Interviewing More Effectively Using Psychology

In the past few years, an enormous amount has been learned about the human brain and its architecture. It is possible to use these insights to interview and communicate more effectively and memorably. To understand the way human beings think, it is necessary to understand a little bit about the human brain and its architecture - how it responds to and represents information.nnThe Brain's Duality Essentially, there are two sources of volition within the brain - two parts that, of all the parts of your body, are capable of generating instructions - the Neocortex and the Amygdala. Every other part of your body - all your muscles, all your bones, all the glands, 99% of your neurology, are made for carrying out and supporting instructions. This duality exists because the brain, as an organ that has evolved to survive, has developed to divide all human experience into two categories: non-danger and danger. These two circumstances - non-danger and danger - require completely different responses and, by inference, completely different responses. n nnNon-danger and Danger The experience of non-danger is dealt with by the Neocortex. The Neocortex is the "rational" part of the brain, it exists within the conscious and operates according to what most ofnus would consider rational principles. It is the higher part of the brain, responsible for logic, reasoning, higher concepts. The experience of danger, however, is entirely different. Danger has a completely different set of rules and demands. A major distinction is that danger has generally required nspeed i.e. the lion is going to gobble you up in a few seconds, the oncoming car you see out of the periphery of your vision is going to hit you into next week in half a second. Danger also requires a fire alarm - the ability to override whatever else you may be daydreaming about and force you to focus on what is happening.nnnThe Logic of Emotion These two qualities, speed and the quality of a fire alarm, are the keys to understanding what emotions are, how they work, and by extension what people will remember and what they will be motivated to do. The need for speed and the need for a fire alarm are fulfilled by the amygdala. For one thing, the amygdala is very powerfully wired into the rest of the brain, the neural paths coming out of the amygdala are very wide and thick. As a result, the signals coming out of the amygdala are very powerful, very difficult to resist. This is what we mean by "emotion." Consider walking down a dirt path. While enjoying the scenery you suddenly see what appears to be a snake. You become agitated, alarmed, frightened - whatever word you choose to use - in half a second. However, upon closer inspection, you see that what you thought was a snake was actually a stick or a shadow. It now takes you a few minutes to calm down. This is what we mean by the directionality of how the brain's architecture. The other requirement, the need for speed, is crucial to understanding the amygdala and understanding the logic of emotion. Since the amygdala must be fast, it is restricted to a corner-cutting crude logic that is completely different from we would generally call rational thought. n nnBe Visceral, specific, and personal Faced with the need for speed, and so restricted to a quick corner-cutting logic, the amygdala is not capable of certain higher concepts. For example, the amygdala doesn't have language. It understands impressions, sensations and feelings, but not words. Neither can it understand the concept of plurality, the concept of more than one. This is why, for example, when certain politicians and demagogues want to inflame an audience they will use entities and images which are singular .i.e. the white man, the welfare queen. Understanding these concepts allows us to craft presentations that are more emotive and effective and allows us to distinguish ourselves from a crowd of competitors. Descriptions which appeal to the senses and emotions tends to have a higher impact than dry factual overviews. "What the toughest work problem I've ever had? Well, my phone rang at 3AM once. My boss sounded like he was about to have a coronary. A huge fire at a facility in New Jersey had melted highly refined pipes that we were counting on." Remembering that the subconscious reduces everything to a singular, using singular images, especially images that evoke fear, allow us to connect more directly into this "reptile brain." n "Am I comfortable in a high-pressure environment? Until you've seen a raging options trader whose trading station has just crashed, you can't imagine what pressure is."nnnNot Just What You Say But How You Say It Another crucial aspect of the brains architecture that affects the impact of communication is how different senses are wired into the brain. Vision, because it tends to connote what is immediate and imminent, enters our consciousness in a way that imputes more credibility. Consider the difference between appealing to a persons vision, as opposed to another sense such as hearing. "I saw that the server was down and knew I had to act fast..." "I had heard that they were having a problem in the data center..." Insights offered by cerebral neurology allow us to communicate in a way that is effective and memorable and give us the chance to do more than simply smile and hope we "click" with people whose impressions of us influence our future.