188. Mind Reading 101: To Know What Your Audience Thinks, Just Ask

Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

Think Fast Talk Smart

Communicating, Influence, Career Skills, Career, Business, Education, Leadership, Careers, Communication, Career Growth, Public Speaking, Language Learning, Improv

4.7 • 711 Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How to really know what your audience is thinking.

To be a great communicator, you have to get out of your own head. But that’s not all, says Matt Lieberman. According to him, you also have to get into the head of someone else.

“Mind-reading is this remarkable ability that humans have,” explains Lieberman, a professor of psychology, director of UCLA’s Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, and author of Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect. But even as we engage in perspective-taking, Lieberman says our attempts to mind-read often miss the mark. Instead, he advocates for “perspective-getting” — where we don’t just intuit what others think, we ask them directly. “That is where more productive conversation comes from,” he says.

In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Lieberman and host Matt Abrahams explore insights from social neuroscience that can help us communicate more effectively. From understanding how our brains process social interactions to recognizing our own assumptions, he reveals why successful communication requires both humility and genuine curiosity about how others see the world.

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Chapters:

(00:00) - Introduction
(02:14) - The Social Brain
(05:15) - Neuroscience in Business
(07:14) - The Science of Persuasion
(11:46) - Social Pain & Connection
(15:04) - Tackling Loneliness
(17:56) - The Final Three Questions
(24:01) - Conclusion

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Feel like you aren't being challenged or growing at work?
0:03.5	Podcast listeners and my students often ask me, when is the best time to make a career move?
0:09.0	I always tell them that the best time to look for a new job is when you're feeling too comfortable in your current one.
0:15.0	LinkedIn should be your first stop when looking for something new or just seeing what's out there.
0:20.0	I regularly use LinkedIn
0:21.6	myself, and I see how it has helped many others I know. LinkedIn has just made the job search
0:26.6	easier and allows you to explore your potential or find something that's a better match for you.
0:31.5	With its new job match feature rolling out to members in 2025, the job search process is simplified, so you know where to focus.
0:39.6	It provides personalized insights and detailed, actionable summaries.
0:44.3	Job match does the heavy lifting so you can find your ideal fit.
0:48.0	Explore your job potential at LinkedIn.com slash jobs.
0:51.8	That's LinkedIn.com slash jobs.
0:55.1	Getting out of our own head literally makes a big difference for effective communication.
1:01.8	It's all about perspective getting and humility.
1:05.9	My name is Matt Abrahams and I teach strategic communication at Stanford Graduate School of
1:10.7	Business.
1:11.6	Welcome to Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast.
1:15.5	Today I look forward to speaking with Matt Lieberman.
1:18.5	Matt is a professor in the Department of Psychology at UCLA, where he focuses on social cognitive
1:23.8	neuroscience.
1:25.3	He is a pioneer in the study of how the human brain processes social
1:29.2	information, particularly in understanding how people think about others and themselves. Matt is also
	...

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