BRAIN WAVES
Talk it out. Good conversations don’t have to be agreeable. Researchers tracked conversations between both friends and strangers as they talked, and scanned the participants’ brains in real-time. Afterwards, they asked people to rate the level of joy and productivity they felt during the conversation. Surprisingly, the most enjoyable conversations weren’t those where brain activity stayed perfectly in sync. Instead, the best conversations showed increasing divergence in neural patterns—which suggests that exploring new ideas and perspectives, rather than staying on familiar ground, leads to deeper engagement. This held true for both friends and strangers. Next, the researchers had the subjects engage in political conversations in which they were coached to either persuade or compromise. The “compromisers” had more exploratory conversations and reached greater consensus than the “persuaders.” The researchers suggested that curiosity might be more powerful than conviction when it comes to bridging divides. At Scientific American, study author and neuroscientist Emily Falk said that she recently tried to put these findings into practice when talking to a colleague who held different views. “Although the conversation was tiring and did not end in complete agreement,” she said, “it renewed our connection to each other and left me open to talking more.”
Whinery. What does a complaint sound like? Researchers wanted to know if complaints sound different depending on the culture we grew up in. In a study, they analyzed complaints from 672 French or French-Canadian speakers. They found that while complaints share a universal “tone of voice,” their emotional undercurrent does indeed vary by culture. In both cultures, complaints were marked by higher pitch, louder volume, and slower rhythm. But the French-Canadians sounded angrier and more surprised, while the French leaned toward sadness. Author and neuroscientist Maël Mauchand said, “How we complain is a subtle interplay between emotion, social context, and cultural display rules.” No complaints here.
Get Happy. Or not. We all think we know what will make us happy: more money. A better job. Love. But psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky says happiness doesn’t necessarily work like that. Listen to learn more.
ON THE HIDDEN BRAIN PODCAST
Love 2.0: Reimagining Our Relationships: No one will deny that marriage is hard, but there are signs it’s getting even harder. In this episode, we explore how long-term relationships have changed over time and whether we might be able to improve marriage by asking less of it.
ON THE MY UNSUNG HERO PODCAST
Elizabeth Vaughan’s Story: In high school, Elizabeth’s choir solo ended in embarrassment after her high note came booming through the mic. But a classmate’s kind words restored her confidence just when she needed it.
Don’t forget to send us the story of your unsung hero! Record a voice memo on your phone and email it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.
HIDDEN BRAIN ON TOUR!
The Hidden Brain tour continues. Don’t miss your chance to get tickets! Join our host Shankar Vedantam as he brings seven key insights from the first decade of Hidden Brain to the stage. Our next stop:
MIND GAMES
What has to be broken before you can use it?
LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE
A petri dish hosts a healthy colony of bacteria. Once a minute every bacterium divides into two. The colony was founded by a single cell at noon. At exactly 12:43 (43 minutes later) the petri dish was half full. At what time will the dish be full?
The answer: The alphabet
A MOMENT OF JOY
By the way...
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