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Brain researcher reveals the fundamental persuasion rule to get people to do what you want

Don't start with the details.

via LinkedIn Sales Solutions/Unsplash

A salesman showing a client the big picture.

So you’ve got a great idea for a Hawaiian vacation you want to sell to your spouse, but you’re not entirely sure they’ll go along with the idea. If you want to know the best way to sell them on the trip, you should follow the advice of John Medina, a brain researcher and professor who wrote the “Brain Rules” series of books.

In "Brain Rules," Medina argues that the best way to persuade someone is to show them the big picture first. "Don't start with details," he writes. “Start with key ideas and, hierarchically, form the details around these larger notions."

So, instead of starting the conversation with the fact that your buddy Rick at work has a brother who has an AirBnB in Waikiki and can get you a place to stay for $125 a night. Or, kicking off the pitch by outlining a deal on Aloha Airlines where if you fly on Thursday mornings from a specific airport, you can save 37% on a round-trip flight to Honolulu.

Start with a big-picture idea. “Did you know we can spend a week in Hawaii for under 2 grand?”

The rule is based on a fundamental neuroscientific truth: The brain craves meaning before detail.

neuroscience, brains, persuasionThe human brain. via Curtis Cripe/Flickr

Medina argues that humans need to feel a connection to the story before they are willing to pay attention to the details. “Normally, if we don’t know the gist—the meaning—of information, we are unlikely to pay attention to its details. The brain selects meaning-laden information for further processing and leaves the rest alone,” Medina writes in his book.

Communication coach and Harvard instructor Carmine Gallo says the rule is rooted in human evolution. "When primitive man ran into a tiger, he did not ask, how many teeth does the tiger have? Instead, it asked, will it eat me? If you want your team to get behind a new initiative, give them the big picture first,” Gallo said in a keynote address.

The great thing about this rule is that it has many different applications, from interpersonal relationships to business to social media. Gallo says that when trying to persuade someone, we should consider sharing our ideas as if they were tweets. “The big picture, however, must be short. I like to keep the top-level message no longer than a Twitter post of 140 characters,” he writes.

steve jobs, apple, iPhoneSteve Jobs shows off iPhone 4 at the 2010 Worldwide Developers Conference.via Matthew Yohe/Wikimedia Commons

Steve Jobs did a great job selling Apple products by introducing them with a simple, big-picture idea that enticed people to pay attention. He started with the big picture when introducing the iPhone in 2007. "Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone,” he said. “The iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone."

On a deeper level, the rule is all about understanding a simple part of human nature. You must have a compelling story from someone to want to listen to you, follow your lead, or change their mind. But once you have them hooked on the big picture, convincing them of the details is a piece of cake.

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Heroes

This NASA-backed experiment raises a big point about overcoming conflict.

When your roommate eats the last Oreo in the freezer, that's an annoyance. When your roommate eats the last Oreo you'll see in months, you might have a problem.

On Sept. 17, six volunteer crew members emerged from eight months of isolation. Their quarantine, part of a NASA-backed study by the University of Hawaii, could one day help humanity plan a drama-free Mars mission.

For the last eight months, the six volunteers lived in a tiny shelter on the slopes of an active volcano, sharing their living space, meager kitchen, and solitary shower.

[rebelmouse-image 19474275 dam="1" original_size="750x421" caption="From a distance, their house-sized habitat looked like a golf ball sitting in the loneliest sand trap in the universe. Photo from HI-SEAS V Crew/University of Hawaii News/Flickr." expand=1]From a distance, their house-sized habitat looked like a golf ball sitting in the loneliest sand trap in the universe. Photo from HI-SEAS V Crew/University of Hawaii News/Flickr.

The shelter wasn't exactly luxurious. Sleeping spaces were small, food mostly came in freeze-dried pouches or cans, and communication with the outside world was purposefully delayed 20 minutes to simulate vast interplanetary distances.

And outside? The forbidding, rocky landscape of Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano surrounded them. If that wasn't discouraging enough, actually going outside was strictly limited: teams only and spacesuits mandatory.

Given all that, it'd be understandable for everyone to get a little cabin fever. But that was the point.

If we want to send humans to Mars, it's going to mean asking them to spend a long time alone — at least a year. And with even relatively simple, robot-based Mars missions costing a few billion dollars, we don't want personality problems derailing a mission. This study will help NASA learn how to help people get along during their long spaceflight.

[rebelmouse-image 19474276 dam="1" original_size="750x421" caption="The HI-SEAS V crew. From left to right: Brian Ramos, Laura Lark, Ansley Barnard, Samuel Payler, Joshua Ehrlich, and James Bevington. Photo from University of Hawaii News/Flickr." expand=1]The HI-SEAS V crew. From left to right: Brian Ramos, Laura Lark, Ansley Barnard, Samuel Payler, Joshua Ehrlich, and James Bevington. Photo from University of Hawaii News/Flickr.

The group used a variety of methods to track their emotional states, from journals to voice recorders. They also tested ways to de-stress, like using virtual reality to take a trip to a tropical beach.

One big takeaway? Even the best teams have conflict sometimes. What's important is how you deal with it.

"We’ve learned, for one thing, that conflict, even in the best of teams, is going to arise," principal investigator and professor Kim Binsted told the AP. "So what’s really important is to have a crew that, both as individuals and a group, is really resilient, is able to look at that conflict and come back from it."

Binsted couldn't share any details about this year's crew but said in an email that past crews have dealt with things like miscommunications, the stress of problems back home, and — yes — what to do when a favorite food runs out.

This was the fifth of six planned missions. For their efforts, the newly-freed crew was rewarded with a buffet of food, including fresh pineapple, mango, papaya, and doughnuts. None of it appeared to have been freeze-dried.

NASA hopes to send humans to Mars as soon as the 2030s.

Family

90% of smokers start before they turn 18. Will this legislation help?

On Aug. 9, Oregon became the fifth state to raise the legal age to purchase tobacco products to 21.

Oregon has been at the forefront of tobacco cessation and prevention programs for more than 20 years. A 1996 voter-approved tobacco taxation and prevention initiative has prevented an estimated 31,000 Oregon children from picking up the habit, and cigarette use has declined by more than 50% in the state.

The latest tobacco bill, signed by Governor Kate Brown, will continue to build on these efforts, prohibiting the sale and use of cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and tobacco products to people under the age of 21.

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

Oregon joins California, Hawaii, Washington, D.C., Maine, and New Jersey in raising the legal age for tobacco use to 21.

Like Oregon, Maine and New Jersey raised the tobacco age to 21 this summer. The Maine legislature successfully overrode the veto of Governor Paul LePage to turn the bill into law on Aug. 2. While New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed the bipartisan bill July 21.

In a statement, Christie cited his mother's death from the effects of smoking and hoped the measure would keep young people from ever starting the addictive habit.

"By raising the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21, we are giving young people more time to develop a maturity and better understanding of how dangerous smoking can be and that it is better to not start smoking in the first place,” he wrote.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images.

While only five states and D.C. have raised the tobacco age so far, many cities and states are considering the measure.

After nearly 10 years of trying, a bill in Texas to raise the tobacco age has bipartisan support and positive momentum. Efforts in Utah, Massachusetts, and Washington state are similarly underway after several fits and starts.

Since statewide measures are time consuming and difficult, 200 cities and towns have taken the step to raise the tobacco age on their own, including Chicago, New York City, Kansas City, and Boston.

Photo by Noel Celis/AFP/Getty Images.

Cigarette smoking causes more than 480,000, or 1 in 5, deaths in the U.S. each year.

Measures like these are truly a matter of life and death. Smoking causes a majority of the cases of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and it significantly increases the risk of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and cancer. It can affect fertility and smoking, while pregnant can result in stillbirth or low birth weight.

Each day, more than 3,200 people under 18 try their first cigarette. If current patterns persist, 5.6 million Americans currently under the age of 18 will ultimately die from a smoking-related illness.

Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images.

Something has got to give.

Since 99% of smokers have their first cigarette by 26, (90% before 18), raising the legal tobacco age is an important step toward keeping the next generation healthy and tobacco-free.

Hawaii, California, Maine, New Jersey, and Oregon are leading the way. Make sure your city government and state legislature are working to join them.

Photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images.

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3 reasons to not panic about those endangered bees, and 3 things to do instead.

Right now, there's a report going around about how bees just got added to the endangered species list.

I know, I know: Bees on the endangered species list seems pretty awful. But the reality of that report (and our bees' futures) is a little bit more complicated than that.

When we hear "bee" and "endangered," our minds probably jump to all the things we've heard before about colony collapse and how we'll have to use robots to pollinate our apples or strawberries in the future.

But in looking at this specific report, a different story emerges. It's a story about environmentalism, protection, and preserving natural wonder. It's a story that gives me hope because in the end, the endangered species list could actually help our pollinators.

First, here are three reasons not to panic about the bees that just got added to the endangered species list:

1. The bees in this report? Not honeybees. In fact, this ruling's not really about the bees at all.

A yellow-faced bee from Germany. Photo from Fritz Geller-Grimm/Flickr.

When the title of something says "bees are in trouble," we probably assume it's about honeybees. But there are a lot of other species of bee. In fact, none of the seven species of bees put on the endangered species list is the honeybee — all seven are actually something called yellow-faced bees, which are native to Hawaii.

Actually, the ruling is really more about protecting Hawaii as a whole. The same ruling that put bees on the list also added band-rumped storm-petrels, orangeblack Hawaiian damselflies, anchialine pool shrimp, and 39 different plant species.

2. These particular Hawaiian bees are not dying from colony collapse disorder.

Instead, the scientists are more worried about their habitat.

Hawaii used to be covered in swathes of untouched forests and fields, chock-full of native flowers, plants, and primo bee habitat. But as the islands have become more urbanized, the forests and fields have gotten smaller and more fractured. What's more, invasive plants and animals like pigs, goats, and something called the yellow crazy ant...

"We're actually very well behaved, thank you very much." Photo from John Tann/Flickr.

...have been either mucking up the forest, eating the bees, or out-competing them for food. So it's really more about the health of the forest, rather than just the health of the bees.

In fact, if you look through it, colony collapse doesn't appear in the ruling anywhere.

3. Getting recognized as an endangered species comes with a ton of benefits.

Remember how the ruling is more about the health of Hawaii's forests? Putting these bees (and other species) on the endangered species list comes with a lot of benefits. Rather than being a death sentence, getting added to the endangered species list is often the best thing that can happen to species who might be in trouble.

Authorities can now start recovery programs, get funding for conservation, and add new habitat protections. This bee ruling could unlock protections for the entire ecosystem.

Who knew a few little bees could help protect all of this? Photo from Lukas/Wikimedia Commons.

The new protections will go into effect on Oct. 31.

Before we move on, let's actually talk about colony collapse.

Honeybees. Photo by Björn Appel/Wikimedia Commons.

Yes, we do need to do better by our honeybees. They're really important to us — they give us honey and, more importantly, help pollinate our crops.

But we are doing better. The U.S. government has created special committees to investigate colony collapse disorder — neonicotinoid pesticides seem like they might be a culprit — and the government and researchers are working to mitigate the problem. In fact, we might be seeing the bees start to recover.

So while we need to keep working, our honeybees aren't endangered yet, and things seem to be improving. That's great.

There might also be a little bonus for Hawaii's honeybees in this ruling, too.

One of the things that might be contributing to colony collapse (or just unhealthy hives in general) is the lack of species-rich, healthy forests and fields for the honeybees to eat from. So if Hawaii revitalizes its forests, nearby honeybee hives might benefit from that just as much as the native ones.

Oh, and one other little bonus for y'all: Honeybees aren't the only ones who pollinate our crops. Native pollinators like bats, butterflies, or, yes, yellow-faced bees, contribute over $3 billion to our economy every year. So making sure the whole system is healthy will give our crops their best chance at success.

In a delightful turn, it seems that this bee news isn't something to panic over. Instead, it's a sign of great progress in the conservation world.

We should be energized by these awesome new protections because the listing could unlock a whole cascade of protections to help keep Hawaii's forests healthy and happy.

And by the way, if you're feeling energized about protecting both our native pollinators and our honeybees in your own backyard, there's a whole lot you can do to help, such as planting pollinator-friendly butterfly gardens, avoiding pesticides, and supporting local ecosystem conservation. Let's get to it!

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