Robin Fivush

Do you know...

where your grandmother grew up?

Do you know what school your grandmother went to?

Do you know how your grandparents met?

So we're not getting stories.

We're just getting yes, no.

But in order to answer yes to a question like that, we're making the assumption you must have been told these stories.

And it turns out it's a pretty good assessment of it in two ways.

One,

This very simple 20 questions, yes, no, is a good index.

It relates to self-esteem, agency, meaning and purpose in life, emotional competence.

So there's something that this is tapping into that's meaningful.

That was, Marshall and I are both of Jewish heritage.

And this, I think, is something that is culturally Jewish.

We both grew up with caregivers, parents or grandparents, who would say to us when we would cry or scowl, be careful, your Aunt Linda cried all the time and her face froze in that position.

And we both had that story.

So when we were thinking about family stories, it was kind of an inside joke, to be honest.

So we ended up just tagging it on to the end of the questionnaire.

But we get asked about that question more than any other question.

Absolutely.