This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedantan.

Parents, at least of a certain era, used to tell their kids,

if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.

Such advice might seem quaint today.

No matter where we look, it can feel as if we're living in a time of mounting

incivility. Smart phones and social media amplify this feeling. It used to be that when two

people got into an argument in a parking lot or on an airplane, only a few people heard it.

But today, thousands of people witness rude interactions among people they'll never meet.

It's become the stuff of viral videos and memes. We're not talking to you. We're not talking to you. Why don't you mind your own business? We're not talking to you.

We're not one of these people that work here, so get out of my face.

We often tell ourselves to ignore insults and slights. Yet psychological experiments show that this is not easy to do,

and that rudeness has a long-lasting malevolent power.

We're flooded with emotions, and that's when this fight or flight gear kicks in.

One way that I think about this is the storm inside your brain.

The surprising effects of incivility and how to protect yourself from its toxic influence.

This week on Hidden Brain.

Routeness and incivility seem to be showing up everywhere these days, on airplanes and supermarket Isles in restaurants.

What effect does this tide of nastiness have on all of us?

According to the old adage, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

But is this really true?

At Georgetown University, behavioral scientist Christine Porath studies the effects of incivility on our communities, our careers,

even our capacity for creativity. Christine Porath, welcome to Hidden Brain.

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