Is it normal to talk to yourself?
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TEDEd Animation
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Being caught talking to yourself can feel embarrassing, and some people even stigmatize this behavior as a sign of mental instability. But decades of research show that talking to yourself is completely normal; most if not all of us engage in some form of self-talk every day. So why do we talk to ourselves? And does what we say matter? Dig into the psychological benefits of positive self-talk.
Scientists are still working to understand why some people self-talk more than others. For what reasons might some people talk to themselves more frequently? How would you test this experimentally?
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Meet The Creators
- Educator Shannon Odell
- Director Avi Ofer
- Narrator Alexandra Panzer
- Composer Salil Bhayani, cAMP Studio
- Sound Designer Nirana Singh, cAMP Studio
- Director of Production Gerta Xhelo
- Produced by Anna Bechtol, Abdallah Ewis
- Editorial Director Alex Rosenthal
- Editorial Producer Dan Kwartler
- Expert Consultant Ethan Kross, Tom Brinthaupt
