bad thoughts and every mental strain

so I leave at home what I don't need.

The door is closed: now I am out

of all the worries. I'm getting free

down the stairs thinking about

all the good things that can happen to me

Let's go on holiday it's time to pause

taking a break even from myself

at last I can rest my tired bones

and surely my health's gonna say: thanks!

At the end of the day

there's one thing we may say

it can be at home or around the world

holidays start from deep inside

and you can go wherever you want

if only you open your mind.

CHIUSO PER FERIE

Chiudo la porta e... giù per le scale

sono in vacanza mia bella gente

destinazione? Dove mi pare!

Posso far tutto o... non fare niente.

Mare montagna o qualsiasi altra meta

alla scoperta del nostro pianeta.

Mettiamo pure che io sia in bolletta

e con ciò? Mai disperare

l'immaginazione è un'alleata stretta

se ben usata può funzionare.

Conquistare le vette più alte del mondo

senza sapere nemmeno scalare

o immergermi dentro l'oceano profondo

anche se so a malapena nuotare.

E non servirebbe nessun aeroplano

potrei volare tranquillamente

né avrei bisogno di auto o di un treno

ma solo l'ausilio della mia mente.

Se invece il denaro non è un problema

comunque sia sono persuasa

che la vera vacanza comincia prima

nella tua testa... che tu parta o stia a casa.

Prima di tutto bisogna archiviare

ogni pensiero che dia preoccupazione

è il bagaglio peggiore da trasportare

qualunque sia la destinazione.

La porta è chiusa : ormai sono fuori

da tutto quanto. Ora giù per le scale

inizio a prendermi dei bei respiri

pensando al meglio che mi può capitare.

Benedetta vacanza una pausa ci vuole

oserei dire persino da... me

rilassarsi all'ombra o prendere il sole

la salute ringrazia. Prego... non c'è di che!

Quindi alla fine possiamo ben dire

che la vacanza comincia dentro di noi

che tu resti a casa o stia per partire

se apri la mente vai dove vuoi.

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Poesia "Superstitions" di Loredana Cornacchio...versione inglese e versione italiana

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Poesia "Superstitions" di Loredana Cornacchio...versione inglese e versione italiana

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"SUPERSTITIONS"

Walking under a ladder?
I can do it with no trouble
anyway just to feel better
I avoid it. It's preferable
If I break a mirror
for sure I'll be sorry
well... I can buy another one
why do I have to be worried?
Will my next seven years
be full of pain and tears?
Do I have to be scared
or better if I don't care?
When I'm walking down the road
every corner can be a trap
and in my deep inside I hope
to not cross a black cat.
Nevertheless
it's an event quite rare
so I can rest relaxed
... but I must always beware!
Thirteen, seventeen
are only two numbers
but to be worry-free
then I can cross my fingers.
Hanging a horseshoe over the door
perhaps luck will ring the bell
or throwing some salt over my shoulder
it can be useful... as well.
These are only superstitions
you say "only"... but it's a global belief
wearing red socks or other actions
can be the way to get relief.
Keep away misfortune
touching iron or wood
what lucky charm is the best for you
when you wanna feel good?
Well... am I superstitious?
I may say, just a bit
'cause you know.. .there's nothing true
but I do believe it.

"SUPERSTIZIONI"

Devo passare sotto una scala?
nessun problema... lo posso fare
però se rifletto l'audacia cala
non si sa mai... è meglio evitare.
Se per ipotesi rompo uno specchio
non è che la cosa mi faccia piacere
ma ne compro un altro... magari era vecchio
allora perché mi dovrei preoccupare...
che nei miei sette anni a venire
sarò senz'altro destinata a soffrire?
Mi devo quindi angosciare
o me ne posso infischiare?
Quando cammino lungo la strada
e dovessi incrociare un gatto
se fosse nero? No, spero non accada...
mi farebbe davvero un brutto effetto.
Tuttavia bisogna anche dire
che l'evento non è così certo
quindi posso "tornare a dormire"
un occhio però lo tengo aperto!
Il tredici e il diciassette
son solo numeri: andiamo!
Ma se proprio mi mettono alle strette
incrocio le dita e... speriamo.
Se sulla porta di casa
si mette un ferro di cavallo
magari la fortuna
suonerà il campanello
o gettare dietro le spalle il sale
può servire... per allontanare il male.
Sono soltanto superstizioni
dici soltanto? Ma è un credo globale
perché non mettere "quei" calzettoni
che pensi siano un amuleto speciale?
Teniamo lontana la malasorte
toccando ferro oppure legno
quale portafortuna sarà più forte
nel momento che ci serve un sostegno?
Sono quindi superstiziosa?
magari un po', a quanto vedo
perché... no, non è vero: ma sai una cosa?
io... un poco ci credo.

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Superstitions 3/3

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The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.

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18 Superstitions from Around the World - Google Arts & Culture

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From rabbit's feet to broken mirrors, try your luck with these supernatural stories from around the world

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Superstitions 2/3

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The number 13, black cats, breaking mirrors, or walking under ladders, may all be things you actively avoid - if you're anything like the 25% of people in the US who consider themselves superstitious.

Even if you don't consider yourself a particularly superstitious person, you probably say "bless you" when someone sneezes, just in case the devil should decide to steal their soul - as our ancestors thought possible during a sneeze.

Superstition also explains why many buildings do not have a 13th floor - preferring to label it 14, 14A 12B or M (the 13th letter of the alphabet) on elevator button panels because of concerns about superstitious tenants. Indeed, 13% of people in one survey indicated that staying on the 13th floor of a hotel would bother them - and 9% said they would ask for a different room.

On top of this, some airlines such as Air France and Lufthansa, do not have a 13th row. Lufthansa also has no 17th row - because in some countries - such as Italy and Brazil - the typical unlucky number is 17 and not 13.

What is superstition?

Although there is no single definition of superstition, it generally means a belief in supernatural forces - such as fate - the desire to influence unpredictable factors and a need to resolve uncertainty. In this way then, individual beliefs and experiences drive superstitions, which explains why they are generally irrational and often defy current scientific wisdom.

Psychologists who have investigated what role superstitions play, have found that they derive from the assumption that a connection exists between co-occurring, non-related events. For instance, the notion that charms promote good luck, or protect you from bad luck.

For many people, engaging with superstitious behaviours provides a sense of control and reduces anxiety - which is why levels of superstition increase at times of stress and angst. This is particularly the case during times of economic crisis and social uncertainty - notably wars and conflicts. Indeed, Researchers have observed how in Germany between 1918 and 1940 measures of economic threat correlated directly with measures of superstition.

Touch wood

Superstitious beliefs have been shown to help promote a positive mental attitude. Although they can lead to irrational decisions, such as trusting in the merits of good luck and destiny rather than sound decision making.

Carrying charms, wearing certain clothes, visiting places associated with good fortune, preferring specific colours and using particular numbers are all elements of superstition. And although these behaviours and actions can appear trivial, for some people, they can often affect choices made in the real world.

Superstitions can also give rise to the notion that objects and places are cursed. Such as the Annabelle the Doll - who featured in The Conjuring and two other movies - and is said to be inhabited by the spirit of a dead girl. A more traditional illustration is the Curse of the Pharaohs, which is said to be cast upon any person who disturbs the mummy of an Ancient Egyptian person - especially a pharaoh.

Numbers themselves can also often be associated with curses. For example, the figure 666 in a licence plate is often featured in stories of misfortune. The most famous case was the numberplate " ARK 666Y ", which is believed to have caused mysterious vehicle fires and "bad vibes" for passengers.

Sporting superstitions

Superstition is also highly prevalent within sport - especially in highly competitive situations. Four out of five professional athletes report engaging with at least one superstitious behaviour prior to performance. Within sport, superstitions have been shown to reduce tension and provide a sense of control over unpredictable, chance factors.

Superstitions practices tend to vary across sports, but there are similarities. Within football, gymnastics and athletics, for example, competitors reported praying for success, checking appearance in mirror and dressing well to feel better prepared. Players and athletes also engage with personalised actions and behaviours - such as wearing lucky clothes, kit and charms.

Famous sportspeople often display superstitious behaviours. Notably, basketball legend Michael Jordan concealed his lucky North Carolina shorts under his Chicago Bulls team kit. Similarly, the tennis legend Björn Bork, reportedly wore the same brand of shirt when preparing for Wimbledon.

Rafael Nadal has an array of rituals that he performs each time he plays. These include the manner in which he places his water bottles and taking freezing cold showers. Nadal believes these rituals help him to find focus, flow and perform well.

Walking under ladders

What all this shows is that superstitions can provide reassurance and can help to reduce anxiety in some people. But while this may well be true, research has shown that actions associated with superstitions can also become self-reinforcing - in that the behaviour develops into a habit and failure to perform the ritual can actually result in anxiety.

This is even though the actual outcome of an event or situation is still dependent on known factors - rather than unknown supernatural forces. A notion consistent with the often quoted maxim, "the harder you work (practice) the luckier you get".

So the next time you break a mirror, see a black cat or encounter the number 13 - don't worry too much about "bad luck", as it's most likely just a trick of the mind.

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The science of superstition - and why people believe in the unbelievable

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This is the real reason you believe in superstitions.

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Superstisions 1/3

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Superstitions pass in and out of fashion, and new superstitions are invented every day. Sometimes it can be difficult to decide which beliefs are true and which are not. For example, astrology has been around for centuries, and many people throughout the world believe that their fates are determined by the constellations of stars in the sky at the time of their birth. Is astrology superstition or fact?

Learning how to think critically about the claims people make can help you separate the wheat from the chaff. A number of organizations promote critical thinking, and there are several online courses that introduce the basics of critical thinking. To determine whether any specific claim, idea, or belief is supported by evidence, consult The Skeptic's Dictionary. Here is the Skeptic's Dictionary entry on astrology.

Because there are so many diseases and medical conditions in need of effective treatment, unusual health claims are common. To check the validity of any medical claims you hear about, consult Quackwatch. Finally, if you hear unusual claims on the Internet or in the news media, such as the rumor that Bill Gates is giving people $5000 for sharing a page on Facebook, check Snopes.com.

As we have seen, culture and socialization are important sources of superstition. People from different areas of the world grow up learning superstitions that are local to their area. To learn about some unusual Korean superstitions (including the belief that if you sleep with a fan on at night, you will die), watch this TEDx video by Valencia High School student June Park from Placentia, CA. Park points to a number of psychological factors that promote and maintain these superstitions.

Because it is such a pervasive aspect of culture throughout the world, superstition is frequently reflected in the arts. Legendary American blues singer and composer Willie Dixon wrote the song "I Ain't Superstitious," which was later popularized by British rockers Jeff Beck on guitar and Rod Stewart on vocals. Perhaps the most famous example from popular music is Stevie Wonder's song Superstition, which was a number one single in the United States in 1973. Since the first installment in 1980, the Friday the 13th horror movie franchise has produced a dozen installments, all of which are widely shown during the Halloween season.

Although it may seem irrational to believe in superstition, some of the same traits that make humans so clever also make us susceptible to superstitions. To learn more about how people become superstitious, read the educator's book Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition or Michael Shermer's book, Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time.

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Where do superstitions come from? - Stuart Vyse

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Are you afraid of black cats? Would you open an umbrella indoors? How do you feel about the number 13? Whether or not you believe in them, you're probably familiar with a few of these superstitions. But where did they come from? Stuart Vyse shares the weird and specific origins of some of our favorite superstitions.

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Generation gap 2/2

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First, there are the "Boomers": people born in the post-war baby boom between 1946 and 1964. The case against them is that they've enjoyed free higher education and affordable housing, and then created the combined mess of enormous debts and climate change for everyone else to clean up.

The charges against "Millennials" - anyone born between the early 80s and mid-90s - is that they've killed off everything from mayonnaise to fabric conditioner, are obsessed with selfies, and fritter their money away on avocado on toast and oatmeal lattes. They are often labelled as lazy, self-obsessed "snowflakes."

And where Millennials undoubtedly face economic anxiety with increasingly high living costs and precarious employment prospects, Boomers are sick of these societal issues being blamed on them.

Oh, and then there's "Generation X", sitting largely forgotten in the middle, and "Generation Z", the youngsters raised on social media who are just entering the fray...

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BBC Radio 4 - Radio 4 in Four - Boomers vs Millennials: is the generation gap bigger than ever before?

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First, there are the "Boomers": people born in the post-war baby boom between 1946 and 1964. The case against them is that they've enjoyed free higher education and affordable housing, and then created the combined mess of enormous debts and climate change for everyone else to clean up.

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Generation gap 1/2

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In this programme, we look at Generation Z - a name that describes the people born in the late nineties or early noughties. Also known as Gen Z, they are seen as the social media generation. We discuss other characteristics of this young generation and learn some new vocabulary along the way.

This week's question:

No one can quite agree on who first used the term 'social media', but we do know from which decade it came. Was it...

a) the 1980s,

b) the 1990s,

c) the noughties, that is the first decade of the 21st Century?

Listen to the programme to find out the answer.

Vocabulary

generations
this is a term used to describe people born in a particular period of time (usually, but not always, a period of about 18 to 20 years)

noughties
first decade of the 21st Century, from 2000 to 2009

to cater for
to provide something that is needed or wanted for a particular group

tech-innate, hyper-informed consumers
(here) describes people who are extremely comfortable with modern technology and social media and, as a result, have a lot of information about what's going on in the world

savvy
smart and intelligent

the norm
what is normal, what is usual for someone

Transcript
Note: This is not a word for word transcript
Neil
Hello. Welcome to 6 Minute English, I'm Neil.

Rob
And I'm Rob.

Rob
Well what are my choices?

Neil
You're very smart. So, which one are you?

Yes me too, Generation X. But today we're going to focus on Generation Z, also known as Gen Z. What marks Gen Z in particular is that they are the social media generation. They have never known a time without social media.

Rob
Oh, poor them!

a) the 1980s

b) the 1990s

c) the noughties, that is the first decade of the 21st Century.

Rob, what's your answer?

Rob
Well, come on, it's quite a recent thing. It's got to be c) the noughties.

Hiral Patel
Most people view Generation Z as mini-millennials - and that's because there is an obsession with the word 'millennial'. Our research shows that Gen Z are different and that they have their own set of values and preferences which consumer brands need to cater for. Our research found that Gen Z are tech-innate, hyper-informed consumers, and extremely savvy. This hyper-connected world that we live in today is a new norm for them.

Neil
So Rob, does Hiral Patel think there is much difference between the two generations?

Hiral Patel
Most people view Generation Z as mini-millennials - and that's because there is an obsession with the word 'millennial'. Our research shows that Gen Z are different and that they have their own set of values and preferences which consumer brands need to cater for. Our research found that Gen Z are tech-innate, hyper-informed consumers, and extremely savvy. This hyper-connected world that we live in today is a new norm for them.

Neil
Right, time to review this week's vocabulary, but first let's have an answer to that quiz. In what decade was the term 'social media' first coined? Was it:

a) the 1980s

b) the 1990s

c) the noughties

What did you say, Rob?

Rob
Yeah, well I said c) the noughties.

Neil
You're wrong. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the 1990s is the answer. I'm sure most of you got that one correct. Right, now, the vocabulary.

And we were focussing on Generation Z or Gen Z which includes those born in the early noughties, which is the first decade of the 21st Century from 2000 to 2009.

This makes them extremely savvy. This adjective means smart and intelligent. In this context it means they are able to make smart decisions about what to buy because they are connected so many sources of information. And for Gen Z, this level of interaction and connectivity is the norm. It's what is normal, what is usual for them. So where I struggle sometimes with modern life and technology - for Gen Z, it's easy.

Do join us again next time and remember you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and of course our website bbclearningenglish.com. And let's not forget our app, Rob!

Rob
Download it now. It's free!

Neil
Join us again next time. Goodbye.

Rob
Bye!

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BBC Learning English - 6 Minute English / Describing Generation Z

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In this programme, we look at Generation Z - a name that describes the people born in the late nineties or early noughties. Also known as Gen Z, they are seen as the social media generation. We discuss other characteristics of this young generation and learn some new vocabulary along the way.

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Poesia "A Natale" di Loredana Cornacchio

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Poesia "A Natale" di Loredana Cornacchio

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A NATALE

A Natale sono tutti più buoni
si fanno gli auguri
si scambiano i doni
A Natale sono tutti felici
anche i rumorosi vicini
diventano amici
Il Natale si passa in famiglia
i suoceri, la nuora
i nipoti... la figlia.
...E poi domani  parto per Siviglia....
A Natale mangio a sazietà
la dieta? Ma sì...l' anno che verrà!
A Natale si dimentica tutto
davanti al vino e vol au vent al prosciutto
A Natale si mangia il panettone
gli altri dolci ...no.  Non c'è paragone.
A Natale si gioca a tombola
c'è sempre chi vince
c'è sempre chi  brontola
Stappiamo lo spumante
cin cin.... Auguri a tutti!
Il pranzo abbondante
negli stomaci  distrutti
poi arriva il cadeau
azzeccato? Più o meno...
volevo lo smartphone
mi arriva il reggiseno
Ma non importa
non ne faccio questione
è il pensiero che conta
però... .un po' d'immaginazione?!?!
A Natale comunque  è tutto un incanto
anche perché... dura un giorno soltanto.

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Social Media Influencer 3/3

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Michelle Phan says she had to quit making her popular makeup and beauty YouTube videos because she was burned out.

"It became harder and harder for me to pretend to be happy," she says. "And [as a result] I had become toxic with my relationships and friendships. I had my threshold."

Ms Phan, 34, is looking back on the period from 2017 to 2019 when she took a break from uploading her tutorial videos.

A so-called social media influencer or creator, she says she needed time off from the constant pressure to upload ever more content, and chase more and more views and likes.

Today her eponymous YouTube channel has 8.84 million subscribers around the world, and Los Angeles-based Ms Phan mentors and supports other people who are making and uploading videos.

She says that many feel stressed about running out of ideas, and compelled to make new content multiple times per day.

But what exactly is a social media influencer?

There is no hard and fast definition, but in essence it is someone who has enough followers on social media, and typically YouTube, Instagram or TikTok, that they can monetise it.

The income comes from two main sources - a share of the advertising revenue, and deals with companies to promote their brands.

Regarding the former, on YouTube you can apply to start getting a share of the revenues from adverts placed on your videos, if you have more than 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watched hours.

YouTube is tight-lipped about how much you can earn, but according to one report it is typically between $3 to $5 (£2 to £3.60) per 1,000 views of one of your videos.

And, when it comes to deals with brands, it varies according to how many followers you have. On Instagram, if you have more than one million follows, one report says that if a company wants you to promote something, you can earn more than $10,000 for just one post.

We spoke to Ms Phan and four other influencers about their experiences.

While there is potentially big money to be made, Ms Phan says that creators "need to know when to draw the line, and take care of themselves" rather than post all the time.

This concern is echoed by media analyst Rebecca McGrath, of research firm Mintel, who says that some influencers are chasing revenues so much that they post "even if they don't have anything new to create or say".

Ms Phan also cautions that you have to be able to deal with online trolls writing horrible things below your videos. "You're also exposed to hateful comments, which I think people aren't prepared for".

This issue was raised back in July by UK social media influencer Em Sheldon, when she spoke before MPs at the House of Commons. A committee of MPs is now continuing to investigate the growth of influencer culture.

TikTok is the most recent new kid on the block among the big social media sites - having only been available outside China since 2018. It now has more than one billion global users, and people are spending more time watching it than YouTube.

Brothers Colin and Dylan McFarland, and their father Dan, have been uploading comedy skits and dances to the video app since 2019.

Known as The McFarlands, the trio from Louisville, Kentucky, now have 2.6 million TikTok followers.

"Influencers are a new wave of people you can trust on the internet," says Colin, 27. "If you're selling a product, or giving advice, people are going to trust the people they see on their phone everyday."

Dylan, 25, adds that their humour made brands like Colgate and Gillette "want to work with us, and see what we could do, because we are genuinely acting how we are with our family".

Over the past two years their earnings allowed both brothers to ditch their day jobs, buy homes, and even invest in other properties.

"I wholeheartedly believe anyone can do this," says Colin, who started out editing the videos on his iPhone. "Just find your niche, and stick to it."

Toronto-based YouTube creator, Kevin Parry enjoys a good living making stop-motion animation videos for his 936,000 subscribers and other viewers.

In 2018, his first year alone, he says he made revenues of more than 100,000 Canadian dollars ($79,000; £57,000).

The 32-year-old, who has worked with Disney, Apple, Amazon and Lego, says that 90% of his income comes from brand deals. The remaining 10% comes from advertising, and an agency that claims revenues from people stealing and monetising his content.

He cautions would-be influencers to not share too much of their personal life.

"If people don't like a video that I made then at least that's just creative work, and I can try to get better at that skill, versus sharing my life and people don't like it," he says.

"How do you compensate and fix that? You can't."

Mr Parry advises creators to hone a specific skill set, such as filmmaking or carpentry, and share that passion, instead of talking about their day-to-day life.

Author Shan Boodram has been talking about sex and relationship issues on her YouTube channel Shan Boody since 2012. She has 664,000 subscribers, and her videos have been watched more than 71 million times.

She says that new creators should recognise if they are in a bad headspace, and not make content if that is the case. And regarding what to upload, she has a golden rule: "Think of the last person you'd ever want to see that content first. And if you are cool with that, press upload."

Despite the downsides to being an influencer - the need to always put up more videos or posts, and the likely online abuse - a great many people would like to be one. It can be a fun and lucrative way to earn a living.

Yet psychologist Stuart Duff of Pearn Kandola cautions that you need a certain personality to hope to be successful at it.

"Clearly there are a huge diversity of successful influencers, in terms of style and personality, but to be really successful the influencer will use a great deal of psychology to influence their followers," he says.

"They will be highly relatable, tell great stories, have a strong, unique brand, and stick to the message. They will be clearly passionate about what they want to say, and always seem to know what their audience wants to hear."

New Tech Economy is a series exploring how technological innovation is set to shape the new emerging economic landscape.

Ms Phan first started putting videos on YouTube in 2007, and thanks in a large part to her success she has gone on to now own and run her own multi-million dollar company - EM Cosmetics.

"If you are a good storyteller then you can grow an immense audience and change your life," she says.

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The pressures - and rewards - of being an influencer

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Running your own popular YouTube channel can be lucrative, but it comes with downsides.

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Social Media Influencer 2/3

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Neil is struggling to explain the meaning of the phrase 'social media influencer'. Luckily Feifei can help him out. But why does Neil suddenly have a new business idea? And why is he growing a long moustache? Watch the programme to find out.

Transcript

Feifei
Hi Neil, you look stressed?

Feifei
What that person says, or does, or buys, or wears... can influence the decisions of their followers! Which is why we call them 'social media influencers'. Or simply, 'influencers'.

Neil
OK. I like the sound of this. Grow a moustache and get paid. Let's listen to some examples.

Examples
Our company was finding it hard to reach new customers aged 16 to 25. Then we hired a few social media influencers and sales just rocketed.

Kylie Jenner is one of America's biggest social media influencers. Companies pay her up to a million dollars for a single post!

There's a lot of debate about whether or not influencers should be open about who is paying them to promote products.

Feifei
You're listening to The English We Speak from BBC Learning English. Our expression is 'social media influencer'. So, Neil, how's the script going?

Neil
I'm not writing it any more, Feifei. I'm focussing full time on my new business.

Feifei
Ah, I see you've grown a moustache. Are you going to post a picture so all your twenty followers can see it and be influenced by your amazing style?

Neil
Don't worry, I've realised I don't have enough followers, or authority, to influence anyone, Feifei. But I have discovered there's a gap in the market for organic moustache oil!

Feifei
Oh, well done! Neil's Marvellous Moustache Oil...

Neil
Nice. Now, I just need to find an influencer to help me with marketing. A hairy influencer.

Feifei
Good luck, Neil!

Feifei
Bye.

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BBC Learning English - The English We Speak / Social media influencer

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Neil is struggling to explain the meaning of the phrase 'social media influencer'. Luckily Feifei can help him out. But why does Neil suddenly have a new business idea? And why is he growing a long moustache? Watch the programme to find out. Feifei Hi Neil, you look stressed?

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Social Media Influencer 1/3

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An influencer - a new kind of job from the internet era. In this programme, you'll hear from two beauty influencers from different parts of the world, and find out how they are trying to change attitudes towards female beauty. Listen to an interesting conversation and learn some extra vocabulary.

This week's question

YouTube make-up tutorials are very modern, but make-up has been around for a long time. So, when was lipstick first used?

a) around 3000 years ago by the ancient Celts

b) around 4000 years ago by the ancient Egyptians

c) around 5000 years ago by the ancient Sumerians

Listen to the programme to find out the answer.

Vocabulary

influencer
someone who is paid by a company to promote its brand on social media, encouraging other people to buy their products

dos and don'ts
rules about how people should and should not behave in a certain situation

crack a joke
tell a joke

took off
suddenly started to be successful or popular

intrigued
very interested in someone, often because of an unusual or unexpected quality

a given
some detail or fact that is considered as true or real

Transcript
Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript.
Neil
Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.

Sam
And I'm Sam. In the UK there's a well-known children's game called, Happy Families. Players have to collect all the cards belonging to one family - there's a butcher, a baker, a carpenter, a doctor, and a tailor - some of the traditional jobs that people in the UK have been doing for centuries.

Neil
But since the invention of the internet and social media, a more up-to-date list of jobs in the 21st century would be very different. It would include modern jobs which didn't exist before, online jobs like web designer and YouTuber.

But first I have a question for you, Sam. YouTube make-up tutorials are very modern, but make-up has been around for a long time. So, when was lipstick first used?Was it:
a) around 3000 years ago by the ancient Celts?
b) around 4000 years ago by the ancient Egyptians? or
c) around 5000 years ago by the ancient Sumerians?

Sam
I'll say it was being used 5000 years ago by the ancient Sumerians.

Neil
OK, Sam, we'll find out if you're right later on. Dimma Umeh is a beauty influencer from Nigeria. She's been creating make-up video tutorials for women of colour for eight years and has hundreds of thousands of followers. Her videos go from eyebrow-shaping tips to shopping trips in Nigeria's biggest city, Lagos.

Sam
Here's Dimma telling BBC World Service programme, The Conversation, how her life as an influencer got started.

So, I did a make-up dos and don'ts video in 2017. I had seen a couple of people doing it prior to that but then, you know, I kind of did it in a way that was a bit funny, maybe cracked a couple of jokes around the ways - or maybe not so great ways - some people were doing things at the time and that video just took off.

Dimma wasn't the first Nigerian influencer to post videos on YouTube, but the difference was her humour - the way she laughed and cracked, or told, jokes. More and more people started watching Dimma's make-up videos and they soon took off, meaning they suddenly became successful and popular.

Neil
Our next beauty influencer is Rammal Mehmud, a photographer turned make-up artist based in Islamabad, Pakistan. As well make-up tips, Rammal creates colourful face painting designs which, she says, helped her through a period of depression. She has popular Instagram and YouTube accounts on which she shares content to help other women with their confidence and mental health.

Sam
Like Dimma, Rammal now has Instagram followers numbering in the hundreds of thousands. So, how does she decide what to share in her blogs and videos? What boundaries does she set for her followers? Here's what Rammal told BBC World Service programme, The Conversation.

Rammal Mehmud
Well, people are very intrigued about your personal life as a blogger - that's a given, but you need to have strong boundaries. I do fear about my family and friends. You actually have to ask people if they are comfortable being on your platform or not.

Rammal says her followers are intrigued about her personal life. If you're intrigued, you are very interested in someone, often because of something unusual or unexpected about them.

Neil
But just because her followers' interest in her life is a given, that doesn't mean Rammal shares everything with them. She has to set boundaries.

Sam
Both Dimma and Rammal make money as beauty influencers, but what's amazing is how they're using social media to start conversations about what beauty means to women in their country. And sharing some great lipstick tips as well!

Neil
And speaking of lipstick, let's reveal the answer to my question, Sam. I asked you when lipstick was first used.

Sam
I said it was around 5000 years ago by the ancient Sumerians.

Sam
Dos and don'ts are rules about what you should and shouldn't do in certain situations.

Neil
Once again, our six minutes are up! Goodbye for now!

Sam
Bye bye!

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BBC Learning English - 6 Minute English / Being a beauty influencer

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An influencer - a new kind of job from the internet era. In this programme, you'll hear from two beauty influencers from different parts of the world, and find out how they are trying to change attitudes towards female beauty. Listen to an interesting conversation and learn some extra vocabulary.

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Loneliness 2/2

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About the results

The findings in this article are based on an online survey of 55,000 people from around the world, called the BBC Loneliness Experiment. It was created by academics at three British universities in collaboration with Wellcome Collection.

Find out more: The Anatomy of Loneliness

1. Younger people feel lonelier than older people
When you picture someone who's lonely, the stereotype is often an older person who lives alone and hardly sees anyone. Indeed, in the BBC Loneliness Experiment, 27% of over 75s said they often or very often feel lonely. This is higher than in some surveys, but because the survey was online we had a self-selecting sample and might have attracted more people who feel lonely.

Yet the differences between age groups are striking. Levels of loneliness were actually highest among 16-24 year olds, with 40% saying they often or very often feel lonely.

This begs the question of why so many young people say they feel lonely. Perhaps they are more prepared to admit to feelings of loneliness than older people who might feel they need to stress their independence. But it was noticeable that when everyone was asked at which point in their life they'd felt lonely, even retrospectively the most common answer people gave was when they were young adults.

So it's not necessarily modern life that's making young people feel lonelier, but factors associated with being young itself. Although we might think of the ages of 16-24 as a time of new freedom to have fun, leaving school and having more control over your life, it's also a time of transition - moving away from home, starting college, starting a new job - all of which take you away from the friends you've grown up with. At the same time people are trying to work out who they are and where they fit into the world.

In addition to this, people aren't accustomed to these feelings of loneliness and haven't yet had the experience to know that they often pass, or to the chance to find ways to cope with those feelings, such as distracting themselves or looking for company.

The elderly are not the age group most likely to describe themselves as lonely (Credit: Getty Images)

2. 41% of people think loneliness can be positive
This finding fits in with the ideas of people such as the late neuroscientist John Cacioppo, who believed that we evolved to experience loneliness because it can be useful, even though it's so unpleasant. Humans have survived through forming co-operative groups. If people feel they are excluded from a group then feelings of loneliness might drive them to connect with people, finding new friends or rekindling old relationships.

The problem is that it can become chronic, with a serious impact on well-being and maybe even on health. This animation, which we published at the start of the project, explains more:

Is loneliness affecting your health?

Feelings of chronic loneliness are associated with an increased risk of depression a year later. It was striking that in the survey, although 41% of all the participants said loneliness could be positive, this rate dropped to 31% in those who told us they often feel lonely. Loneliness can be so miserable and distressing, that when it's long-lasting it can be hard to see any positive side.
3. People who feel lonely have social skills that are no better or worse than average
Sometimes it's assumed that people feel lonely because they've found it hard to make friends and help with improving social skills would make a difference. This isn't what we found. A key element of social interaction is the ability to tell what other people are feeling, so that you can adjust your responses accordingly. Perhaps they're worried about something or you've accidentally offended them.

One way of measuring this skill is to give people a series of full faces or even just pairs of eyes to assess how good they are at working out which emotion people are experiencing. There was no difference between the average scores of the people who often felt lonely and the people who didn't. There were differences in scores on neuroticism, so perhaps it's the anxiety provoked by social situations that can make them harder to cope with if you feel lonely, rather than social skills.
4. Winter is no lonelier than any other time of year
In the run-up to Christmas, you often see campaigns from charities who help the elderly featuring picture of isolated old people. It's a day of the year that's all about gathering with your loved ones to celebrate, so the idea of facing the day alone is something a lot of people would dread. British comedian Sarah Millican runs a very successful #joinin campaign on Twitter on Christmas Day so that people who feel lonely can chat to each other. And if you live in the northern hemisphere then Christmas also falls in the middle of winter when days are shortest and people stay in more, leaving you even more isolated if you feel lonely.

People report loneliness in all seasons, not just winter (Credit: Getty Images)

But we found that for many who feel lonely, winter is no worse than any other time of year. We asked people to tell us the time of year and the time of day when they felt loneliest. More than two thirds of people said winter was no lonelier than any other time of year. The minority of people who did say one particular time of year is lonelier chose winter, but a few even chose summer. At Christmas, many people go to great lengths to ensure that everyone is included, inviting friends over if they know they might be alone. But in summer if everyone else goes on holiday, you might be the one feeling left behind. So perhaps we should start wondering whether other people might be lonely all year round, instead of just at Christmas.
5. People who often feel lonely have higher levels of empathy than everyone else
In the survey two kinds of empathy were measured. One was empathy for people's physical pain - how sorry you feel for someone who has accidentally slammed their hand in a door, picked up a scalding frying pan or been stung by a wasp. The other was how much empathy you have for other people's social pain - for someone who's been bullied at school, not invited to a party or dumped by their partner.

There was no difference in empathy for physical pain between the people who felt more or less lonely. But the people who said they often or very often felt lonely scored higher on average for empathy for social pain. Maybe because they have experienced for themselves what it feels like to be left out, they empathise more with other people who find themselves in the same situation.

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The findings in this article are based on an online survey of 55,000 people from around the world, called the BBC Loneliness Experiment. It was created by academics at three British universities in collaboration with Wellcome Collection. Find out more: The Anatomy of Loneliness 1.

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Loneliness 1/2

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Loneliness can affect all people at different times in their lives, but is it a new idea or something humans have always experienced? Neil and Rob talk about loneliness and how some people prefer their own company.

This week's question

One possibly lonely man is Mauro Morandi. He's lived alone on Budelli Island in Italy for many years, but how many years exactly? Is it:

a) 6 years?

b) 31 years?

c) 44 years?

Listen to the programme to find out the answer.

Vocabulary

keep someone company
spend time with someone so they don't get lonely

social change
shift in how people behave and think

significant other
partner

pinch points
(here) times in your life where there are difficulties and things slow down or change

chronic
long lasting (health condition)

Transcript

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript

Neil
Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.

Rob
It's good to be here, Neil. I think many of us have experienced loneliness at some point. Maybe you've felt lonely because all your friends have gone out for dinner without you, or maybe you've felt lonely just because you don't fit in somewhere.

Neil
Yes, that's when we sometimes use the expression 'to feel lonely in a crowd'. Well, we'll be exploring if this is a new idea or something humans have always experienced, and along the way we'll be teaching you some new vocabulary.

Rob
But now I'm here to keep you company, how about a question for me?

Neil
Of course! Well, one possibly lonely man is Mauro Morandi. He's lived alone on Budelli Island in Italy for many years, but how many years exactly? Is it:
a) 6 years,
b) 31 years, or
c) 44 years?

Rob
Umm 44 years would be tough, as would 31, so I'll go for 6 years.

Neil
OK, Rob, we'll find out later if that's right. Now, I'm sure we all want to be alone from time to time, to escape the demands of our colleagues or the pressures of real life, but would we really want to be totally alone?

Rob
Well, I certainly wouldn't. And research has found that prolonged social isolation is bad for us, particularly mentally.

Rob
A state is a condition at a particular time. Let's hear what she had to say about references to loneliness in literature.

Interviewer
Give me some examples. What may count as examples?

Neil
Even today, being alone gives us headspace and time to think, as long as it doesn't last forever. Anyway, as we mentioned, we've probably all been lonely at some point, and Fay Bound Alberti told the Thinking Aloud programme that loneliness can take many forms.

Fay Bound Alberti
Absolutely, I think that loneliness is something that affects all people but at different times in their lives. I would describe in terms of pinch points - there are times when we change [when we become] when we get married, we become mothers, we get divorced, anything that changes our life might put us under temporary loneliness. When it's a problem is when it becomes chronic.

Neil
And loneliness isn't always obvious to other people, so it's good to check in with friends and family to see how they're feeling and to ask if they're OK. Of course, it would be difficult to check in on Mauro Morandi, who's been living on Budelli Island in Italy for many years, but how many years exactly?

Rob
Ahh well I thought 6 years. Was I right?

Neil
I'm afraid not. It's actually been 31 years. He told National Geographic magazine "I'm sort of in prison here... but it's a prison that I chose for myself." So I'm guessing he's got used to his own company! I certainly couldn't live alone for that long - I'd been too lonely, I need company Rob.

Rob
When talking about life, pinch points are times where there are difficulties and things slow down or change. And chronic describes a health condition that is long lasting.

Neil
And that's all we have time for in this programme, but remember you can find more useful vocabulary, trending topics and help with your language learning here at BBC Learning English. We also have an app that you can download for free from the app stores and of course we are all over social media. Bye for now!

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BBC Learning English - 6 Minute English / Loneliness

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Loneliness can affect all people at different times in their lives, but is it a new idea or something humans have always experienced? Neil and Rob talk about loneliness and how some people prefer their own company. One possibly lonely man is Mauro Morandi.

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New Year's Resolutions 1/2

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Almost every year of my adult life, I've started the New Year with a set of resolutions that I've been determined to keep. The results, predictably, have been variable.

In 2021, I mostly kept to my fitness goal of doing one 20-minute HIIT workout each day, but I failed miserably at my aim of quitting social media. According to my weekly screen-time reports, I still spend between two and three hours each day on my phone, much of that time doomscrolling.

I am far from alone in my determination to start each new year with a plan for self-improvement. At least a quarter of people typically make at least one New Year's resolution, and a large portion of those good intentions end in disappointment.

For those who don't follow this tradition, the very act of creating a New Year's resolution can seem illogical. Rationally speaking, 1 January should be no better than any other day to make a life change - so why put the needless pressure on ourselves to 'upgrade' our lives at the opening of a new calendar?

Recent psychological research, however, suggests that there are many good reasons to begin a new regime on the first day of a new year. And by understanding and capitalising on those mechanisms, we can all increase our chances of sticking to our new goals for 2022.
The fresh-start effect
It's hard to pinpoint exactly when our tradition of making New Year's Resolutions was first established. Anna Katharina Schaffner, a cultural historian and author of The Art of Self-Improvement, notes literary references to self-improvement go back centuries, to Chinese antiquity and the Roman Stoics, for example. The practice of pegging goals to a particular calendar date was already well-established by the 1860s, as seen in one of Mark Twain's letters.

Whether your goal is to spend more time with family or make it onto the Bake Off, using the New Year as a marker can help you reach your objectives (Credit: Getty Image)

"Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink, and swore his last oath," he wrote on 1 January 1863. "Today, we are a pious and exemplary community. Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient shortcomings considerably shorter than ever. We shall also reflect pleasantly upon how we did the same old thing last year about this time."

In Schaffner's opinion, it is no coincidence many of us are especially keen to make positive changes after a hedonic holiday season. "You have over indulged and now it's time to purify," she says. It's notable, she says, that many resolutions are focused on abstinence - giving up our bad habits to cleanse our bodies and our souls.

The "purity principle" can't fully explain our penchant for New Year's resolutions. Many of us, after all, may make promises after relatively sober festivities. And many of our goals are related to work or personal pursuits that have nothing to do with spiritual and physical atonement. So, is there something special about the date itself that makes personal change, of any kind, enticing?

Some clues come from the way the brain organises its memories. Psychologists have found that, rather than seeing our life as a continuum, we tend to craft a narrative, divided into separate "chapters" that mark the different stages of our life. "People tend to think about life as if they're characters in a book," says Katy Milkman, a psychology professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and the author of the book How to Change.

Those chapters may characterise major life events - such as arriving at university, getting married or the birth of your first child. But your mind can also split those major chapters into smaller sections so that the start of a new year can represent a break in the narrative. "Any time you have a moment that feels like a division of time, your mind does a special thing where it creates a sense that you have a fresh start," says Milkman. "You're turning the page, you have a clean slate, it's a new beginning."

This helps you to create psychological distance from past failures, she says, allowing you to feel that any mistake was the "old you" and that you'll now do better. On 1 January, I can think that all my time-wasting on Twitter was "2021 David", while "2022 David" is going to have the focus and dedication of Zadie Smith, who somehow shuns social media (and indeed any online distraction) as she writes her masterpieces.

Milkman has worked with Jason Riis, at Harvard University, and her doctoral student Hengchen Dai, now a professor in UCLA's school of management, to investigate the "fresh-start effect" in various settings. In one study, they analysed data from stickK, a popular goal-setting website and app that is meant to help people with their self-improvement. Dai and Milkman found that people were not only likely to set new goals at New Year - as you might expect - but also after any holiday breaks. There was even a slight uptick on Mondays, as people try to reset with the start of the new week, and on the first day of each month.

As further evidence, Milkman, Riis and Dai tested whether they could prime the fresh start effect artificially. To do so, the researchers first invited participants to sign-up for an email reminder of their goals - with subtle differences in the way they framed the date. Consider one reminder, sent on 20 March. For some students, the date was simply labelled "the third Thursday in March" - hardly a significant landmark. For others, it was called "the first day of spring" - which they hoped would provoke the sense of a new beginning.

Instead of saying you'll 'cook healthy' this year, look at your goal another way - say you'd like to eat more fresh veg each day (Credit: Getty Images)

It worked a treat. The students who had been encouraged to think of a "fresh start", based around a temporal landmark, were more likely to start a new gym habit, improve their sleep hygiene or spend less time on social media - compared to those who had not been primed to see the date as a marked and significant division in the timeline.

The New Year, of course, is an especially compelling starting point, compared to those other events. "It is a big chapter break for most people," says Milkman.
From failure to success
Sceptics may still wonder whether the practice is worthwhile. Surely, most people are only setting themselves up for failure - no? Yet the available data shows that the overall success rate is higher than many might think.

According to a recent YouGov survey, 35% of people who made resolutions managed to stick to all of their goals, and 50% of people managed to keep some of their resolutions. That's a lot of people who are making at least some positive changes to their lives - even if they do also fail at some of their goals.

The way you frame your resolutions could make an important difference. Per Carlbring at Stockholm University recently tracked the progress of 1,066 people who made New Year's Resolutions at the end of 2017. He categorised their intentions into two classes. Some were "avoidance goals" - which, as the name suggests, involved quitting something like sweets, alcohol or social media. The others were "approach goals" - which involved adopting a new habit - such as swimming twice a week or practising the guitar in the evening. On average, the participants were about 25% more likely to meet their approach goals than the avoidance goals. "Instead of stopping things, you should start doing things," he concludes.

I can easily see how this effect played out in my own resolutions for 2021. I mostly kept my resolution of completing a HIIT workout each day (an approach goal) but failed miserably at my attempt to quit social media (an avoidance goal).

Fortunately, Carlbring says we can often turn an avoidance goal into an approach goal to maximise our chances of success. Supposing you want to lose weight. "Instead of saying that I want to stop eating a candy bar every day, I might instead say that I want to start eating carrots each afternoon," he says. "Because that would increase your blood-sugar level, and you then wouldn't have the craving for something else."

Similarly, if I want to reduce my social media use, I might set myself the goal of reading 10 pages of an ebook whenever I am ready for a bit of downtime or distraction on my phone - a productive activity that should, I hope, lure me away from my usual doomscrolling.

You'll still need perseverance, of course - but Milkman and Carlbring both argue that we should be forgiving of the odd failure. "If you face a setback, then you might think that you will never be able to achieve your goal," Carlbring says. "But you can try to view it as a lesson to be learned."

If you face a serious blockage, you can always try to look for another milestone that might mark a new beginning. If you've started to founder in February, for example, you might make a new commitment to start again at the beginning of March - a small act of reframing that should give you the boost of the fresh-start effect all over again.

Any journey worth pursuing will include a few bumps along the way - but by understanding the psychology of personal change, you can vastly increase your chances of reaching the goal.
David Robson is a science writer and author based in London, UK. His next book, The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Transform Your Life will be published in the UK on 6 January and in the US on 15 February 2022. He is @d_a_robson on Twitter.

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Are New Year's resolutions powerful or pointless?

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Almost every year of my adult life, I've started the New Year with a set of resolutions that I've been determined to keep. The results, predictably, have been variable. In 2021, I mostly kept to my fitness goal of doing one 20-minute HIIT workout each day, but I failed miserably at my aim of quitting social media.

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New Year's Resolutions 2/2

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Christmas 2/2

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It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Every year across much of the world, the same signs of an incoming festive holiday emerge, usually just after Halloween or towards the end of November. Down come the autumnal decorations and up go the stars, snowflakes, angels, and snowmen. As one of the most significant dates in the Gregorian calendar, Christmas has always been heralded with great fanfare and celebration since the Middle Ages. During the bleak midwinter, it's a time to celebrate and feast with friends and family.

It's also a time of year when businesses tend to see a massive upswing in their profits, as people rush out to buy decorations, food, and gifts. The commercialisation of Christmas is something that has been marking the holiday for over a century now and shows little signs of diminishing. Indeed, many would say that the business of Christmas has completely overtaken the occasion.

We're not interested in the argument about Christmas and whether it's become oversaturated by consumerism. That's a topic for a different article on a different sort of blog.

What we're interested in is how this relationship between business and the Yuletide season came to be in the first place, what influences this had had on the economy, and in which direction it has shaped business practice since. So, how did the Christmas market go from a few wooden stalls in the town square outside the local church, to a multibillion-dollar international phenomenon?

The nativity of Christmas shopping

Christmas has long been associated with feasting, joviality, and merriment, in which celebrants decorate their homes with holly, take part in religious processions, and loudly sing hymns. While Puritan and Presbyterian communities long tried to ban its practice, citing it as a papist innovation or pagan superstition, it continued to be celebrated across the Christian world through to the modern era.

While many aspects were already formed by this point, it was Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and the example of Queen Victoria and the British Royal Family that first cemented the idea of the holiday being a family-orientated occasion dedicated to gift giving, family gatherings, games, and dinners. Prince Albert brought to the British Isles the concepts of Christmas trees from Germany - German American communities having already brought the practice to America - and illustrated images of the Royal Family celebrating Christmas together quickly popularised the holiday across the Western world.

It was by the middle of the 19 th century that the idea of Santa Claus being fixed as an enigmatic and jolly man who delivered presents to good girls and boys each Christmas Eve, popularised by A Visit by St Nicholas in 1823.

Christmas appeal for the masses

Initially, Christmas celebrations were restricted to the well-to-do, with Christmas trees, roast turkey or goose, and gifts of toys and candy being a rarity for most people. This all changed over the course of the 20 th century, which saw increased wealth among families and more capital to spend on the Christmas season. The first Sears Christmas Wishlist, which was filled with toys and Christmas related products, was published in 1934, and Santa Claus was already being used to sell soft drinks long before Coca-Cola launched their festive ad campaigns around the same time. It was in the 19030s that the famous mall Santas first started to appear as well, and businesses started to rely on the Christmas season to make their end-of-year profits.

The commercial aspects of Christmas crystalized in the economic boom of the 1950s, as newfound affluence allowed people to truly make Christmas a time to splash out and enjoy themselves. Every family could now put up a Christmas tree and decorations in their home, buy gifts for friends and family, and enjoy a full Christmas dinner with roast turkey and all the trimmings.

The occasion has only grown since then, as businesses seek to capitalise on the Christmas season.

The modern day Christmas

As well as being the most important day on the Christian calendar, Christmas has become the most important day on the financial calendar.

According to Forbes, retailers in America can expect to make $1trillion from Christmas sales, accounting for one quarter of their yearly profits.

The National Retail Association, meanwhile, estimates a much more modest-yet not unimpressive-figure of nearly $500bn.

In the UK, it's estimated by the Bank of England that the average household will spend up to £800 extra in the months leading up to Christmas, usually on food, drink, and presents, totalling up to £19bn.

As Black Friday and Cyber Monday catch on across the global market, national economies have seen increased periods of spending stretching into November as well.

Most retailers rely on Christmas sales to give their finances that much needed final push through to the end of the financial year, and it's typically around this period that they'll see the biggest intake. Many will therefore offer numerous Christmas discounts and offers, or deck themselves up in festive decorations in order to draw in a Christmas audience. A walk down a typical main street will see the town packed with Christmas shoppers getting last minute purchases in.

The Christmas creep

Christmas has become a huge event, and each year - to the bemusement of many - it seems like markets are trying to cash in on the holiday earlier and earlier, in the infamous "Christmas creep".

It's gained traction across the globe as well simply due to how lucrative it has become, even in countries where Christianity does not typically hold much sway. In Japan, the holiday became popularised during the American occupation and is largely seen as an occasion for young couples rather than families. Although it isn't a holiday, the country is often awash with Christmas decorations of a decidedly secular nature divorced of its Christian trappings, and KFC tends to be the preferred meal of choice to turkey or goose.

Some non-Christian countries have also seen increased Christmas marketing, resulting in celebrating Christmas being banned amid concerns it is too Western.

A welcome tradition or a wasteful one?

However, it isn't all candy canes and gumdrops. One unintended consequence of Christmas gift giving is the sudden spike in unwanted gifts. People have subjective ideas as to the value of things they give to others. It's usually around Christmas that stores see a lot of returned items, as people try to reclaim money back on unwanted gifts they've received. An online survey conducted by the ING International Survey found that 10% of respondents returned their gifts to the store.

Economists have also questioned whether Christmas is such a necessary boost to the economy after all. Some suggest that Christmas does not so much boost spending as concentrates it into a two-month gasp of frenzied gift buying, which would otherwise be spread more evenly across the year. Others point out that the social pressure to buy gifts leads to increased borrowing and credit card loans, leading to credit bubbles.

Amid growing concerns around the climate emergency, an awareness is starting to bubble in the public consciousness of the ethical implications of such rampant consumerism and wanton wastefulness in a fragmented, fragile world.

There is also the issue of the drop in productivity. As the holidays approach, it's common for workers to become distracted and work less. One study found that 60% of workers admitted to finding it hard to stay motivated at work the closer it got to the holidays, with some saying this feeling started as early as November. Likewise, the holiday time many employees will take to spend time with family or just to enjoy the holiday will cut into productivity as well. Although surely only the most Dickensian of employers would begrudge them that?!

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The business of Christmas | Hult International Business School

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It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Every year across much of the world, the same signs of an incoming festive holiday emerge, usually just after Halloween or towards the end of November. Down come the autumnal decorations and up go the stars, snowflakes, angels, and snowmen.

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Christmas 1/2

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BBC Learning English - 6 Minute English / Christmas kindness

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Some families struggle to buy even food and can’t afford presents. Neil and Alice discuss how some charities are helping those in need.

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Pets 2/2

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Carlyn Montes De Oca: Life-Changing Powers of the Animal-Human Health Connection

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Did you know that if you share a home with an animal you may be living with a very special kind of doctor? Ok, our animal friends may not have gone to medical school but in this unique talk, you will learn surprising ways animals can benefit our mind, body, and spirit; serve as invaluable health and wellness allies, and even save our lives.

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Pets 1/2

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Pick up a book from a young child's bookshelf and you're more likely to find an animal protagonist than a human one. From very hungry caterpillars to great big humpback whales, children seem universally fascinated by animals. But while characters in a picture book are often far removed from reality, the pets many of us share a home with offer children a more realistic glimpse of the animal world - and a meaningful relationship that influences them in a whole host of other ways, too.

Understanding that relationship may not only help parents choose the right pet for their child, but also give them deeper insights into the factors that make for a truly successful bond.

For many people, pets are much-loved family members who provide support across many stages of life. They can help couples to cement their relationship, act as playmates for young children, and provide companionship for parents when children leave home. One study in the US found that 63% of households with a baby under 12 months old had a pet, and an Australian study found a 10% increase in pet ownership around the time the children start school.

Many parents intuitively feel that looking after an animal can offer children valuable lessons about caregiving, responsibility and empathy. "It's really important, especially for young kids, to learn that someone's perspective might be different from their own," says Megan Mueller, associate professor of human-animal interaction at Tufts University, US. "That's an easier lesson to learn, perhaps, with an animal than it is with, say, a sibling or a peer."

But claims about the beneficial impacts of pets on children go further, suggesting that pets can influence children's social skills, physical health, and even cognitive development, and that keeping them is associated with higher levels of empathy. For children with autism and their families, pet care may help reduce stress and create opportunities to form supportive bonds.

Other research shows that children gain from animals in-the-moment, too. In one pair of studies, children made fewer errors on an object categorisation task and needed fewer prompts in a memory task when there was a dog in the room. Research has even found that, for adults at least, the simple act of viewing our pets as family members improves our wellbeing - though headlines touting the wide-ranging benefits of pet ownership are not without criticism, since people often believe that their pets improve their health and happiness, even when objective measures don't show any difference.

A boy enjoys a session of dog-assisted therapy in France (Credit: Getty Images)

Interacting with pets - and with other people

So, are pets truly at the root of all these benefits, or do we just think they are? Hayley Christian, associate professor at the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Western Australia in Perth, is one of the researchers attempting to unravel cause from effect.

Using data from a longitudinal study of 4,000 children at ages five and seven, Christian and colleagues discovered that pet ownership was associated with fewer peer problems and more prosocial behaviour. In separate research they found that children aged 2 to 5 with a family dog were more active, spent less time on screens, and slept more on average, than those without a pet.

Crucially, it was the dog-facilitated physical activity - such as going on family dog walks - that made the difference.

Then, in a study published last year, they put these two pieces of the puzzle together. After controlling for factors such as socio-economic status, the researchers saw that children who regularly engaged in dog-related physical activity had better developmental outcomes.

"We can actually say that children having pets and interacting with them over time in early childhood does seem to cause these added benefits in terms of their social-emotional development," says Christian, who is also a senior research fellow at the Telethon Kids Institute.

That's not to say that every family should get a pet - or every child with a dog is better off than those without. Behavioural issues, complex medical needs and the financial burden of caring for an animal can all make life with a pet less than rosy. Families living in housing that is not pet-friendly face further barriers. "I don't think we're ever going to get to the point where we recommend that everyone with a kid gets a dog," says Mueller.

In fact, Mueller looked into whether the mental health of US teenagers with pets was better than their non pet-owning counterparts during the Covid-19 pandemic - and found that the animals appeared to make no difference. "My hypothesis is that Covid was a huge stressor and there probably isn't one thing that's enough to overcome it," she says.

It's also possible that the pandemic put a stop to one of the ways in which living with a dog can give us a boost. "We get the social benefits from interacting with the dog, but there's also this way in which animals can facilitate social interaction with other people," says Mueller. During lockdowns, teenagers might have stuck to their daily dog walks but avoided conversations with other dog walkers, losing out on small moments of social interaction.

A Ukrainian girl cuddles her pet at Warsaw train station. Children rank pets as some of the most important beings in their lives, research shows (Credit: Getty Images)

Building a strong relationship
When it comes to the positive influence of pets on children, the state of their relationship is key - not just living under the same roof. "Relationship quality seems to be a better predictor of some of these health outcomes than just whether or not you have a pet in the home," says Mueller.

Time spent with a pet is one factor. If your sibling has a hamster that lives in their room, you're unlikely to feel very attached to it, for example, compared to a family dog that you walk every day after school.

A child's age can also help determine how solid their relationship with a particular pet becomes. Children aged between six and 10 develop stronger bonds with animals that are more similar to humans, like cats and dogs, than with biologically far-removed species like birds and fish. But older children, aged between 11 and 14, report being just as attached to less closely-related species - including mice - as they are to their dogs or cats.

Family dynamics also play a part. The Australian longitudinal study saw that children without siblings can especially benefit from pets - perhaps because they sometimes act as a surrogate sibling. "Parents are more likely to allow their child to be independently mobile [for example, run an errand alone] if they went with a sibling or a friend," says Christian. "And guess what else? A dog."

Pets can even aid social interactions within households. In foster families, research suggests a pet can help facilitate close relationships between foster carers and children, as well as providing companionship in its own right.

When children get to know their pets, it opens them up to a deeper understanding of animals in the wider world. "They tend to learn from their pet, somehow, how to be more understanding, empathetic and responsive to animals in general," says John Bradshaw, former reader in companion animal behaviour at the University of Bristol, UK, and author of several books on cats and dogs.

One study in the UK found that children who had pets at home were more likely to have higher levels of belief about animals' minds, that is, thinking that animals have thoughts and feelings of their own.

"You can have all sorts of imaginary stories in your head about a lion, but until somebody takes you to Africa, you'll never meet one in the wild," he says. "But a dog or a cat is there and can teach you about what it's actually like to be an animal, that animals are not human, they have very special lives that belong to them and not to us."

Even young babies are watching and learning about the animals they live with. Research by Karinna Hurley and Lisa Oakes at the University of California, Davis, US, found that infants in households with a pet were better at recognising animal faces by the time they were 10 months old than those without.

What's more, a child's relationship with their pet could provide a much-needed link with nature. "To have a real living, breathing, slightly messy animal running around the house is a good way of making those connections," says Bradshaw.

A boy bonds with a dog at a hospital in Tokyo. Pets can benefit children's development in many different ways, studies show (Credit: Getty Images)

Family Tree

This article is part of Family Tree, a series of features that explore the issues and opportunities that families face all over the world. You might also be interested in other stories about children's behaviour and development:

Climb new branches of the Family Tree on BBC Worklife.

What do animals think of kids?

Remembering our pets' wild origins can give us an insight into how they see our families.

Dogs evolved to live alongside humans and have the potential to form very strong bonds with us. Cats, on the other hand, are solitary creatures at heart. Even so, they do seem to regard their human housemates as family. "Our cats greet us by raising their tails and rubbing around our legs - precisely what they do when meeting another cat they know well or consider a family member," writes Bradshaw in his book, The Animals Among Us.

But whether this kinship translates to children depends on a pet's own early life experiences.

Both cats and dogs have a brief window - for puppies this is between around eight and 16 weeks of age - where they learn about the sorts of people they might encounter in their lives. "We know that if puppies or kittens have not met children at all by the time they get to six months or so - depending on their underlying temperament - they can display really quite adverse reactions," says Bradshaw. "That suggests that they don't really recognise children as human, unless they've been introduced to them as part of the humanity package."

This makes perfect sense when you look at it from the animal's point of view, he says: "A baby is nothing like an adult human. It's much smaller, it can't stand up, it makes very different noises to an adult human, and it smells very different to an adult human."

Understanding how a pet sees the world is vital to making sure everyone gets along. If a cat urinates on a new cot or pram brought into the house, it's easy to jump to conclusions. "If you were not sympathetic to the way the cat thinks you might think, 'Oh, the cat's just getting cross because I'm going to have a baby, it must know'," says Bradshaw. "Of course, they don't know. It's very often the olfactory environment [the smell of the home] that's been churned up and the cat's lost its familiar points of reference."

Both cats and dogs rely heavily on their noses, so having lots of new smells in the house is like "coming home and finding that someone has painted your walls completely opposite colours," says Bradshaw. On the flip side, familiar scents can keep them happy. In one trial, Bradshaw and his colleagues put a t-shirt that had been worn by a dog's owner into their bed. "That familiar smell seemed to work wonders for the dog, they were much more relaxed," he says.

Not anthropomorphising our pets - meaning, expecting them to think and behave like humans - is especially important when it comes to a child's safety. "You can never be 100% sure how a dog is going to react in any one given situation," says Bradshaw. "There's all sorts of possible things which can trigger the dog into a different mode of behaviour, maybe one that the owner has never seen before."

Ultimately, each child-pet relationship is unique, with its own quirks, benefits, and pitfalls - and in some ways researchers are only just starting to understand what makes a child's relationship with their pet mutually beneficial. "The field is really moving towards looking at these more individual differences," says Mueller.

Meanwhile, children themselves rank pets as some of the most important beings in their lives, seeing their animal companions as a comfort and emotional support, as well as being infallible confidantes for a secret. Some of those benefits "are very difficult to quantify because they're very individual, and science deals in populations and big numbers," says Bradshaw. "Just because it's not very tangible and easily measured, it doesn't mean it's not real."

--
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Pick up a book from a young child's bookshelf and you're more likely to find an animal protagonist than a human one. From very hungry caterpillars to great big humpback whales, children seem universally fascinated by animals.

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Qui troverai i contenuti condivisi durante gli incontri