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Cognitive
Simple Bias Makes Forgiveness Hard
November 21, 2016
Tom Tate’s second visit to the German town of Pforzheim was a return to somewhere he hadn’t seen in fifty years. After bailing from a burning plane, he and his RAF squad had landed there, been captured, and his comrades executed by a Hitler Youth group incensed by the bombing the town had suffered. Tate himself had only escaped by moments, and swore never to return to a place that he believed bore only hate against him. But spurred by a magazine article that mentioned an annual service held to commemorate...
November 21, 2016
Tom Tate’s second visit to the German town of Pforzheim was a return to somewhere he hadn’t seen in fifty years. After bailing from a burning plane, he and his RAF squad had landed there, been captured, and his comrades executed by a Hitler Youth group incensed by the bombing the town had suffered. Tate himself had only escaped by moments, and swore never to return to a place that he believed bore only hate against him. But spurred by a magazine article that mentioned an annual service held to commemorate...
The New Scanners That Can Really Get Inside Your Head
November 12, 2016
The University of Cambridge’s Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre is unveiling some of the most advanced brain imaging technology in the world. Among the scanners are (1) a Siemens 7T Terra MRI scanner, (2) a GE Healthcare PET/MR scanner, and (3) a hyperpolarizer. The MRI scanner allows researchers to see details as tiny as a grain a sand. “The outer layer of the brain, the cortex, is about 3-4mm thick. That is the grey matter that provides us with our thoughts. Current scanners show it as a single...
November 12, 2016
The University of Cambridge’s Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre is unveiling some of the most advanced brain imaging technology in the world. Among the scanners are (1) a Siemens 7T Terra MRI scanner, (2) a GE Healthcare PET/MR scanner, and (3) a hyperpolarizer. The MRI scanner allows researchers to see details as tiny as a grain a sand. “The outer layer of the brain, the cortex, is about 3-4mm thick. That is the grey matter that provides us with our thoughts. Current scanners show it as a single...
New Study IDs Brain Cells That Help Us Learn by Watching Others
November 8, 2016
From infancy, we learn by watching other people, and new research has pinpointed the individual neurons that support this observational learning. In the study, each person took turns choosing cards on his or her own and then watched two other players draw cards from the same decks. By learning from the results of their own and the other players’ choices, the participants quickly zeroed in on the deck containing better cards. The research team was surprised to discover that individual neurons...
November 8, 2016
From infancy, we learn by watching other people, and new research has pinpointed the individual neurons that support this observational learning. In the study, each person took turns choosing cards on his or her own and then watched two other players draw cards from the same decks. By learning from the results of their own and the other players’ choices, the participants quickly zeroed in on the deck containing better cards. The research team was surprised to discover that individual neurons...
Discipline Is Superior To Motivation
November 5, 2016
Cultivate Consistency Stephen Covey, the author of the classic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, often said, “Only...
November 5, 2016
Cultivate Consistency Stephen Covey, the author of the classic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, often said, “Only...
Different Ways of Looking at the Same Thing!
November 4, 2016
Both Messrs. Mehta and Noll discussed the neuroscience/ psychology involved in what it takes to resolve conflicts. Initially, I thought their respective approaches were different but as I thought about it afterwards and reviewed their handouts, I slowly realized they were both saying the same thing in different ways. Both start with the very accurate premise that emotions, not logic, control our decision making. (Unlike Mr. Spock, we are emotional, not logical, souls.) Thus, each cautioned; do not attempt...
November 4, 2016
Both Messrs. Mehta and Noll discussed the neuroscience/ psychology involved in what it takes to resolve conflicts. Initially, I thought their respective approaches were different but as I thought about it afterwards and reviewed their handouts, I slowly realized they were both saying the same thing in different ways. Both start with the very accurate premise that emotions, not logic, control our decision making. (Unlike Mr. Spock, we are emotional, not logical, souls.) Thus, each cautioned; do not attempt...
Frenkel and Stark on Mediation and Debiasing
November 3, 2016
Doug Frenkel (Pennsylvania) and Jim Stark (Connecticut) recently published “Improving Lawyers’ Judgment: Is Mediation Training De-Biasing?” in the Harvard Negotiation Law Review, available here. The abstract: When people are placed in a partisan role or otherwise have an objective they seek to accomplish, they are prone to pervasive cognitive and motivational biases. These judgmental distortions can affect what people believe and wish to find out, the predictions they make, the strategic decisions...
November 3, 2016
Doug Frenkel (Pennsylvania) and Jim Stark (Connecticut) recently published “Improving Lawyers’ Judgment: Is Mediation Training De-Biasing?” in the Harvard Negotiation Law Review, available here. The abstract: When people are placed in a partisan role or otherwise have an objective they seek to accomplish, they are prone to pervasive cognitive and motivational biases. These judgmental distortions can affect what people believe and wish to find out, the predictions they make, the strategic decisions...
Sunstein on Autonomy & Default Rules
October 28, 2016
Cass R. Sunstein (Harvard Law School) has posted Autonomy by Default (11 Am. J. Bioethics 1 (2016)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Taken as such, default rules do not intrude on autonomy, even if they influence people without persuading them. When default rules give people certain rights automatically (such as the right to vote), they promote autonomy for just that reason. And to the extent that default rules give people the freedom to focus on their most pressing concerns, they reduce “bandwidth...
October 28, 2016
Cass R. Sunstein (Harvard Law School) has posted Autonomy by Default (11 Am. J. Bioethics 1 (2016)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Taken as such, default rules do not intrude on autonomy, even if they influence people without persuading them. When default rules give people certain rights automatically (such as the right to vote), they promote autonomy for just that reason. And to the extent that default rules give people the freedom to focus on their most pressing concerns, they reduce “bandwidth...
Get a Handle on Your Emotions Before Negotiating
October 20, 2016
Our emotional state impacts everything we do, whether it’s driving, interacting with family members or how we eat. Negotiations can be highly emotionally charged for the clients and sometimes for the attorney, according to an article in the Harvard Business Review. The authors did some research as part of an ongoing study and conducted interviews with twenty experienced negotiators to discuss their thoughts and feelings about the negotiation process. Subjects were asked to collect images they...
October 20, 2016
Our emotional state impacts everything we do, whether it’s driving, interacting with family members or how we eat. Negotiations can be highly emotionally charged for the clients and sometimes for the attorney, according to an article in the Harvard Business Review. The authors did some research as part of an ongoing study and conducted interviews with twenty experienced negotiators to discuss their thoughts and feelings about the negotiation process. Subjects were asked to collect images they...
Do Social Scientists Know What They’re Talking About?
September 19, 2016
While the thinking sins identified by Tetlock are universal - we’re all vulnerable to overconfidence and confirmation bias - it’s not clear that the flaws of political experts can be generalized to other forms of expertise. For one thing, predicting geopolitics is famously fraught: there are countless variables to consider, interacting in unknowable ways. It’s possible, then, that experts might perform better in a narrower setting, attempting to predict the outcomes of experiments in their...
September 19, 2016
While the thinking sins identified by Tetlock are universal - we’re all vulnerable to overconfidence and confirmation bias - it’s not clear that the flaws of political experts can be generalized to other forms of expertise. For one thing, predicting geopolitics is famously fraught: there are countless variables to consider, interacting in unknowable ways. It’s possible, then, that experts might perform better in a narrower setting, attempting to predict the outcomes of experiments in their...
If you can Lead you can Negotiate
September 19, 2016
Researchers constantly seek to learn more about the trick to being a good leader. According to Dina Krasikova, assistant professor of management at the University of Texas in San Antonio (UTSA), confidence is the key to being a successful and creative leader. This research can also help understand some of the tools necessary to be a good mediator. “When leaders feel confident that they can produce creative outcomes, their subordinates become more creative,” she said. “It’s that simple....
September 19, 2016
Researchers constantly seek to learn more about the trick to being a good leader. According to Dina Krasikova, assistant professor of management at the University of Texas in San Antonio (UTSA), confidence is the key to being a successful and creative leader. This research can also help understand some of the tools necessary to be a good mediator. “When leaders feel confident that they can produce creative outcomes, their subordinates become more creative,” she said. “It’s that simple....
