Rachel Carlson

Like, for example, marijuana should be legalized or same-sex marriage is a civil right.

And then they specifically paired people up so the partners were strangers, they didn't know each other before, and also so that they agreed with their partner on two topics and disagreed on two other topics.

During agreement, Joy says they saw activity related to the visual system and also in the social areas of the brain.

But Emily, it wasn't just activity in these places.

These areas were also more synchronous when people agreed on the topic.

What does that mean?

So Joy says that when two people agreed, their brain activity looked pretty similar, so certain areas lit up in similar ways while they talked.

Versus when participants disagreed with each other.

In those cases, people's brain activity wasn't as synced up.

It was kind of like a cacophony instead of a harmonious duet.

And, as they disagreed, Joy says it seemed like each brain was engaging a lot more emotional and cognitive resources.

So Joy is hypothesizing that disagreement might be really taxing on us.

Like you're expending more energy when you disagree with someone than when you agree with them.

Okay.

First, kind of like we said before, we decide if we want to have a conversation with someone and also if that person is going to be receptive.

Decide, do I want to have a conversation with this person?

Yeah.

But if we do decide to engage with that person, the first step in a potential disagreement is simple.

Focus on your breathing.

Can you take a breath?