How to Convince Someone That You’re Right (Even If You’re Not)

Most conversations online about ideology seem to be like a lame snowball fight. It might make you wonder if there is a better way? Well, neuroscience says, there just might be.

I Am Right, You Are Wrong: How Biased Assimilation Increases the Perceived Gap between Believers and Skeptics of Violent Video Game Effects
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3983102/
“Despite hundreds of studies, there is continuing debate about the extent to which violent video games increase aggression. Believers argue that playing violent video games increases aggression, but this stance is disputed by skeptics. The present study addressed believers' and skeptics' responses to summaries of scientific studies that do or do not present evidence for increased aggression after violent video game play.”

Engaged listeners: shared neural processing of powerful political speeches.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25653012
“Powerful speeches can captivate audiences, whereas weaker speeches fail to engage their listeners. What is happening in the brains of a captivated audience?”

“Crucially, alignment of the time course across listeners was stronger for rhetorically powerful speeches, especially for bilateral regions of the superior temporal gyri and medial prefrontal cortex. Thus, during powerful speeches, listeners as a group are more coupled to each other, suggesting that powerful speeches are more potent in taking control of the listeners' brain responses.”

How to become an ‘elastic thinker’ and problem solver.
bbc.com/capital/story/20180515-how-to-become-an…
“Unlike analytical thinkers who are driven by logic and sequence, flexible thinkers thrive in situations which involve breaking boundaries and trying new things. The idea of flexible thinking has, of course, been around for aeons but for author, physicist and screenwriter Leonard Mlodinow, it’s now prime time for people to harness the power of ‘elastic thinking’ to navigate an unstable world.”

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Your brain is extremely complex and it influences the way you think and the choices that you make. Thought Process examines how your brain behaves when it encounters events and actions, both positive and negative, and how that directly affects who you are. This is your brain on conflict, failure, nostalgia, power, money and more.

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Special thanks to Mamoudou N’Diaye for hosting and writing this episode of Seeker!

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