BrainStuff Classics: Can Talking About Yourself in the Third Person Make You Feel Better?

It turns out that people who talk about themselves in the third person may be giving themselves a mental boost. ("You're nailing this episode description, Lauren!") Learn why in today's classic episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/emotions/benefits-talking-like-egomaniac.htm

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hi
brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam here with a classic episode
from our archives. You know, I never thought that much
about that intro line that I just said that I
say something to the extent of at the beginning of
every episode. I inherited the line from one of our
former hosts, and I just sort of went with it.

(00:23):
But this episode made me feel a number of ways
about it. The question of the day is, how can
talking about yourself in the third person make you feel better? Hey,
brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam here. In pop culture parlance,
it's known as the Jimmy, the odd conversational quirk of

(00:44):
referring to yourself in the third person, named after the
Seinfeld character who bragged about his basketball skills as if
he was his own biggest fans jim He's ready, dude check.
Professional sports and politics are full of real life Jimmy's
outsized personalities with the off putting habit of talking about
themselves by name. Senator Bob Dole was mocked relentlessly on

(01:06):
Saturday Night Live for his Bob Dole is ums Lebron James,
defending his controversial move from his hometown of Cleveland to
the Miami Heat famously said I wanted to do what
was best for Lebron James to make him happy. The
real term for talking about yourself of the third person
is ilioism, and every armchair psychologist has a theory for
why certain celebrities are rabbid iliasts. The easiest explanation is ego. Essentially,

(01:30):
their ego gets so big and inflated that it takes
on a life of its own. Same for narcissism. These
folks love themselves so much that they need to address
the object of their affection by name. But the truth
is that no substantial research has been done on the
question of why some A list athletes, actors, and politicians
can't keep their own name out of their mouth. Interestingly, though,
there is convincing evidence that regular folks like you and

(01:52):
me can actually boost ourself confidence through the simple trick
of thinking of ourselves in the third person. Ethan Cross
is a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, where
he runs the Emotion and Self Control Laboratory. Cross studies
the ways in which people regulate their emotions, including the
handy trick of psychological distancing. Taking a step back from
intense anger or pain to think about the situation as

(02:14):
an objective outsider. Cross said, what we've learned is that
language provides people with a tool to distance themselves psychologically,
including language that many people use spontaneously without even thinking
about it. It turns out that all of us, not
just celebrities, engage in what Cross calls third person self
talk when we need a little emotional or psychological boost.
Maybe it happens at the gym when we feel like

(02:35):
quitting with five minutes left on the elliptical, Come on, Lauren,
pushed through, or when we're trying to work up the
nerve to ask our boss for a raise. You deserve this, Lauren,
And as weird as that just felt, it works. In
his lab, Cross ran experiments comparing the performance of two
groups in a stressful situation. One group that was prompted
to psych itself up with eye statements and a second

(02:56):
group that used use statements and their own name. When
the particip were asked to give an extemporaneous speech in public,
a true stress bomb. The Jimmy group came in with
a healthier attitude, performed better, and was less critical of itself. Afterward.
In a later study, Cross took f M R I
brain scans of people engaged in first person versus third
persons self talk. The scans revealed that I centered thinking

(03:18):
it triggers the areas of the brain associated with negative
self referential processes, while Jimmy style thinking does not. In addition,
the third person self talk appears to bypass the cognitive
or effortful parts of the brain. In other words, the
positive effect is automatic. Cross recommends that everyone give it
a try the next time they're stressed or emotionally wrought.

(03:39):
He said, compared to other emotional regulation strategies, third person
self talk might be a little bit easier for people
to implement, the costs are minimal, and the potential upshot
is valuable. Does this mean that all the Lebrons, Jimmy's
and Trumps of the world are talking about themselves in
the third person because they're trying to establish psychological distance
from stressful situations, maybe, says Cross, But it's not something

(04:01):
that he or anyone else has studied. Interestingly, in the
famous clip of Lebron James defending Lebron James, he also
tells the interviewer what I didn't want to do was
make an emotional decision. Maybe for James, the best way
to distance himself emotionally and make an objective decision was too,
as he put it, do what's best for Lebron James,
not necessarily himself. One important difference between the lab experiments

(04:24):
and examples of celebrity self name dropping is that the
participants in Crosses study never spoke out loud. All of
the self talk was internal or written out on paper.
So there's still a possibility that when it comes to
celebrity self talkers, that first theory we mentioned still applies. However,
we'll leave you with an interesting case study. Soccer legend
Pel was a world class Jimmy, but for an interesting reason,

(04:48):
Born Edson arounds Pile, the person didn't identify with the
global superstar that had crowds chanting his name. He told
the Guardian, Edson is the person who has the feelings,
who has the family, who works hard, and Pile is
the idol. Pele doesn't die, Pele will never die. Pile
is going to go on forever. Today's episode is based

(05:09):
on the article the Benefits of talking about yourself in
the third person on House to Forks Dot com written
by Dave Roose. Brainstuff is production by Heart Radio in
partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang.
Four more podcasts to my heart Radio, visit the I
heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.