1KHO 926: Popularity Never Really Ends | Dr. Mitch Prinstein, Popular

Ginny Yurich (0:34)

Hey friends, welcome back to The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast. I'm Ginny Yurich, and I'm so glad you're spending part of your day with me. Before we get started, I want to make sure you know about the 1000 Hours Outside app. If you're doing the challenge with us, or you've wanted to start but haven't quite gotten going yet, the app makes it so easy. You can track your hours, set your goals, and actually watch all of those ordinary afternoons, walks, playground trips, backyard hours, and adventures add up.

And I think there's something really motivating about knowing that families all over the world are doing this alongside you. You are not the only one trying to make more room for real life. Also, make sure you're following the podcast because tomorrow's episode is wild. John Billman wrote, The cold vanish about people who went hiking, running, hunting, biking, or exploring in the wilderness and simply never came home. I could not put this book down. But today, we're talking about something that has probably affected every single one of us, popularity. Dr. Mitch Prinstein has spent his career studying it, and what he's learned is incredibly hopeful. There are actually two very different kinds of popularity, and the one so many of us spent our younger years wanting, isn't the one that matters most. This conversation completely changed the way I think about the word popular. Here is Dr. Mitch Prinstein.

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Ginny Yurich (3:14)

Welcome to the 1000 Hours Outside Podcast.

I'm the founder of 1000 Hours Outside. And I have a guest today that is talking about a topic that will affect your whole life. And he's written some phenomenal books, 11 to be exact. We're going to be talking today mainly about popular as well as likeability. Dr. Mitch Prinstein, welcome.

Mitch Prinstein (3:34)

Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here.

Ginny Yurich (3:37)

Okay, so you're a professor in the Department of Psychology at Yale, and you had this incredible experience where you go to give this lecture, and tell me if I get the details wrong, about popularity. And you say all of a sudden, it's just like people everywhere. You're like, is there some event going on? Is there a fire drill? What's happening? And they were there for your lecture. And in fact, it was like hundreds and hundreds of students. And so what you realize is, okay, this is a topic that people really care about. And there's a lot of interesting things to know about it. So can you give a little bit of the information about how almost one out of every 10 undergraduates has enrolled in your course on popularity?

Mitch Prinstein (4:20)

Oh my God, it was so confusing and crazy. And then ultimately humbling and flattering. But yeah, I started my career at Yale. I was, I thought it was a fire drill. I stood outside with them for a while being like, I guess, I'm not out in the building yet. After a little while waiting, I was like, well, it's getting late. So I turned to a few of the students and I was like, oh, do you know when the fire drill is over? Do you know when you go in? They're like, no, we're waiting in line for this class on popularity. I'm like, oh my God, I'm the professor of that class. I better get in there.