Brains On Purpose™

Are character and personality overrated? Yes, says author of new book SITUATIONS MATTER

[T]he people around us are not who we think they are, and we usually fall into the trap of thinking we know their inner workings better than we really do.--From review of Situation Matters

According to Professor Sam Sommers, we are not very consistent and predictable. In this review (Tufts Now), you will find a link to a short animation about his new book Situations Matter: Understanding How Context Transforms Your World. In the little video, Sommers says that we are a complex mixture of ideas, preferences, identities, and needs, and the way this bundle called "me" responds to the world is driven by situations. 

From "Legends in Our Own Minds":

The core idea is straightforward. “We rarely appreciate the robust power of situations,” Sommers writes. “We look right past them, hidden in plain sight. Just like the museum visitor pays little heed to the painting’s frame, we fail to notice the impact of outside influences on our innermost thoughts and instincts. But frames do matter.”

Often I find research findings, not to mention personality tests, at best annoying because they are based on the notion that people's traits are fixed, the same from situation to situation. I look forward to reading a book that reminds us that our behavior is often situational, fluid.

This situational context is one reason why I find the premise of such books as Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking a bit suspect. We are all introverts and extroverts, too; which part of us shows up depends on the situation in which we are found. See note below for more about why this book Quiet raises a red flag for me.

And, on the other hand, people of integrity do have some fixed parts to their character, are not overly attracted to relativism, and do not typically sacrifice their values when swayed by outside influences. And the more self-aware a person is, the less he or she is influenced by outside factors. I hope integrity and self-awareness are discussed in the book, and look forward to reading it to see how Sommers addresses such topics as values.

More about the book's topic:

• "Sommers' new book explores effects of everyday situations on human behavior" (The Tufts Daily)
• "In Law as in Life, the Power of Context" (The Jury Expert)

Note: Click to take a quiz from the book Quiet. Several of the questions could as easily relate to being a high specialist in The Highlands Ability Battery or a high subjective [search on the word "subjective"] in Johnson O'Connor testing. A specialist/subjective can also be an extrovert so this test seems to confuse at least a couple of different traits or states. I have not read the book yet but will be curious to see if the same confusion is throughout.

Lecture on metaphor and embodied cognition

Click to watch a lecture by Professor Raymond Gibbs on metaphor and embodied cognition.

Rescuing the amygdala from the swamp of pop culture

Coming on the heels of my blog post Clearing up confusion: The amygdala is not the same as the reptile brain & it's probably not reserved for fear is a news release from Association of Psychological Sciences with more information which I hope will continue the cleaning up of the amygdala's reputation in the media. And clear up its role in our day-to-day to lives.

The release:

The Amygdala And Fear Are Not The Same Thing

In a 2007 episode of the television show Boston Legal, a character claimed to have figured out that a cop was racist because his amygdala activated – displaying fear, when they showed him pictures of black people. This link between the amygdala and fear – especially a fear of others unlike us, has gone too far, not only in pop culture, but also in psychological science, say the authors of a new paper which will be published in the February issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Indeed, many experiments have found that the amygdala is active when people are afraid. But it also activates at other times, for example in response to pleasant photographs and happy faces.

The misconception came from how scientists first approached studying the brain. A lot of people came to the amygdala from the study of fear, says Wil Cunningham of Ohio State University, who co wrote the new paper with Tobias Brosch of New York University. “It’s a great emotion to study because it’s very important, evolutionarily, and we know a lot about fear in animals,” Cunningham says. Almost every study of fear finds that the amygdala is active. But that doesn’t mean every spark of activity in the amygdala means the person is afraid.

Instead, the amygdala seems to be doing something more subtle: processing events that are related to what a person cares about at the moment. So if you’re in a scary situation or have an anxious personality, the amygdala might be activated by a frightening image. But hungry people have increased amygdala activity in response to pictures of food and people who are very empathetic have an amygdala response to seeing other people.

“When we’re studying emotion, people want to find specific brain parts that are associated with different

Music clearly affects the brain: Does it encourage cooperation? Facilitate social interaction?

Hear answers to those questions by listening to this very interesting video from University of California at San Diego and Association of Psychological Sciences. If you have read past posts here about music and conflict resolution, you may guess what is said about music, cooperation, and facilitated interaction in this video.

From the Web page of A Conversation About Music, Mind, and Health:

What effect does music have on the brain, and what can music teach us about the brain? In this video 24th APS Annual Convention Speaker Aniruddh Patel and music therapist Barbara Reuer speak with David Granet of the University of California’s Health Matters about music, cognition, and health.

Scientists are just beginning to understand music’s implications for language acquisition, emotions, social skills, learning, and memory. Watch the interview to learn more about music and the mind, including research published in Psychological Science showing that music and other synchronized activities encourage cooperation.

Click to read other posts about music. Click to read about the research mentioned in the video: Marching to the Beat of the Same Drum Improves Teamwork.

I'll be a featured speaker at the Arkansas ADR Conference in March

Join me in Little Rock on March 8? Click to see the schedule of excellent programs. My presentations will be

• The Mind and the Brain: 21st Century Insight for the ADR Professional (plenary session)
• Total-Brain Mediation: The Whole Brain and Nothing but the Truth

Reminder that studies may not be measuring what we think: Research merely provides clues

Do the expectations of researchers have an effect on the outcome of their studies? Sometimes, yes. That's the topic of a new post in one of Discover Magazine's blogs. From "Primed by expectations: why a classic psychology experiment isn't what is seemed":

We’ve known for over a century that scientists can very easily bias their own experiments, even in the most carefully controlled cases. “It’s a neat paper ["Behavioral Priming: It's All in the Mind, but Whose Mind?"] that re-emphasises some highly important and widely relevant warnings for everyone who might want to conduct experiments with people,” says Stafford. “Expectations – participants’ and experimenters’ – and inaccurate measurement can combine to give you biased results.” Ackerman adds, “It’s a lesson that behavioural researchers are all trained in, but one that bears repeating from time to time.”

“Our results don’t completely rule out the possibility of unconscious priming,” says Doyen, “but they point to the fact that the (generally weak) effects may also be influenced by many other factors that are almost never controlled in such studies.”

The study also serves as a good reminder about how important it is for scientists to try and repeat each others’ results. ...

Bottom line: Although I am probably sounding like a broken record, proceed with caution and skepticism when learning about research results. Find out if the research has been replicated. Read the original study yourself; you will often find a mismatch between what you are reading and what the media have reported. When you read the study, do so with a critical eye to all factors, including the procedures, the groups and numbers used as subjects and controls, the conclusions drawn. Consider yourself a detective in sleuthing out all the possible problems with any research you read.

The post is also a good reminder that objectivity is difficult. How often do you think mediations are subtly (or not so subtly) influenced by the unconscious biases of the mediator? Probably often, especially when the parties are not in the same room. This is one reason why I think mediators have a professional obligation to engage in some kind of practice that keeps their metacognition, their self-awareness, in fine, sharp condition.

Past posts on priming:

• Scent of fairness in the air? Mediation running hot or cold? The importance of subtle environmental cues
• Can forming implemention intentions counteract priming on your road towards goals?
• Music may cause an attitude: A clue about conflict resolution?
• At the mercy of our brains? An antidote to priming is metacognition

Ever use SWOT? This pair of experts says the strategy leads the brain to a "mental dead end"

Have you run into SWOT? Used it? It's a method some people claim will assist in strategic analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and the theory is that looking at each of those factors can help with strategy creation.

Does it work? Not according to this professor duo of Harold E. Klein (Fox School of Business at Temple University) and Mark D'Esposito (Henry H. Wheeler Jr. Brain Imaging Center, University of California, Berkeley). A couple of years ago, they wrote an article to explain.

Abstract:

The most widely used (and taught) protocols for strategic analysis—Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT)and Porter's (1980) Five Force Framework for industry analysis—have been found to be insufficient as stimuli for strategy creation or even as a basis for further strategy development. We approach this problem from a neurocognitive perspective. We see profound incompatibilities between

Notes of resolution: The impact of music on conflict

Because the amount of research on the impact of music on the brain continues to grow, as does the collaboration between musicians and neuroscientists, I grow ever more optimistic about the benefits and usefulness of music in the resolution of disputes. (Click to read some of my past posts about music and dispute resolution.)

We are already learning that knowledge about the brain can help us in resolving conflict. The number of conflict resolution practitioners utilizing brain knowledge has grown since I first started this blog nearly five years ago. The use of music in our arena is not yet common but I don't think that scarcity will continue much longer. Music affects most of the brain and I firmly believe it can be harnessed to facilitate agreement, or help make wise decisions not to agree.

From "Scientists study music's effects on our brains and bodies" (Isthmus-The Daily Page):

[I]t turns out that music is a good subject for brain research because it affects so many neurological pathways.

The combination of music and neuroscience is a hot topic these days, and there is an exciting convergence happening between neuroscientists and musicians. Old walls have broken down, and the bridge between the disciplines can be crossed without suspicion. Researchers use music to give us insight into time, emotion, healing and language — a glimpse into our human nature.

And that's what is at the heart of conflict and its resolution: Time, emotion, healing, language, human nature. Music may be able to yield insight about why we disagree, and will likely help to quell tension and lessen contention, disharmony, and discord.

In addition to the research I've been doing about music in the last couple of years, I am in conversation with a few people who are experts in both music and conflict to create some musical tools for conflict professionals. 2012 will be the birth year of music playing a big part in mediation. Listen for it!

Note: Here is a blog post with a link to the program mentioned in the article linked to above: In this program, neuroscience meets jazz, mindfulness, and improv (idealawg).

Clearing up confusion: The amygdala is not the same as the reptile brain & it's probably not reserved for fear

The amygdala gets lots of attention in conflict resolution circles these days, but not all of what is said is accurate. For example, the amydala's role in fear seems often to be the sole focus. Therefore, I was very glad to see Wray Herbert write a post refining the idea of the role of the amygdala beyond just being the "fear center."  From "Fleeing the Brain’s Fear Center" (Association for Psychological Science blogs).

Cunningham and Brosch conducted a thorough review of the vast literature on amygdala function, and their analysis also reveals a lot of individual variation in amygdala activity. Some subjects respond more to positive and negative stimuli than to neutral stimuli; others mostly to negative stimuli; and still others to positive information. In other words, amygdala activation may not have the same meaning for everyone; it may instead reflect the psychological state of the individual. The amygdala appears initially to evaluate the relevance of stimuli, and then to tune the individual’s overall cognitive and emotional response.

These varying responses may reflect personality to some degree. ...

...

All of these recent findings, taken together, call into question the whole idea of brain modules that govern specific, universal emotions like fear, sadness, disgust and surprise. The new and more dynamic view of the amygdala—and the brain—raises doubts about such an emotional taxonomy. ...

I urge you to read the whole post, which includes an interesting section on racial prejudice.

I believe what we can say about the amygdala is that it