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Neuroscience
If you are going to mediate, be happy!
October 31, 2019
Clearly, the mood of the “negotiator” affected how much or little she “trusted” the other party. More notably,...
October 31, 2019
Clearly, the mood of the “negotiator” affected how much or little she “trusted” the other party. More notably,...
Metaphors Matter: Seeing Our Achievements As “Completing A Journey” Helps Maintain Success
August 24, 2019
Throughout our lives, we set ourselves goals — to pass an exam, run a marathon, lose 10 kilograms of excess weight or gain a promotion. Given the importance of such goals to our physical and psychological wellbeing, it’s not surprising that there’s has been a wealth of research into how best to set, work towards, and achieve them. But let’s say you succeed — what then? Psychologists have paid less attention to people’s behaviour after they’ve achieved their goals....
August 24, 2019
Throughout our lives, we set ourselves goals — to pass an exam, run a marathon, lose 10 kilograms of excess weight or gain a promotion. Given the importance of such goals to our physical and psychological wellbeing, it’s not surprising that there’s has been a wealth of research into how best to set, work towards, and achieve them. But let’s say you succeed — what then? Psychologists have paid less attention to people’s behaviour after they’ve achieved their goals....
Bringing Oxytocin into the Room
August 7, 2019
It is clear that all conflicts are perceived by the senses, manifested through body language and kinesthetic sensations, embodied and given meaning by thoughts and ideas, steeped in intense emotions, made conscious through awareness, and then resolved by conversations and experiences and developed into character, expanding our capacity for openness and trust, and contributing to our learning and ability to change, and that all of these transpire or are processed inside the brain. To explain the etiology...
August 7, 2019
It is clear that all conflicts are perceived by the senses, manifested through body language and kinesthetic sensations, embodied and given meaning by thoughts and ideas, steeped in intense emotions, made conscious through awareness, and then resolved by conversations and experiences and developed into character, expanding our capacity for openness and trust, and contributing to our learning and ability to change, and that all of these transpire or are processed inside the brain. To explain the etiology...
The Peculiar Blindness of Experts
July 2, 2019
The pattern is by now familiar. In the 30 years since Ehrlich sent Simon a check, the track record of expert forecasters—in science, in economics, in politics—is as dismal as ever. In business, esteemed (and lavishly compensated) forecasters routinely are wildly wrong in their predictions of everything from the next stock-market correction to the next housing boom. Reliable insight into the future is possible, however. It just requires a style of thinking that’s uncommon among experts who are certain...
July 2, 2019
The pattern is by now familiar. In the 30 years since Ehrlich sent Simon a check, the track record of expert forecasters—in science, in economics, in politics—is as dismal as ever. In business, esteemed (and lavishly compensated) forecasters routinely are wildly wrong in their predictions of everything from the next stock-market correction to the next housing boom. Reliable insight into the future is possible, however. It just requires a style of thinking that’s uncommon among experts who are certain...
How Your Brain’s Executive Function Works — and How to Improve It
June 19, 2019
You use your brain's executive function every day -- it's how you do things like pay attention, plan ahead and control impulses....
June 19, 2019
You use your brain's executive function every day -- it's how you do things like pay attention, plan ahead and control impulses....
Preventing Bad Settlement Decisions and Impasse: Using Brain Science, Game Theory, Animated Communication and Micro-Interventions
April 4, 2019
Faculty: Douglas Noll and Don Philbin Please note: This is a high level, advanced course for those engaged in the mediation...
April 4, 2019
Faculty: Douglas Noll and Don Philbin Please note: This is a high level, advanced course for those engaged in the mediation...
Never Give Up: Perseverance In Mediation – And Life?
March 20, 2019
In this post, I return to a familiar theme for mediators and for lawyers acting for clients in mediation: perseverance. • It is really important not to assume that what the other side say is what they really mean• Even if it is what they mean at a particular point in time, that may change for a number of reasons• Your job (as lawyer/mediator) is to challenge assumptions and keep looking for new angles and ways to see things• That involves the classic techniques of really good questioning,...
March 20, 2019
In this post, I return to a familiar theme for mediators and for lawyers acting for clients in mediation: perseverance. • It is really important not to assume that what the other side say is what they really mean• Even if it is what they mean at a particular point in time, that may change for a number of reasons• Your job (as lawyer/mediator) is to challenge assumptions and keep looking for new angles and ways to see things• That involves the classic techniques of really good questioning,...
Using Neuroscience to Understand Stress and Improve Mediation
March 5, 2019
People involved in conflict generally, and in mediation specifically, encounter many events that initiate the physiologic stress response. What is this response and what triggers it? How does the stress response impact judgment, decision-making, and memory? What can mediators do to minimize the deleterious effects of the stress response? Learning the answers to these questions can help to make a more effective mediator. Mediation creates many stress triggers. Participants may feel unprepared...
March 5, 2019
People involved in conflict generally, and in mediation specifically, encounter many events that initiate the physiologic stress response. What is this response and what triggers it? How does the stress response impact judgment, decision-making, and memory? What can mediators do to minimize the deleterious effects of the stress response? Learning the answers to these questions can help to make a more effective mediator. Mediation creates many stress triggers. Participants may feel unprepared...
People With Advantageous Personality Traits Have More Nerve-Fibre Insulation (Myelination) In Key Brain Areas
February 23, 2019
Researchers are getting closer to understanding the neurological basis of personality. For a new paper in the Journal of Personality, Nicola Toschi and Luca Passamonti took advantage of a recent technological breakthrough that makes it possible to use scans to estimate levels of myelination in different brain areas (until fairly recently this could only be done at postmortem). Myelin is a fatty substance that insulates nerve fibres and speeds up information processing in the brain...
February 23, 2019
Researchers are getting closer to understanding the neurological basis of personality. For a new paper in the Journal of Personality, Nicola Toschi and Luca Passamonti took advantage of a recent technological breakthrough that makes it possible to use scans to estimate levels of myelination in different brain areas (until fairly recently this could only be done at postmortem). Myelin is a fatty substance that insulates nerve fibres and speeds up information processing in the brain...
Why Did People Pay $600 For a Pair of $20 Payless Shoes?
January 6, 2019
The Palessi Luxury Brand Launch Party Here’s what happened. The company took over a former Armani store in Santa Monica California for a weekend in late November 2018. It created a luxury ambiance and stocked the store with the same Payless shoes that sell for $20–$40. It invented an upscale fashion designer called Bruno Palessi, branding the store as a “Palessi” store. (It even created an Instagram account and website for the fake brand). For the Palessi store’s grand opening...
January 6, 2019
The Palessi Luxury Brand Launch Party Here’s what happened. The company took over a former Armani store in Santa Monica California for a weekend in late November 2018. It created a luxury ambiance and stocked the store with the same Payless shoes that sell for $20–$40. It invented an upscale fashion designer called Bruno Palessi, branding the store as a “Palessi” store. (It even created an Instagram account and website for the fake brand). For the Palessi store’s grand opening...
