About this episode

Julia Minson discusses the psychology of disagreement and how to navigate conversations without damaging relationships.

Learn how to say what you think without blowing up your relationships. Most of us have been there. A conversation that starts completely normally and somehow ends with you lying awake at 2am wondering how it went so wrong, again. Whether it is a partner, a teenager, a colleague, or someone on the other side of a political divide, the cost of disagreement done badly is one of the quietest, most cumulative kinds of pain there is. Julia Minson is a behavioral scientist and professor at the Harvard Kennedy School who has spent years studying the psychology of disagreement, researching how people handle opinions, judgments, and beliefs that differ from their own, and what it actually takes to navigate those moments without losing the relationship in the process. Her book How to Disagree Better distills that research into a practical, science-backed guide for anyone ready to do the real work of staying connected across difference. In this conversation, you will discover: The single most common mistake people make at the start of a disagreement that almost guarantees it will escalate into a full argument The HEAR framework, a four-part behavioral science tool for expressing your view…

People in this episode

Host: Jonathan Fields

Guest: Julia Minson

Topics covered

• disagreement
• communication
• behavioral science
• relationships
• psychology

Keywords

• disagreement
• communication skills
• behavioral science
• relationship management
• conflict resolution

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Harvard Kennedy School

Books & works: How to Disagree Better

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