I’m not a fan of predictive text. Generally speaking I’m wary of anything designed to do work for us that wasn’t that difficult in the first place. But predictive text algorithms in particular give me pause because they allow (on a small scale) history to dictate the future in a repetitive way, using only what we’ve already done as the template for what to do next. 

Keeping the past in mind is important, but it’s equally important to continually take in the new. In a small, but not insignificant way, predictive text and convenience algorithms like it stymie our active participation in life by locking us into the patterns we follow. In the macro, it makes us behave a bit like drones. In the micro, it makes us bad listeners. 

Just as our phones and computers store data to predict the future, our brains do the same when we attempt to listen to one another. “The human brain is not a passive organ simply waiting to be activated by external stimuli,” wrote Harvard neuroscientist Kestutis Kveraga in a 2007 publication. Instead, says Kveraga, it’s continuously trying to predict the future based on the “memory of past experiences.” In other words, our brains are constantly set to autofill.

This constant whirring of gears, filtering out “irrelevant” data in an attempt to be more efficient, is in many ways what makes humans exceptional. Ever wonder why you can navigate a crowded freeway while simultaneously creating a mental shopping list or preparing for a big meeting with the boss? Thank your brain’s ability to draw from past experience. But when it comes to actively listening to someone, our brain’s memory-based predictions can be a huge detriment. Our predisposition to predict not only what someone’s going to say, but also what exactly they’ll mean when they say it, makes us prone to bad listening, which is particularly unfortunate given how important being listened to is to us all.

So what is real listening? American psychologist Carl Rogers defined Active Listening as “empathic understanding, unconditional positive regard, and congruence behavior.” Breaking that down, the act of listening on a deep level requires you to be sensitive, to suspend judgement, and to commit to a positive result. It’s a lot to do at once, all while trying to filter back in what your brain might be filtering out. So is it worth it? 

Yes. Both for us and for the people we strive to listen to. A 2014 study for the National Institute of Physiological sciences in Japan measured the effect of active listening. Subjects were listened to by evaluators with and without active listening behavior, and brain imaging technology was used to measure results. Active listening behavior was identified positively by the subjects, and those interactions were shown to arouse positive feelings and were perceived as more beneficial. 

Being listened to feels good. It lets us know that we’re respected and valued by the people we interact with. Yet being the listener does not come naturally or easily to most. In subsequent posts, we’ll examine what active listening looks like, and strategies to improve that skill.  

— Will Beare

Sources:

Kveraga, K Top-down Predictions in the Cognitive Brain. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2099308/
Kawamichi, H Perceiving active listening activates the reward system and improves the impression of relevant experiences. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4270393/#CIT0038

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash.