Julia Minson - Receptiveness: The Science of Being Heard

Julia Minson is an Associate Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She is a social psychologist with research interests in conflict, negotiations and judgment, and decision making. Her primary line of research addresses the “psychology of disagreement” – how do people engage with opinions, judgments, and decisions that are different from their own? She explores this theme in the context of group decision making to uncover the psychological biases that prevent managers, consumers, and policy-makers from maximizing the benefits of collaboration. She also studies the conditions that make people willing to listen and be receptive to views and opinions they strongly oppose on political and social topics.

Prior to the Harvard Kennedy School, Julia served as a Lecturer at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where she taught Negotiations at both the MBA and the undergraduate levels.   She received her PhD in Social Psychology from Stanford University and her BA in Psychology from Harvard University.

Topics discussed include:

· What receptiveness is and why it’s so important.

· Whether liberals are more receptive than conservatives.

· Whether men or women are more receptive.

· How age influences our openness to the opinions of others.

· The link between receptiveness and good decision making.

· The linguistic markers that convey receptiveness.

· The power of acknowledgment.

· How mediators can frame discussions to promote receptiveness.

· Why being formal and polite in an argument can be counterproductive.

· The key to creating receptiveness at Braver Angels workshops.

· How you can test your own level of receptiveness.

And much more.