When we think alike

After your group comes to consensus on a touchy subject, you say, “Now we’re on the same wavelength.”

And you would be right in more than one way. Not only is your thinking similar to the other members’, but also everyone’s three pounds of brain tissue are now working in a similar way.

This is the conclusion of a study, How consensus-building conversation changes our minds and aligns our brains. Researchers used functional MRIs to watch how people’s brain activity became like one another’s when they had come to agreement. (For you biology types, they measured the blood oxygen level in the various sections of the brain before and after the group discussed open-to-many-meanings movie clips.)

Mind meld and brain coupling

In other words, when two people agree, their physical brains synchronize. This explains the ease we feel with like-minded friends. In neuroscience, it’s called brain coupling. In mentoring or training settings, I’ve heard it called mind meld.

The shared rhythm continues long after the discussion ends. The study participants discussed a second round of movie clips, and their brains were still operating like one another’s. Each exchange seems to leave an imprint.  Think of that – your brain becomes new when you learn something new.

I find it encouraging that one conversation at a time, one imprint from one brain to another, we can build a new future.