Second year students: Culture and leisure
Hello students.Our next speaker is Sheena Inyengar. We are going to listen about Sheena Iyengar's study on the cultural nature of choosing.
Sheena Iyengar was born in Toronto, Canada in 1969. Her parents had emigrated there from Delhi, India. When Sheena was three years old, she was diagnosed with a rare form of retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited disease of retinal degeneration.[4] By 6th grade, Sheena had lost the ability to read, and by 11th grade, she had lost her sight entirely and could only perceive light.
Sheena is an example to all of us.
If you want to download the vocabulary and the script and video, click HERE
See underneath for the original source.
I have downloaded the script and video from the Tedtalk network. If you want to see this video in its source, click HERE
QUESTIONS
1. According to Sheena Iyengar, fundamental ideas about choosing shape our minds. How were you shaped by the idea of choosing that permeates the society where you were born?
2. Seenany Iyengar says that in American society there is the belief that if a choice affects you, you should be the only one to make the decision. This way your needs will be accounted for. After listening to her talk. Do you think this holds true?
3. Do you think the anagram experiment would have varied if instead of American children/ Asian American children, the experiment had been carried out with Spanish / Asian Spanish children?
4. Some people believe that the more choices you have the more likely you are to make the best choice. Do you agree with this statement?
5. Sheena Iyengar says that in the USA there is an assumption that states that "You must never say no to choice." Is this assumption true for you?
2. Seenany Iyengar says that in American society there is the belief that if a choice affects you, you should be the only one to make the decision. This way your needs will be accounted for. After listening to her talk. Do you think this holds true?
3. Do you think the anagram experiment would have varied if instead of American children/ Asian American children, the experiment had been carried out with Spanish / Asian Spanish children?
4. Some people believe that the more choices you have the more likely you are to make the best choice. Do you agree with this statement?
5. Sheena Iyengar says that in the USA there is an assumption that states that "You must never say no to choice." Is this assumption true for you?
10 comments:
I liked the Ted talk I think it was interesting but it feels way longer than the other videos.
I agree with Seenany Iyengar when she says that if a choice affects you, you should be the only one to make the decision, specially in the example she gives. In such personal situations and even if it hurts, you should make the decision because if not later you will regret someone making it for you and this change may be irreversible.
I'm going to answer te 4th question.
It's true that if you are going to buy something from amazon, you'll have a lot of options and it would be easier to find the more similar thing you're looking for. This is a choice where for example, if you want to buy a pen, there will be a lot of colors, brands, sizes... I'm sure you'll see all of them and you'll be able to do the best choice, as you have multiple choices. But, technically, this is not true: imagine that you are in a room and you are asked to drink a glass of water. In the table are two of them, one is normal water but the other is a poinsoned one. By increasing the number of glasses, the probability of choosing the correct glas of water will decrease. Imagine been asked between 15 cups. Your probability of choosing the correct is 1/15.
I really liked the video. The sentence/quote I've liked the most is when she says: "If the choice affects you, then you should be the one to make it".
Question number 4: I do not think that more choices equal making the right choice. I think that if there are too many choices to pick from, we get overwhelmed and scared, because with more choices comes more possibilities of making more mistakes. I like it better when there aren't a lot of choices to choose from, because that way I only have to think about a few, and really think through them, and what they are offering and the consequences of these choices.
I thought the Ted Talk was very interesting, but it was a bit hard to understand some concepts.
Lola McIver.
First of all, I suppose that, right now, I can't really think of any ideas the society has imposed me. Like, I suppose the basic of "don't kill" and "don't steal" but those are more moral ideas than just society ideas. Most of my ideals are self imposed after all.
Then, I think that you always have to take the idea that you prefer. Not just Americans, everyone. If you can not take the decisions, then others will always choose what's more convenient for them and not for you.
Next, different cultures have different ideas, that's pretty obvious.
Finally, the last two questions, I agree with the two of them. If there are more choices then you will certainly find something that fits you more, then, the freedom of choice is a pretty important idea, and without it then we will all be more robots than humans.
The Ted Talk seemed interesting to me, a bit long though. I liked what she said about asian-americans kids being shaped by the opinions of their parents. And according to question three, I think that the result would have been similar as our culture is in some way influenced by american’s and the whole occidental world. In addition, for question four, maybe you do the right choice (it's all about probability), but you might don’t feel it that way, you may feel more insecure, like you haven’t done the right choice. Personally, I sometimes feel overwhelmed and undecided when having to choose between many options. - Clara B
Question 4: Personally I think that, when we have several options, and sometimes we get overwhelmed by the ocean of option we have, also we think about the product a lot, and what is has to be like on the outside, also this item has to function as well, I feel that this isn’t always like this, for me, it is very difficult to choose a product, because I look for so many things from a product, and at the end I don’t get any product.
The video has been fascinating, so far this and the Egyptian queen has been my favorites.
Andrés
In my opinion, as we are all very young to start making our own decisions and choices that in a future may be important, i don't think that society has imposed me any ideals or believes because the main figures that really affect me are my parents. On the other side, it's obvious that social, familiar, economic circumstances etc. will affect my final decision. So, it is not the society but our closest figures, such as family and friends.
Lisa Campos
First of all, what an interesting talk! In response to question number five, In my opinion, the assumption that "You must never say no to choice." is neither true or false. I do like choosing and being on control when it comes to my life. Either way, sometimes having to choose becomes overwhelming and a stressful task so I would very much rather someone else to take control over my life and if possible fix the errors I made by choosing the "wrong" choices.
Ingrid Masip
It is a fascinating talk, at the end it can get a little exhausting, but it is really interesting. If the decision affects you should be the one making that choice, because you're the only one how will make the correct choice for yourself, if we let other people choice a decision for ourselves, they will not choose the one that benefits you, and their final decision will be more convenient for them than for you.
-Mora Kiara
I didn’t enjoyed it as mu7ch as other ted talks, it was really long and at the end it was kind of boring. Sheena studies how we make choices and says that choices do affect us and you are the one who should make them. She talks about trivial choices, profound ones and shares her research and discoveries.
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