Recorded on: Jun 12, 2025
Description
Our personal concept of identity shapes every decision we make – ranging from life-altering choices to our smallest daily preferences. Identity influences our values, the relationships we build, and how we respond to an increasingly unpredictable world, whether in constructive or destructive ways. But how are these identities formed, and how might we take a more deliberate role in cultivating a healthy sense of self – and therefore a healthier way of relating to the world?
In this episode, Nate is joined by social neuroscientist Taylor Guthrie to delve into the neuroscience of identity, exploring how the brain constructs a sense of self and the implications for our modern societal challenges. They discuss the role of values and personal narrative in identity formation, the impact of technology and consumerism on self-perception, and the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation as they relate to purpose and success.
How is today’s consumer culture undermining our ability to actively participate in the development of our own identities? Could a better understanding of how we think about ourselves be key to fostering better relationships with others? Ultimately, how could purposeful reflection – about who we are and who we want to be – lead to lives that are richer in connection, community, and fulfillment?
About Taylor Guthrie
Taylor D. Guthrie, PhD, is a social cognitive neuroscientist who studies how the human brain constructs a sense of self, both individually and in relationship with others. Taylor’s work bridges neuroscience, psychology, and culture. He investigates how attention and value systems interact with brain networks to form narrative identity – and how modern cultural forces like social media, status-seeking, and consumerism can hijack this process.
Additionally, Taylor has earned the Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of Oregon. He also creates public-facing content, including The Cellular Republic, a lecture series that demystifies cognitive and social neuroscience. Now preparing for a postdoctoral fellowship in the Netherlands, Guthrie continues to explore how identity transformation – at both individual and collective levels – could support meaningful responses to today’s ecological, psychological, and cultural challenges.
Show Notes & Links to Learn More
Individual Resources:
- Testing Your Thoughts (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) Worksheet
- Tips for cultivating “Planfulness” and Intrinsic Motivation
00:00 – Taylor Guthrie, Works,
- YouTube Channel: The Cellular Republic
- Podcast: The Social Brain
03:27 – Social Cognitive Neuroscience
04:07 – The Neuroscience of Identity
04:47 – Structuralism
04:57 – Self-Relevance Effect, Related study
05:42 – Ventromedial prefrontal cortex, more information, Role in self-processing
06:12 – Study referenced on Individual Reference Frames
06:27 – Brain activity and blood flow
06:52 – Accuracy and Reliability
07:37 – Neuroeconomics, Value-based choice
08:17 – Equanimity
09:17 – Default Mode Network
10:12 – Temporal components of identity
11:22 – Self-regulation, Value systems
13:07 – Self-determination and intrinsic signals
15:47 – Synaptic pruning and child development
16:42 – Neuroplasticity and aging
18:06 – Default Mode Network organization unique to humans
18:27 – Default Mode Network and Temporal Integration
19:07 – Origin of Default Mode Network
21:42 – Feedback Loops
22:02 – Cybernetics (Cybernetical Neuroscience), Control Theory (Neuroscience and Control Theory)
25:39 – Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Motivation
27:57 – Ego Depletion Effect and its debunking
28:37 – Study referenced on Default Mode Network
31:07 – Motivation and Addiction
31:37 – Lonelier than we ever have been despite being globally connected
32:37 – Association between Trauma and Addiction
33:39 – The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Internet Addiction should be included
34:36 – Robert Sapolsky (TGS Episode), On Dopamine intermittence and expectation
36:02 – Dopamine (reward driver), Habituation and Tolerance, Frankly that references it
37:02 – How 9-5 work life hinders personal development
37:17 – Elliot Burkman, Identity Model, studies of Identity vs. Goals
41:02 – The importance of Attention in Intrinsic Motivation, Reflexive attention
42:07 – Someone on their phone immersed in nature meme
43:57 – Salience (neuroscience)
45:22 – Viktor Frankl, alleged quote, origins of the quote
46:42 – The Will vs.The Way
47:37 – “Planfulness”
48:27 – Homeostasis
48:47 – Insula and the human species
49:47 – Group Dynamics, What makes a group successful
50:42 – Émile Durkheim and Gordon Allport – on groups
51:07 – Dialectic
51:47 – Neural synchrony
52:07 – Functional near-infrared spectroscopy
52:22 – Carolyn Parkinson, Similar neural responses predict friendship
53:37 – Mirror neurons
53:47 – Entrainment
54:22 – Early vertebrates have similar brain regions as early vertebrates, Single origin of the brain
54:27 – The Brain Is Adaptive Not Triune
54:47 – Phylogenetic refinement
55:07 – Frontal lobe
56:27 – Groupthink, Asch Conformity Line Experiment
56:42 – Group Cohesion
1:02:17 – Social Comparison Processes (upward and downward)
1:04:27 – Emotions as signals
1:05:25 – Nietzsche perspective on self
1:06:06 – Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Reframing
1:10:17 – Healthy groups have normative structure
1:10:57 – The missed opportunity of adolescence
1:12:37 – Netherlands Communal Values, Lower addiction and teen pregnancy rates
1:13:05 – Importance of healthy risks in adolescence, Rat playground experiment
1:14:02 – Power of the frontal lobe, Long-horizon thinking is vital
1:14:37 – Addiction and frontal lobe dysregulation
1:15:37 – Dan McAdams — Narrative work
1:16:17 – Redemptive Arc and Contamination — 2 main reactions to trauma
1:17:09 – Growth mindset
1:17:24 – Stuart Smalley on “Saturday Night Live” — Daily Affirmations
1:18:02 – Neuroplasticity
1:22:32 – Nietzsche’s take on “Thou shalts”
1:22:57 – Somatic processing
1:23:27 – The Cellular Republic
1:27:37 – Slavoj Žižek
Teaser image credit: Author supplied.