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Cognitive
Just Fifteen Minutes of Mindfulness Meditation Can Improve Your Decision Making
January 22, 2014
Do you have an expensive but uncomfortable pair of shoes or jeans at the back of your cupboard that you never ever wear, but you simply cannot throw away because to do so would be to admit defeat and recognise that you wasted a lot of money? If so, you are suffering from the sunk-cost bias or fallacy. Help is at hand in the form of a new study by researchers at INSEAD in Singapore and The Wharton School at the The University of Pennsylvania. Andrew Hafenbrack and his colleagues claim that just...
January 22, 2014
Do you have an expensive but uncomfortable pair of shoes or jeans at the back of your cupboard that you never ever wear, but you simply cannot throw away because to do so would be to admit defeat and recognise that you wasted a lot of money? If so, you are suffering from the sunk-cost bias or fallacy. Help is at hand in the form of a new study by researchers at INSEAD in Singapore and The Wharton School at the The University of Pennsylvania. Andrew Hafenbrack and his colleagues claim that just...
New Study Reveals How People Want Their Lawsuits Resolved
January 21, 2014
As court systems throughout the country struggle to deliver civil justice in the face of budget cuts, a new study by a UC Davis law professor finds that people involved in civil lawsuits prefer mediation to nonbinding arbitration and like judge trials more than jury trials. In her study, "The Psychology of Procedural Preference: How Litigants Evaluate Legal Procedures Ex Ante," Donna Shestowsky, who teaches negotiation strategy, alternative dispute resolution and legal psychology, reveals the legal...
January 21, 2014
As court systems throughout the country struggle to deliver civil justice in the face of budget cuts, a new study by a UC Davis law professor finds that people involved in civil lawsuits prefer mediation to nonbinding arbitration and like judge trials more than jury trials. In her study, "The Psychology of Procedural Preference: How Litigants Evaluate Legal Procedures Ex Ante," Donna Shestowsky, who teaches negotiation strategy, alternative dispute resolution and legal psychology, reveals the legal...
The Research: Mindfulness as a Debiasing Strategy
January 17, 2014
Three researchers from the INSEAD business school and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania conducted three studies with the goal of reducing bias by encouraging mindfulness. The studies, covered by Psyblog, focused on the economic problem of sunk costs, or the tendency to try to justify past decisions by “throwing good money after bad.” It is a powerful psychological bias that I have written about recently. In the first study, the researchers noted that mindfulness as a trait...
January 17, 2014
Three researchers from the INSEAD business school and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania conducted three studies with the goal of reducing bias by encouraging mindfulness. The studies, covered by Psyblog, focused on the economic problem of sunk costs, or the tendency to try to justify past decisions by “throwing good money after bad.” It is a powerful psychological bias that I have written about recently. In the first study, the researchers noted that mindfulness as a trait...
Nate Silver: Motivated Reasoning Explains Washington [and all Settlement Negotiations]
January 12, 2014
Oftentimes when we think we're engaged in reasoned policy discussion we're actually engaged in complex efforts to rationalize the direction in which our tribal affiliations are pushing us. Psychologists call this motivated reasoning. And they've shown its power in laboratory settings again and again and again. * * * The problem is that human beings are incredibly good at rationalizing their way to whatever conclusion their group wants them to reach. And most policies can be supported -- or opposed...
January 12, 2014
Oftentimes when we think we're engaged in reasoned policy discussion we're actually engaged in complex efforts to rationalize the direction in which our tribal affiliations are pushing us. Psychologists call this motivated reasoning. And they've shown its power in laboratory settings again and again and again. * * * The problem is that human beings are incredibly good at rationalizing their way to whatever conclusion their group wants them to reach. And most policies can be supported -- or opposed...
Venting Anger Feeds the Flame
January 9, 2014
Lieberman et al. (2007) found that labeling – finding a calm way to put feelings into words by simply putting the name to the emotion – the response in the amygdala portion of the brain that handles fear, panic and other strong emotions such as anger decreases and become less intense. What lights up instead is the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that controls impulses. That is why talking to a therapist, or even a sympathetic bartender, often makes people feel better....
January 9, 2014
Lieberman et al. (2007) found that labeling – finding a calm way to put feelings into words by simply putting the name to the emotion – the response in the amygdala portion of the brain that handles fear, panic and other strong emotions such as anger decreases and become less intense. What lights up instead is the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that controls impulses. That is why talking to a therapist, or even a sympathetic bartender, often makes people feel better....
The Power of Empathy
January 7, 2014
Why read about empathy when you can watch RSA Animate short clip below? For those are not aware of RSA Animate, think TED Talks but drawings or animations instead. The ones I have seen are good, really good. I frequently say during my trainings, workshops, and lectures that empathy is one of the most important words not only in conflict resolution but with life in general.
January 7, 2014
Why read about empathy when you can watch RSA Animate short clip below? For those are not aware of RSA Animate, think TED Talks but drawings or animations instead. The ones I have seen are good, really good. I frequently say during my trainings, workshops, and lectures that empathy is one of the most important words not only in conflict resolution but with life in general.
Sheila Heen Providing Expert Advice in the NYT
December 20, 2013
Sheila Heen, co-author of Difficult Conversations: How To Discuss What Matters Most, is providing expert advice in a series of columns on family and other kinds of conflicts. Here’s one of my favorite passages from this week’s column — she’s explaining some of the reasons people experience conflict so differently: Emotional math. Everyone gets frustrated, resentful, disappointed, or even enraged with others on occasion. It may come out as shouting, sarcasm, snippiness, or simply a put-upon...
December 20, 2013
Sheila Heen, co-author of Difficult Conversations: How To Discuss What Matters Most, is providing expert advice in a series of columns on family and other kinds of conflicts. Here’s one of my favorite passages from this week’s column — she’s explaining some of the reasons people experience conflict so differently: Emotional math. Everyone gets frustrated, resentful, disappointed, or even enraged with others on occasion. It may come out as shouting, sarcasm, snippiness, or simply a put-upon...
Highly Recommended Exchange of Views About Left/Right and Top/Bottom Brain
December 20, 2013
Here's an exchange between Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master and His Emissary, and Wayne Miller, coauthor of the new Top Brain, Bottom Brain. Dr. McGilchrist was kind enough to post the exchange on his Web site. if you are interested in the brain, you will want to read this short conversation. It begins: Kosslyn and Miller are researchers I admire. They are quite right to take issue with what they call dated and crude ideas of hemisphere difference. So do I. ‘Dated’ and ‘crude’...
December 20, 2013
Here's an exchange between Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master and His Emissary, and Wayne Miller, coauthor of the new Top Brain, Bottom Brain. Dr. McGilchrist was kind enough to post the exchange on his Web site. if you are interested in the brain, you will want to read this short conversation. It begins: Kosslyn and Miller are researchers I admire. They are quite right to take issue with what they call dated and crude ideas of hemisphere difference. So do I. ‘Dated’ and ‘crude’...
The Science of Social Connections
December 19, 2013
The part of human nature that I'd like to talk about today is that part of our human nature that is relevant to our interactions...
December 19, 2013
The part of human nature that I'd like to talk about today is that part of our human nature that is relevant to our interactions...
Cognitive Complexity: How Can Reading a Novel Help You Become a Better Mediator?
December 19, 2013
I highly recommend a new article by Dr. Lisa Zunshine. She writes in "Why Fiction Does It Better" (Chronicle of Higher Education): It turns out that informational texts don’t come close to containing the kind of metacognitive complexity so essential to fiction that we don’t even notice it. Consider these two inextricable fea- tures of fiction. It always functions on a higher level of metacognitive complexity than nonfiction, and it can achieve that higher level without explicit use of metacognitive...
December 19, 2013
I highly recommend a new article by Dr. Lisa Zunshine. She writes in "Why Fiction Does It Better" (Chronicle of Higher Education): It turns out that informational texts don’t come close to containing the kind of metacognitive complexity so essential to fiction that we don’t even notice it. Consider these two inextricable fea- tures of fiction. It always functions on a higher level of metacognitive complexity than nonfiction, and it can achieve that higher level without explicit use of metacognitive...
