Every important moment in your life that you have already had or will have in the future involves a social interaction. Although there is enormous value to be gained, both psychological and tangible, from social connections, people leave a lot of value on the table. In this talk, Schroeder highlights several areas where you can gain additional social value, each of which stem from mistakes people make in reading others’ minds. She covers topics such as forming “minimal connections” (e.g., connections with strangers), making small prosocial gestures that are relatively costless to you but surprisingly appreciated by others, and getting better at disagreeing more productively.

In a world filled with social divides, different groups of people with markedly different values and opinions, the most fundamental divide occurs between the self and others. No one has direct access into anyone’s mind except their own, and therefore, people must somehow infer others’ mental experiences (e.g., their thoughts and feelings). Although humans are better at this process of inference than any other animal species, they are far from perfect. People’s inferences about others’ minds are often mistaken, leading them to misunderstand others’ motivations and mental capacities. This talk investigates the consequences of mistaken inferences about other minds and, importantly, how better communication can serve to bridge societal divides.

In a world of rapidly changing communication technology, humans have more options than ever for connecting with others. Having an intimate and authentic conversation requires many things, like effectively articulating one’s own opinions, thoughtfully consuming the other person’s opinions, correcting each other’s misconceptions, indicating mutual understanding to progress more deeply on a topic, and so on. But many recent communication technologies do not maximize such conversational requirements for enhancing intimacy and understanding, instead prioritizing breadth, convenience, and even distance. For instance, in-person conversation is particularly well-suited to achieve intimacy but other forms of communication, such as leaving asynchronous messages on each other’s Facebook walls, are ill-suited for intimacy. This talk reviews the latest science on communication technology and provides insight into how communicate more effectively. 

Negotiation is the art and science of securing agreements between two or more parties who are interdependent and who are seeking to maximize their outcomes. This session will help you to understand the behavior of individuals, groups and organizations in the context of cooperative and competitive situations. You will learn the theory and processes of negotiation so that you can negotiate successfully in a variety of settings. Schroeder particularly focuses on sharing her expertise in “integrative” negotiations: growing the bargaining pie and creating stronger relationships across the bargaining table.