He studies how we can enlist emotions to become better people. That overlooked habit? The practice of gratitude.Shankar Vedantam: David DeSteno is a psychologist at Northeastern University. Study for the test, or play video games? Exercise regularly, or relax on the couch? Save money for retirement, or spend it on something you want right now? This week on Hidden Brain, we explore the importance and limitations of self-control and we examine how a habit that is within easy reach can help us achieve our goals. All of us have something of the ant inside us and all of us have the grasshopper too. The ant, who refuses to share, comes across as mean-spirited, but the underlying message of the story is one we all wrestle with. The ant, who had worked all summer, had a wonderful winter snug in his den and had ample food to live on.Shankar Vedantam: Now, the story has a harsh moral to it.
Otherwise, you won't have anything to eat when it gets cold." The grasshopper just laughed and kept playing.David DeSteno: When winter came, the poor grasshopper had nothing to eat and starved. It teaches children the importance of hard work and delayed gratification.David DeSteno: It was a beautiful summer and the grasshopper wiled away its time dancing and frolicking with its friends.Shankar Vedantam: This is psychologist David DeSteno.David DeSteno: While the ant went out to the fields and toiled to grow and to harvest food for the winter.Shankar Vedantam: "Why don't you stop working so hard and come play?" the grasshopper asked.
For generations, across nations and cultures, parents and teachers have read Aesop's fable, The Ant and the Grasshopper. Our transcripts are provided by various partners and may contain errors or deviate slightly from the audio. The transcript below may be for an earlier version of this episode.