Emily Kwong

And you're listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.

Okay, Rachel, you have ventured into the world of disagreement, like the neuroscience of, and retrieved some info to help us have better conversations.

Let's start with what happens in our bodies when we disagree.

What goes down?

It's like a smoke alarm.

Exactly.

Activity there increases.

So...

If we're disagreeing and our amygdala is going off, what else is happening in our brain?

So in Joy's study,

She just had people sitting around having a conversation like one might at family dinner, except her research participants are wearing these swim cap things.

No, they're just people out here living their lives.

Yeah.

And she's looking at their brain activity.

What did she find?

Okay, their brains were more synchronous.

So clearly disagreement sets off a waterfall of reactions and behaviors that...

that lights up all these parts of the brain.

When that is happening to us, which seems fairly inevitable, how can we approach disagreement better?

What does the science say on that?