If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face? (Relating to and Communicating with Others)

Empathy is primarily emotional. Gaining awareness of another person’s thinking is primarily a rational process.

Alda has long had a fascination with how the brain works and how its processes affect human communication. He remembers interviewing a scientist on-camera and thinking that the two of them had connected on an empathetic level. At a certain moment, though, that empathy seemed to end and the scientist stopped looking at Alda. She turned to speak directly into the camera’s lens. Her speaking voice changed from something warm and conversational to college lecture diction. Alda, who found her lecturing mode impossible to understand, brought her back to relating to him personally by asking her basic questions.

However, after 45 seconds more, the scientist again turned away from Alda and back to the camera. She resumed her formal lecture. Alda presents this as a minor tragedy. The event spurred him to wonder how scientists could communicate more effectively with laypeople and with one another.