Dr Serge Loode shares how mediators can create constructive conversations and safe spaces for discussion by encouraging positive conflict behaviours in disputing parties

1. CONSTRUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS
Applying findings from neuropsychology and
developmental psychology to conflict resolution
Serge Loode

2. OVERVIEW
• Development of the brain and functions of different brain
regions.
• Threat and reward reactions.
• The SCARF Model.
• Affect labelling and how it assists with mediation.

3. UNDERSTANDING HUMAN
REACTIONS
• Different areas in the human
brain have different functions.
• Cortex: learning and higher
order thinking.
• Limbic system (amygdala):
emotions.
• Mid-brain: movement.
• Brainstem: safety and
protection.

4. FIGHT OR FLIGHT INSTINCT
• When human beings feel threatened the
brainstem is activated.
• This leads to increased release of
adrenaline, faster breathing, tensed
muscles.
• It deactivates higher order thinking and
results in fight, flight or freeze responses.
• In social situations these can manifest in
aggression, raised voices, threats,
resignation and avoidance.
• Social pain is processed in the brain in
much the same way as physical pain.

5. THE SCARF MODEL
Status
Certainty
Autonomy
Relatedness
Fairness
Away from
threat
Toward
reward
(Source: David Rock, SCARF: a brain-based model for collaborating with and influencing others, 2008)
Domains of experience that activate strong threats and rewards in the brain

6. BENEFITS OF SCARF
• Before an event: SCARF can provide an increased ability to minimise
negative and maximise positive emotions ahead of time in oneself and
others, thereby mitigating distracting threats and increasing overall
motivation.
• During an event: SCARF can increase the ability to regulate one’s own and
other’s emotions in the moment, thereby increasing perception, cognition,
creativity and collaboration.
• After: SCARF can increase one’s ability to understand strong emotions after
the fact, thereby decreasing uncertainty, and enabling different choices in the
future.
(Source: David Rock, SCARF: a brain-based model for collaborating with and influencing others, 2008)

7. STATUS
• Refers to one’s sense of importance relative to others.
• Examples: status in relation to co-workers, peers,
supervisors, friends, family.
• People are acutely aware of their importance relative
to others. Comparing oneself to a person of higher
status can elicit a threat response.

8. CERTAINTY
• Refers to one’s need for clarity and the ability to make accurate
decisions of the future.
• Examples: understanding a dispute resolution process and its possible
outcomes, knowing that one will have a roof over one’s head tonight.
• People differ in their need for certainty and their tolerance for
uncertainty and ambiguity.
• Ambiguous situations can cause great levels of stress, especially if
someone is worried about being negatively evaluated.

9. AUTONOMY
• Autonomy is tied to a sense of control over the events in one’s life and
the perception that one’s behaviour has an effect on the outcome of a
situation.
• Examples: getting a promotion, finding a partner, not being micro-managed.
• People have a fundamental need for personal control and value the ability
to make choices themselves.
• Having a sense of choice can make up for having a sense of a loss of
power (i.e. control over what other people do).

10. RELATEDNESS
• Relatedness concerns one’s sense of connection to and
security with another person.
• Examples: whether someone is perceived as similar or
dissimilar to oneself, a friend or a foe, being included or
excluded from a game.
• Most people experience in-group preference and out-group
bias or suspicion.This even influences how information about
these different groups is processed.

11. FAIRNESS
• Fairness refers to just and non-biased exchange between people.
• Examples: praise for or acknowledgment of one’s efforts,
equivalent pay for equivalent work, sharing a candy bar with
everyone etc.
• Perceptions of fairness are strongly influenced by emotions.
• Receiving fair offers activates rewards responses in the brain.
People prefer fair offers compared to unfair offers, even if they are
of the same value.

12. COMBINED EFFECTS
• People of high status are more trusting than people of low status because
they believe others will act positively towards them.They also seem to trust
other high-status people more than low-status people.
• People who experience high levels of social anxiety perceive themselves as
having low social rank.
• People with low tolerance for ambiguity exhibit higher levels of race- and
gender-based prejudice. Increasing contact between in-groups and out-
groups can reduce this prejudice.
• Individuals have different sensitivities towards the different SCARF domains.

13. FROMTHEORYTO PRACTICE
• Discuss with your neighbour examples of when
you have experienced threat or reward reactions
from clients.Which SCARF domains were
involved?
• How can you increase the possibility of reward
reactions and manage threats better for a more
constructive conversation?

14. WORKING WITH EMOTIONS

15. EMOTIONS ANDTHEIR
EFFECTS
• Emotions are an important part of
decision-making.
• It is not possible to suppress or
control emotions.
• Emotions are complex processes that
include external stimuli, knowledge
retrieval and physiological reactions.
• Strong emotions can interfere when
parties aim to make wise decisions in
a mediation or negotiation process
(Shapiro, 2006).

16. AFFECT LABELLING
•The capacity to control emotion is important for human adaptation.
•Neuroscientific studies have found that the process of “affect
labelling” - i.e. naming and expressing emotions in words - can help
to lessen the intensity of emotional experiences and engage higher
order thinking (Lieberman et al., 2007; Ochsner and Gross, 2005).
•Affect labelling in mediation occurs when mediators reflect and
summarise emotional states of parties and ask them to reflect on
them or to comment on each other’s emotional states.

17. PROCESSING EMOTIONS
Weak expression Universal emotion Strong expression
Annoyance Anger Rage
Concern Fear Terror
Disappointment Sadness Sorrow
Dislike Disgust Revulsion
Disdain Contempt Hate
Interest Surprise Shock
Comfort Happiness Bliss
(adapted from Ekman and Friesen,A new pan-cultural facial expression of emotion, 1986)

18. FURTHER READINGS
• Rock, D 2012,‘SCARF in 2012: updating the social neuroscience of collaborating
with others’, NeuroLeadership Journal, vol. 4, pp. 1-14.
• Kegan, R 1994, In over our heads: the mental demands of modern life, Harvard
University Press.
• Lieberman, M, Eisenberger, N, Crockett, M,Tom, S, Pfeifer, J and Way, M 2007
‘Putting feelings into words: affect labeling disrupts Amygdala activity in response
to affective stimuli’ Psychological Science, vol. 18, number 4, pp. 421-428.
• Jones,W & Hughes, SH 2003, 'Complexity, conflict resolution, and how the mind
works', Conflict Resolution Quarterly, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 485-94.