Our Brains are Wired to Collect Things | Daniel Krawczyk | TEDxSMU

Neuroscientist and Psychologist Daniel Krawczyk asks the intriguing question “why do we collect things”. This talk is about the story of our collecting tendencies and provides a glimpse into how the brain functions and enables the fascinating compulsion, hobby, and lifestyle we know as collecting.

Daniel Krawczyk is the Deputy Director of the Center for BrainHealth®, a research center affiliated with The University of Texas at Dallas. He is also an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and holds the Francis Chair in Behavioral and Brain Sciences. His research has focused on understanding reasoning through a multi-disciplinary approach that combines brain imaging, cognitive psychology, and neuropsychology.

[celinaGforever]

I really love that he didn’t shame people for collecting things they enjoy ! It was a great presentation to listen to and I got to learn a bit :) 💖

[classicvideogoodies]

Collecting is a way to achieve "ownership" of certain things, because ownership is the most intimate relationship one can have to objects. For instance, owning a movie and watching it in one's own home is a greater thrill to a movie collector than watching the same movie in someone else's home. Collectors may collect things they feel "obliged" to have, not necessarily love to have. The act of collecting may offer some "peripheral pleasures, " such as interacting with like-minded collectors. The desire to see one's collection grow is the one thing shared by all collectors. Also, it is often impossible for anyone other than the collector to understand the collection's importance. These are some of the points made in the Film Quarterly magazine article "The Contradictions of Video Collecting, " written by Charles Tashiro in 1996. The article is mainly about movie collecting, but the psychology discussed in it can easily apply to other types of collecting.

[Nova_the_starcatcher]

I collect enamel pins, brooches, and button pins whether they be fashion pins, fandom pins, or pins from places I've traveled... I also collect figurines whether it be a cute glass bird from an antique shop or a vinyl figure from a fandom I understand the emotional connection I have with all of these objects and when it comes to my 400+ pin collection I could tell you how I obtained each one happily!

[CrossCountyTravelers]

My husband and I collect counties. Correct, counties. We have found this gets us out of our comfort zone and take the roads less traveled. There is something about crossing a county line and getting a photo of the county's courthouse. How many counties in the United States have you visited? As of 8/8/21 we have collected (visited) 681 counties out of 3, 143 of them.

[JimmyJaxJellyStax]

I'm a statue collector and can confirm nostalgic oxytocin is a factor - a sense of love with the collecting
It is curious a lot of collecting falls back on past experience

[marcilk]

I collect cookbooks and often feel guilty for having so much more than I can use. I have more perfumes than what is practical too, and I’m trying so hard not to turn it into a collection, but I keep wanting to buy more scents that I like.

[rashigumber]

People may collect due to survival, hobby, thing that values as mentioned, it may be personality trait of a person, habit to collect etc....

[Galimah]

in a very distant past i did collect commodore 64 games for a couple of years. Turbo tape 250 FTW

[duckquvakic]

12:38 -> 12:47 is This some kind of personal attack or something

[SuperLuvideo]

Are you a collector? What do you collect? Dr. Krawczyk would like to know.

[The_Black_Knight]

Nearly 30 years of pinball collecting, 600+ games and still counting...

[hinder]

1977-1985 Star Wars. (Badly!)& my cats whiskers and claws...

[designedobsolescence]

I came here looking for reasons to why it is silly... guess i'll stay stuck in my ways

[Dirkschneider]

One of the worst speeches I've seen on TED. Just rambling with very little actual scientific insight.

[grubbybuckets]

How can you talk for 15 minutes without saying anything at all?