This message comes from Charles Schwab with their original podcast, Choiceology.
Choiceology is a show about the psychology and economics behind people's decisions.
Download the latest episode and subscribe at schwab.com slash podcast.
Hey, it's Mariel Cigarra.
You're listening to Life Kit.
Was there ever a time that you said something to someone and you wish you hadn't?
Or maybe you thought about saying something to somebody and you didn't, and then you regretted staying quiet?
It's the kind of thing that can keep you up at night.
Should I say something?
Vanessa Bonds is a social psychologist at Cornell University, and she wrote a book on this very topic.
It's called Should I Say Something?
The Science of What to Share and What to Keep to Yourself.
I'm obsessed with advice columns, you know, whether you should tell your friend
that you saw their partner cheating on them or whether you should tell someone they're not, you know, really your child.
The really big questions that people seem to wrestle with are, should I say something at all?
Vanessa's interested in the science behind this question and the reason it feels so high stakes when we debate whether
or not to tell someone something, even if it's just that they have spinach in their teeth.
We're desperately trying to predict what the reaction might be to us saying something
so that we can maintain our standing in the group and our relationships with other people.
But the choice of saying something at all, communicate so much.