The Secret to Understanding Humans | Larry C. Rosen | TEDxsalinas

Summary

The speaker challenges the conventional wisdom that understanding human behavior is too complex due to our diverse experiences. Instead, he posits that there is a fundamental similarity in our motivations, such as the desire for respect, community, and making a difference. By identifying these 30 basic human needs, he suggests we can better understand individuals at a deep level, even those with vastly different backgrounds. He illustrates this through personal anecdotes and professional experiences as a mediator, emphasizing that understanding motivations can lead to empathy and resolution in conflicts.

Takeaways

• 🧠 Human psychology is complex and varies greatly among individuals, but there is a fundamental level at which people share the same motivations.
• 🔍 The speaker challenges the conventional wisdom that there is no broad operating principle to understand everyone, suggesting instead that there are common motivations.
• 👁️ The story of the Afghan boy and the speaker's nephew Rory illustrates that despite different life paths, both boys are driven by the same internal desires for respect, community, and making a difference.
• 🔑 There are 30 basic human motivations that can help us understand why people act the way they do, including physical needs, relational needs, and aspirational or spiritual needs.
• 🤔 Understanding someone's behavior at a deep level requires identifying which common needs are driving their actions, rather than focusing on superficial differences.
• 👩‍🏫 The speaker uses personal anecdotes, such as the story of his wife Shelly and the dishwashing, to demonstrate how understanding underlying needs can lead to a deeper comprehension of others.
• 🧬 The concept of common needs driving human behavior was proposed by psychologist Carl Rogers and further developed by peacemaker Marshall Rosenberg, which the speaker found to be scientifically grounded.
• 🧐 The unconscious mind evaluates the world and determines what is dangerous or friendly based on human needs, which then motivates our conscious actions.
• 💡 Understanding that revenge is not a human need, but rather a misguided attempt to fulfill other needs, such as the need for understanding or connection, can lead to more effective conflict resolution.
• 🤝 The story of the divorced couple, Sophia and Frank, shows how recognizing and addressing the true underlying needs can lead to reconciliation and resolution of conflicts.
• 🌐 Understanding others' motivations is not the same as condoning their actions; it is a powerful tool for shaping the world and creating the relationships and outcomes we desire.
• 💖 Learning the language of the unconscious and the heart can improve every relationship in one's life by allowing us to truly understand and connect with others at a deeper level.

Q & A

What is the central proposition discussed in the script about understanding people?

The central proposition is that despite the apparent complexity and diversity of human psychology, there is a fundamental level at which all people are the same, driven by the same basic motivations.

What example does the speaker use to illustrate the similarity between two seemingly different individuals?

The speaker uses the example of a young boy in Afghanistan and his nephew Rory, showing that both, despite their different paths and backgrounds, are motivated by the same internal needs for respect, community belonging, and making a difference.

What are the three categories of basic human motivations mentioned in the script?

The three categories are physical needs (e.g., air, food, water), relational needs (e.g., care, understanding, love), and aspirational or spiritual needs (e.g., growth, adventure, beauty).

How does the speaker suggest we can better understand the people in our lives, such as a spouse or a boss?

The speaker suggests that to understand someone deeply, we should ask which of the common needs they are pursuing, as human behavior is designed to fulfill these needs.

What personal anecdote does the speaker share to illustrate the misunderstanding between him and his wife Shelly about dishwashing?

The speaker shares an anecdote about his wife Shelly being upset with him for not cleaning the dishes to her standard. He explains that her need for order and rest, as well as feeling cared for, were the driving motivations behind her reaction, not an obsession with cleanliness.

What is the significance of the painting in the story involving the mediator, Sophia, and Frank?

The painting is significant because it represents a connection to Sophia's deceased mother and grandmother. It becomes a point of conflict when Frank takes it, but ultimately serves as a catalyst for understanding and reconciliation between the two.

How does the speaker address the concern that understanding someone's motives might imply condoning their actions?

The speaker clarifies that understanding someone's motives is not the same as condoning their actions. Understanding is a powerful tool for shaping the world and creating the relationships and outcomes we desire.

What is the role of the unconscious mind in evaluating the world according to the speaker's interpretation of the science?

The unconscious mind evaluates the world to determine whether it is dangerous or friendly and uses this evaluation to motivate the conscious mind to act in ways that fulfill our common needs.

Who are Carl Rogers and Marshall Rosenberg, and how do they relate to the speaker's understanding of human needs?

Carl Rogers is a psychologist who proposed the idea of common human needs driving behavior, and Marshall Rosenberg further developed this concept. The speaker was influenced by their work and implemented it in his personal life and mediation practice.

What is the speaker's profession, and how does his understanding of human needs apply to it?

The speaker is a lawyer, mediator, and writer. His understanding of human needs helps him in his mediation work by allowing him to decode the motivations of people in conflict and facilitate understanding and resolution.

How does the speaker suggest we can transform our relationships by understanding the common needs of others?

The speaker suggests that by recognizing and acknowledging the common needs that drive all people, such as the need for acceptance and connection, we can deepen our understanding of others and improve our relationships.

Outlines

00:00

🧐 The Myth of Unique Human Psychology

The speaker challenges the conventional wisdom that human psychology is too complex and varied to be understood deeply. They argue that despite apparent differences, there is a fundamental similarity in human motivations. Using the example of a young boy in Afghanistan and the speaker's nephew Rory, they illustrate that both individuals, despite their contrasting lives, are driven by the same basic needs for respect, community, and making a difference. The speaker introduces the concept of 30 basic human motivations that underlie all our actions, including physical, relational, and aspirational needs.

05:00

🔍 Decoding Human Motivation

This paragraph delves into the speaker's personal journey to understand human behavior through the lens of common needs. They recount how they applied the ideas of psychologists Carl Rogers and Marshall Rosenberg in their life, leading to deeper insights into people's actions. The speaker also discusses their skepticism and subsequent exploration into the neurological basis of needs, concluding that these needs are deeply rooted in human evolution and biology, shaping our perceptions of the world and our responses to it.

10:02

🖼️ The Power of Understanding: A Mediation Story

The speaker shares a story from their experience as a mediator to demonstrate the power of understanding underlying motivations. A couple, Sophia and Frank, are in conflict over a painting that holds sentimental value for both. By looking beyond the surface accusation of revenge, the speaker uncovers Frank's true motivation, which is a need for connection to his deceased grandmother, represented by the painting. This understanding leads to a heartfelt reconciliation and the resolution of the conflict, highlighting the transformative effect of recognizing and addressing core human needs.

15:02

🌟 The Transformative Potential of Understanding

In the concluding paragraph, the speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding others' motivations, even in conflict, as a means to create a better world. They refute the misconception that understanding equates to condoning and argue that understanding is a powerful tool for change. The speaker encourages the audience to learn the 'language of the heart' to improve their relationships and to recognize that all human behavior, no matter how complex, is driven by a pursuit of common needs.

Keywords

💡Deep Understanding

Deep understanding refers to the profound comprehension of individuals, regardless of their differences from oneself. In the video, the concept is introduced to challenge the notion that human psychology is too complex for such understanding. The speaker argues against this conventional wisdom, suggesting that despite the surface-level differences, people share fundamental motivations.

💡Human Psychology

Human psychology encompasses the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, affecting how people perceive, think, feel, and behave. The video script discusses the complexity of human psychology, using it as a backdrop to introduce the idea that despite individual differences, there are underlying universal motivations.

💡Motivation

Motivation is the driving force behind why people act and make decisions. The video presents motivation as a universal concept, suggesting that all human actions are driven by a set of basic needs or motivations. It posits that understanding these motivations can lead to a deeper understanding of others, regardless of their outward behavior.

💡Common Needs

Common needs are the fundamental requirements that all humans share, which the video suggests are the basis for all human motivation. The script lists several of these needs, such as the need for respect, community belonging, and making a difference. These needs are used to explain why people behave in certain ways and how understanding them can bridge differences.

💡Respect

Respect is a fundamental human need for being valued and acknowledged by others. In the video, the speaker uses the example of both a Harvard student and a Taliban member seeking respect, albeit through different paths, to illustrate that despite their outward differences, they are driven by the same internal need for recognition.

💡Community Belonging

Community belonging is the need to feel connected and part of a group. The video script mentions this as a common need that drives individuals to affiliate with groups like the men of Harvard or the Taliban, highlighting that the desire for belonging is a powerful motivator that transcends cultural and social differences.

💡Aspirational Needs

Aspirational needs refer to the desires for personal growth, adventure, and beauty. The video categorizes these as a type of common need that all humans share, suggesting that the pursuit of these needs can lead to actions that fulfill a sense of purpose and fulfillment in life.

💡Neuroscience

Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system and brain functions. The speaker in the video mentions neuroscience to ground the concept of common needs in scientific research, suggesting that the fulfillment of these needs is linked to how the human brain evaluates and responds to the world.

💡Mediation

Mediation is a conflict resolution process where a neutral third party helps disputing parties to reach a mutually acceptable agreement. The video script uses the speaker's experience as a mediator to demonstrate how understanding the underlying motivations of individuals can lead to resolution and reconciliation.

💡Connection

Connection, in the context of the video, refers to the human need to feel linked and significant to others, which is a common need that drives behavior. The script illustrates this with the story of Frank and Sophia, where Frank's actions were driven by a need for connection to his deceased grandmother, not by a desire for revenge.

💡Understanding vs. Condoning

Understanding vs. Condoning is the distinction made in the video between comprehending the reasons behind someone's actions and approving or justifying those actions. The speaker emphasizes that understanding is not the same as condoning and is a powerful tool for conflict resolution and relationship improvement.

Highlights

The speaker challenges the conventional wisdom that understanding everyone deeply is impossible due to the complexity of human psychology.

A comparison is made between a young man from Afghanistan and the speaker's nephew Rory, showing that despite different paths, their motivations for respect and community are the same.

The concept of 30 basic human motivations is introduced as a formula for understanding why we do what we do.

Three categories of human needs are discussed: physical, relational, and aspirational or spiritual.

The speaker emphasizes that understanding someone's motivations can lead to a deeper comprehension of their actions, even in personal relationships.

The speaker shares a personal anecdote about understanding his wife's need for order and respect through the lens of common human needs.

The idea that common needs drive human behavior was proposed by psychologist Carl Rogers and further developed by peacemaker Marshall Rosenberg.

The speaker's skepticism about the 30 needs theory led him to explore its neurological basis, confirming its scientific grounding.

The human unconscious evaluates the world based on common human needs, motivating us to act to fulfill these needs.

The speaker explains how understanding the underlying needs of others can transform conflict resolution and personal relationships.

A mediation story illustrates the power of understanding the real motivations behind actions, leading to reconciliation and resolution.

The speaker refutes the misconception that understanding someone's actions condones them, emphasizing the importance of distinguishing between motives and justifications.

The talk concludes with a call to learn the language of the unconscious to improve every relationship in one's life.

Understanding others at a deep level is possible and can lead to transformative changes in relationships and conflict resolution.

The speaker's personal journey from skepticism to belief in the power of understanding common human needs is shared.

Transcripts

Translator: Leonardo Silva Reviewer: Queenie Lee

Is it possible to understand everyone at a deep and meaningful level,

to get what really matters to people, no matter how different they are from you?

That proposition sounds a little absurd.

After all, human psychology is really complex.

Some people are abused as children,

others are loved and supported.

The brain of an 18-year-old girl who sleeps with her cell phone

is different than an 80-year-old man

who can't remember the names of his children.

There's no one way to understand everyone, no broad operating principle.

That's the conventional wisdom, it makes perfect sense,

and yet, it's a myth.

A few years ago, I was watching TV, scenes from Afghanistan.

A group of teenage boys was standing in the back of a dusty pickup,

waving rifles,

and one boy wrapped in a white cloth, with dazzling blue-green eyes,

was staring directly into the camera.

He looked intent, menacing, and that was the point of the piece:

we should be afraid because young men were passionate about killing Americans.

Let me tell you about another boy:

my nephew, Rory.

At the time I saw this piece, Rory was a freshman in college,

at Harvard.

But Rory is not full of himself. In a word, he's sweet.

He's not a hugger, but he'll always hug me because he knows that I am.

He bakes brownies with his young cousins.

He wants to be a doctor one day.

I'm proud of Rory,

and I can't imagine a kid more different than that one from Afghanistan,

except, at a fundamental level, these two boys are exactly the same.

They've chosen their respective paths, join the Taliban, go to Harvard,

for the same internal reasons:

they both would like respect.

Everyone knows that when you go to Harvard,

people look up to you for the rest of your life,

and when you join the Taliban,

little kids look on in awe as you drive by in that dusty vehicle.

They also want community belonging.

Rory's got close friends, the men of Harvard,

but no closer, I'd bet, than the men of the Taliban.

And lastly and probably most important to both,

they want to make a difference in their worlds,

they want to help those they love.

What's amazing and horrifying

is that one will learn to be a doctor and the other will learn to kill.

It's true that human behavior is amazingly varied and complex,

but at the level of motivation,

at the level of what drives us to do all those different things,

we're actually identical.

There's a formula for understanding why we do what we do,

and once you get it, you get it.

There are 30 basic human motivations.

Let me give you a quick primer.

There's the obvious, the physical.

We want to survive: we need air, food and water.

There's a second category, of relational needs,

that help us understand how to balance

our self-interest and that of the community.

We all want to receive care, understanding, love,

but at the same time, we want to give our love,

to help others in our lives.

Then there's a third category of needs you'd call aspirational, or spiritual.

We want to grow, we all crave adventure and beauty.

I'm not going to go through the whole list

because everything on the list you're already familiar with.

But don't then mistake this for that old high school sociology lesson,

where the teacher says, "Human beings have needs;

if they're not fulfilled, unhappiness and war."

That's all true, but I'm not here to make that macro sociological point.

I'm here to help you understand the micro, the human individual,

in any given moment,

what drives your mother, your spouse, your boss.

Human behavior, no matter how seemingly bizarre or mundane,

is designed internally to fulfill one or some of the common needs.

If you want to understand what really matters to a person

at the level of deep motivation,

ask: which of the common needs have they been pursuing?

Here's a story from my personal life.

My wife Shelly sometimes gets upset with me

for not cleaning the dishes to her exacting standard.

I can see her there, as I'm cleaning, over my left shoulder,

pretending to read the mail,

watching me.

Now, I could easily conclude, "That's a little weird.

She might be OCD."

(Laughter)

But these brilliant observations don't get me very far.

If I want to understand my wife, and I do,

I ask a basic question:

what needs are driving her?

Shelly's a busy woman.

She teaches high school full-time, she drives our kids everywhere,

she calls my mom to say hi and "I love you."

Excuse me. I got a little emotional with that.

(Laughter)

She calls my mom to say hi and "I love you."

Clean dishes, neatly stacked and put away,

fulfill in her the common needs for order and rest.

Finally some peace of mind.

And there's one more huge need motivating her dishwash spine:

when I leave stuff on the dishes,

like that big piece of vermicelli hanging off the back,

that's so super obvious to her,

after she's said, "Larry, do a good job this time;

this time, please, do a good job,"

she concludes I don't care about her.

If you want to understand everyone, including Shelly,

the outside world matters to us

only because we're trying to fulfill needs internally.

She doesn't really care about clean dishes.

At depth, she, like everyone else, wants respect, to be loved.

Human behavior is complex, but human motivation is actually simple.

We seek these common needs, and nothing else.

Now, I didn't myself discover that common needs drive human behavior.

The idea was proposed around 50 years ago by the psychologist Carl Rogers

and then further developed

by the extraordinary peacemaker Marshall Rosenberg.

I came across their concepts around 15 years ago,

and they made good sense to me.

So, I began to implement them in my personal life,

to decode family and friends.

And I was understanding people. I was intrigued, but I was also skeptical.

I asked Marshall Rosenberg,

"Why 30 needs, and not 755?"

And he said, "Oh, it could be 30 or 755.

The need to survive, for example, could be further broken down

into the needs to not walk off a cliff, or to not be eaten by predators.

Thirty is just a useful level of aggregation."

I thought, "OK, that's a good answer, but what about this Marshall?

What are needs,

from a neurological perspective?

What's happening in the brain? How do they actually motivate us?"

And here, Marshall said, "Oh, that's simple.

Needs are life force,

human life force."

And I thought, "Whoa. That's not science at all."

And so, I spent the next two years meeting with neuropsychologists

and speaking with evolutionary biologists

and reading cognitive journals with footnotes,

and I eventually concluded this needs stuff is grounded in solid science.

And because research shows

that if you mention the word "neuroscience" or "brain" in a big talk,

it's a thousand times more likely to go viral,

(Laughter)

let me say, this is neuroscience.

(Laughter)

Brain science.

Neuro and brain.

Neuro-brain.

(Laughter)

Now, I'm not a scientist.

I'm a lawyer, a mediator, and a writer.

But being a layperson has allowed me to unravel this science,

to translate it away from chemicals like oxytocin and dopamine

and into what I believe is a useful narrative.

And so, here's what I believe is going on in the human brain, with needs.

The human unconscious evaluates the world,

telling us whether it's dangerous or friendly.

That's its job.

Once it reaches its conclusion,

it's got to motivate the whole system, including the conscious mind,

to do something about it.

How?

If it concludes that the world's dangerous,

we naturally feel fear or anxiety,

and we try to get less of what caused it.

If it concludes the world is friendly,

we naturally feel happy or excited and we try to get more.

But, and this is the key,

how does the unconscious determine what's dangerous and what's friendly?

It's not just left up to each of us individually.

Rather, the criteria upon which we evaluate the world

is born into you and born into me and born into all of us.

Those are the human needs.

Those specific criteria were honed through evolution,

because they allow us to survive,

to relate to other people, and ultimately, to make more people.

"Am I being respected?"

"Am I making a contribution in the world?"

"Does she think I'm cute?"

If so,

pleasure, get more of that!

If not, pain, change the world.

It took me several years to unravel the science

in a way that made narrative sense to me.

And yet, in that time,

I actually stopped caring so much about what was happening in the brain.

I was using this and understanding people in a way that I didn't think was possible.

I was seeing their hearts, it worked,

and really, that's what counts.

I'd like to tie this together with a story.

As I said, I'm a mediator.

When people are at war, they come to me and I help them work it out.

Not too long ago, I was visited by a couple

that had already been divorced.

The ex-wife, Sophia, said a precious object had gone missing.

What was it?

Sophia had never met her father,

and her mother died when she was a little girl.

She was raised by her grandmother,

and in her grandmother's house hung this large painting,

painted by Sophia's grandmother, of Sophia's mother.

Sophia used to look at this painting when she was a little girl

and imagine herself holding her mom's hand

and kissing her mom's cheek.

Sophia's grandmother, the painter, died a few weeks before the mediation,

and in her final hours, she signed the picture.

Sophia described this with tears

and finally looked to her ex-husband and she said,

"Frank took the picture.

Frank, when are you going to stop trying to punish me for the affair?"

I looked to the guy, and his face was cold as stone,

and I thought, "Whoa."

People come to see me because I can help solve their problems,

but I'm kind of a one-trick pony.

The thing is I have this excellent trick,

I can help them understand each other's hidden motivations,

and I knew something that Sophia didn't.

Frank wasn't trying to punish her.

People often think revenge is a human motive,

but hurting another person is not a human need.

Now, how do I know?

Well, here's a trick I developed a few years ago that I find very useful.

If you ever think that somebody is motivated by something

that doesn't personally give you pleasure,

you actually haven't found their motivation; go deeper.

I don't get pleasure from hurting other people.

If it's not in me, it's not a common need,

and if it's not a common need, it's not a human motivation.

Go deeper. Revenge is pursued to fulfill another need.

But what?

It varies, but very often, it's a need for understanding.

If I hurt you,

you will understand, at the level of personal pain,

at the level of intense personal suffering,

what you did to me.

You'll finally get it.

This wasn't the case for Frank.

My theory that he had taken the picture

in order to be understood for the pain of the affair was wrong.

I often guess wrong.

But as I was guessing and without blame convinced him to share something else,

his eyes welled with tears

and he looked over at his ex-wife Sophia and he said,

"Soph,

she had become my grandmother too!

She was all that I had!

You were all that I had."

Frank was an orphan too, just like Sophia.

He took the painting to fulfill a common human need of connection.

Hurting Sophia was never the point.

Sophia moved next to Frank on the couch and she wrapped her arms around him,

and they sobbed together for ten minutes.

And I cried too. I had ten minutes. What was I going to do?

(Laughter)

Frank ultimately returned the painting to Sophia,

and she dug up a trove of old photos

of Frank with her grandmother,

so that he could remember his family.

Understand what happened here.

We didn't make the common and easy mistake thinking that revenge is a motive.

Instead, we went to the source of all human motivation,

to the common needs.

When Sophia understood that Frank had simply needed connection,

human connection, and in particular, to her grandmother,

she got it, she could feel it,

and then the magic, and then solutions.

Now, many people, including some in this audience,

are wary of understanding others, and especially during conflict.

The thought goes like this,

"If I understand the reasons you did what you did,

I'm basically saying you were justified."

Understanding seems like condoning,

and for this reason, people often say,

"Don't go inside the mind of a terrorist, don't get them.

To get a terrorist is to legitimate terrorism.

It's to be an apologist."

And for this reason, it was suggested to me

that I dropped from my talk the piece about the Taliban teenager,

because then people might think I condone terrorism.

Let me make something perfectly clear.

Understanding reasons is different than condoning.

I've learned through thousands of mediations

understanding is a power to shape the world

far greater than any sword or gun.

Understanding is exactly how you create the world that you want.

I began this talk asking,

"Is it possible to understand everyone at a deep and meaningful level,

even those that are different from you?"

And the answer is yes.

When your teenage daughter

asks you for that hair straightener,

and just one week after you bought her that hair crimper,

and she's standing at the top of the stairs

with this crazy crimped hair,

screaming, "You just don't understand!",

this is how you understand:

What is she needing?

She wants to be accepted, liked.

The desire to be accepted, to be liked,

is in you, is in me, is in everyone in this audience.

And so you can understand exactly what she feels,

and that alone will transform your relationship.

And then come the solutions,

even if it's only, "I see you, my beautiful little girl. I get you."

There's a formula for understanding why we do what we do,

and once you get it, you get it.

Human behavior is complex, but human motivation is simple.

We seek the common needs, and nothing else.

We seek the common needs, and nothing else.

The common needs are human motivation.

Learn this language of the unconscious,

this language of the heart,

and you'll improve every relationship in your life.

Thank you.

(Applause)