Neuroscience of feedback (3 of 5)

Why giving feedback can be hard – If we ask someone for feedback, we generally assume they will be honest and critical where necessary. If this honesty is going to help us improve our performance, and we have specifically asked for it, surely there is little reason why someone might lie or hold back? Unfortunately, neuroscience says otherwise.

In this video excerpt, we are shown a social experiment situated in a shopping centre. An actor is told to pick out and try on the most unattractive clothes she can find, and then ask random shoppers for comment.

Were we in this situation ourselves, we would hope someone would be honest enough to tell us the clothes didn’t suit. However, in the clip, a number of people are shown to complement the actor on her outfit, despite saying they didn’t really like it once they were outside the shop.

Scientists believe that our brain’s ability to automatically start guessing what another person wants to hear has developed to help us get on with other people and to avoid hurting their feelings. This strange phenomenon is innate in most humans and is something we need to be especially aware of when giving or receiving feedback.