20th May 2024
“We are emotionally shaped beings that only think rationally when we feel understood”
As we face a world of growing conflict and disputes, can brain and behavioural science offer us a better way to build resolution, peace and coexistence through mediation? Many approaches and assumptions to resolving conflict can often ignore what science increasingly tells us, and we could unwittingly be causing more harm than progress.
Behavioural science tells us that we need to focus on how we think as humans and not what we think. We need to understand human cognition and emotion if we are to address conflict effectively in all its dimensions. We think in groups, we think automatically, and we think in mental models of the world that are shaped principally as children.
Tim Phillips will share what he and his colleagues have been learning in the field of behavioural science over the last decade about a world in conflict. Rebecca Attree will seek to apply this knowledge and give practical tips as to how DR professionals and parties might approach, prepare for and engage at mediations in a different way.