Just Listen

2

A LITTLE SCIENCE

How the Brain Goes from “No” to “Yes”

What happens when two people talk? That is really the basic question here, because that’s the basic context in which all persuasion takes place.

—MALCOLM GLADWELL, AUTHOR, THE TIPPING POINT

I think like a doctor, so I loaded an earlier draft of this chapter with drawings of brain parts and discussions of how the brain works. When I finished, I showed it to Ellen, my editor, thinking she’d say, “Wow. That’s great.”

Ellen quickly glanced over all the brain stuff. And then she said, pointedly: “Ick.”

I got her point. Most people reading this book don’t care about neurons and neurotransmitters and gray matter and white matter. If you’re one of them, you just want to learn how to reach people. ...