THE NEUROSCIENCE OF TRUST, EMPATHY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY FOR HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TEAMS

Kenneth Nowack, Ph.D. Envisia Learning, Inc. www.envisialearning.com [email protected] About Me Kenneth M. Nowack, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist (PSY13758) and Co-founder of Envisia Learning, Inc. (www.envisialearning.com). Ken received his doctorate degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles and has published extensively in the areas of 360- degree feedback, assessment, health psychology, and behavioral medicine. Ken serves on Daniel Goleman’s Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations and serves as Editor-in-Chief for the Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Division 13; Society of Consulting Psychology).

The Neuroscience of Trust and High Performance Teams

Trust in the Workplace

The Neuroscience of Psychological Safety/Interpersonal Trust

The Neuroscience of Trust/Empathy

Developing a Trust Culture: Individual and Team Interventions

Questions Trust in the Workplace Top Competency Predictors of Executive Job Performance (N = 30,227)

Competency R Square (F Change < .01)

Problem Analysis .21

Team Building .23

Drive for Results .24

Interpersonal Trust .25 Our Trust Research with Executives (N = 30,227)

Outcome Leadership Trust (p < .01)

Job Performance .43** Ratings

Overall Potential for .39** Advancement

Risk of Career .15** Failure Trust Model (Nowack & Zak, 2016) Trust and Team Performance

A 2016 meta-analysis by Bart de Jong at the University of Amsterdam (112 studies representing 7,700 teams) explored the relationship between team member trust and performance

Results found that increased team member trust does significantly enhance team performance (average effect size of .30)

When team members trust one another, they are likely to openly share perspectives and work De Jong, B., Dirks, K. & Gillespie, N. (2016). Trust and Team Performance: A Meta-analysis of Main Effects, Moderators, and Covariates. Journal of through differences Applied Psychology 101,1134-150 Trust and Virtual Teams

Christina Breuer and colleagues at the University of Munster in Germany conducted a meta-analysis of 52 studies (1850 teams) which investigated the role of trust in virtual teams

The meta-analysis shows a strong and positive relationship between trust and virtual team effectiveness, particularly on team attitudes and on the degree to which individuals are willing to share information and knowledge Team Trust

The researchers found a moderate positive relationship between team trust and team performance (task and contextual performance), as measured subjectively either by team members or supervisors, or by objective indicators

Breuer, C., Hüffmeier, J., & Hertel, G. (2016). Does trust matter more in virtual teams? A meta-analysis of trust and team effectiveness considering virtuality and documentation as moderators. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101, 1151 – 1177 Envisia Learning Trust Research (N = 1,095)

Outcome Low vs. High Trust Quartile Percentage Difference

Engagement (Utrecht Work Engagement Scale) +76% Joy at Work +60% Job Satisfaction +56% Productivity +50% Job Retention (12-month) +50% Life Satisfaction +29% Sick Days -13% Job Burnout (Maslach Burnout Inventory) -40%

Nowack, K. & Zak, K. (2017). Brain Trust, Talent Economy Magazine, 2, 28-33 Psychological Safety Interpersonal Trust Psychological Safety/Interpersonal Trust Lenses T Focus on How R Focus on How I Behave Others Behave Towards U Towards Others Me Psychological Safety S Interpersonal Trust T History of Psychological Safety 1. Schutz (1958; FIRO-B) 2. Schein & Bennis (1965; “unfreezing” teams) 3. Kahn (1990; employee engagement) 4. Ryan & Deci (2002; self-determination theory)

Summary: Self-Determination Theory is a theory of motivation and personality that addresses three universal, innate and psychological needs: competence, autonomy, and psychological relatedness. Originators: Edward L. Deci and Richard M. Ryan, psychologists at the University of Rochester. 5. Google Project Aristotle (2012) 6. Edmondson (2004; 2018); Radecki, 2018) 7. Lance Frazier, et al., Creighton University (2017; Meta- analysis) 136 independent samples representing over 22,000 individuals and nearly 5,000 groups What are the Building Blocks of Psychological Safety/Interpersonal Trust? Envisia Learning Psychological Safety/Trust Pillars Framework

Psychological Safety/Interpersonal Trust Pillars

• Consistent

• Capable

• Caring

• Candor Trust and Culture

Myers, E. (2015). Getting to Si, Ja, Oui, Hai, and Da. Harvard Business Review. December, 2015 Trust and Culture

Myers, E. (2015). Getting to Si, Ja, Oui, Hai, and Da. Harvard Business Review. December, 2015 Trust and Culture Cognitive vs. Affective Trust

China Turkey Mexico Spain Cognitive Affective Trust Trust

Poland

UK Norway U.S.

Erin Meyers (2015). Professor at INSEAD Paris. Getting to Si, Ja, Oui, Hai, and Da. Harvard Business Review. December, 2015 Book: The Culture Map: Breaking through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business The Neurobiology of Psychological Safety “Sticks and stones can break my bones but Charles Darwinwords can never hurt me.” Unknown Social Rejection and Physical Pain

Social pain activates brain regions key in the response to physical pain and correlates with self-reported distress

Eisenberger, N., Lieberman, M. and Williams, K. (2003). Does rejection hurt? An fMRI study of social exclusion. Science, 302, 290-292.

Four studies showed that recall of past socially painful situations elicits greater pain than reliving a past physically painful event and has greater negative impact on cognitively demanding tasks

Chen, Z., Williams, K., Fitness, J. & Newton, N. (2008). When hurt will not heal. Psychological Science, 19, 789-795. “Sticks and stones can break my bones Charles Darwinbut Tweets and posts can hurt much more.” Unknown The Neurobiology of Trust and Empathy The “Dark Side” vs. “The Force” Neuroscience of the Stress Response

Activating the primary threat and reward circuitry takes 1/5th of a second (we respond before we think 80 – 100 x faster)

Hambley, C. (2018). Coaching and Consulting: Making It Brain Friendly Stress Response: Tend and Befriend

Women respond to stressful situations by protecting themselves and their young through nurturing behaviors-- "tend" Forming alliances with a larger social group, particularly among women--"befriend" The “tend and befriend” response appears to be largely associated with the female hormone oxytocin (OT)

Taylor, Shelley (2002). The Tending Instinct: Women, Men and the Biology of Nurturing. New York: Times Books

Taylor, S. (2006).Tend and Befriend: Biobehavioral Bases of Affiliation Under Stress. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15, 273-277.

Taylor, S. E., Gonzaga, G., Klein, L. C., Hu, P., Greendale, G. A., & Seeman S. E. (2006). Relation of oxytocin to psychological stress responses and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis activity in older women. Psychosomatic Medicine, 68, 238-245. Tend and Befriend: The Female Leadership Advantage Oxytocin appears to be a key neurological contributor to empathy, trust and collaboration

Women leaders have been shown to use more transformational and participative leadership styles relative to men and this may have a biological basis to it mediated by oxytocin

Nowack, K. M. (2015). Do Men and Women Lead Differently? Talent Management Magazine, 11, 26-28

Zak, P. & Fakhar, A. (2006). Neuroactive Hormones and Interpersonal Trust: International Evidence Economics & Human Biology, 4, 412-429.

Morhenn, V., Park, j., Piper, E. & Zak, P. (2008). Monetary sacrifice among strangers is mediated by endogenous oxytocin release after physical contact. Evolution and Human Behavior, 29, 375– 383. Gender Leadership Bias

Female leaders are less popular and are judged more harshly than male counterparts

Most people associate women with communal traits such as affection, compassion, kindness, helpfulness, and gentleness Women’s success in managerial roles is more often attributed to luck or effort than to ability and failures tend to be ascribed to lack of ability

Carline, R. E. et al., (2019). Presidents’ Sex and Popularity: Baselines, Dynamics and Policy Performance. British Journal of Political Science. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123418000364 Trust is a Hormone Trust is a Neurotransmitter and Hormone

▪ The amount of oxytocin (OT) release produced predicts reciprocal trustworthiness and empathy

▪ Other neurochemicals have been ruled out as a contributor to trust behaviors

▪ The "care for others" effect of OT can occur at a distance through movies and social media (Zak, 2012) The Neuroscience of Trust—Trust Game Research

Decision Decision Maker 1 Maker 2 High Trust = All or some $

Low Trust = No $

High Reciprocator

Unconditional Non-Reciprocator

$$ $$

Time 1 Time 2 The Neurobiology of Trust Flaws in the brain’s ability to respond to oxytocin might contribute to social disorders

1. About 2% of all participants were particularly untrustworthy despite elevated basal levels of oxytocin 2. Untrustworthy individuals have personality traits similar to psychopaths (indifferent to or non- reactive to other’s suffering)

Zak, P. & Fakhar, A. (2006). Neuroactive Hormones and Interpersonal Trust: International Evidence. Economics & Human Biology, 4, 412-429.

Zak P, Stanton A, Ahmadi S. (2007). Oxytocin Increases Generosity in Humans. PLoS ONE 2(11): e1128. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001128

Morhenn, V., Park, j., Piper, E. & Zak, P. (2008). Monetary sacrifice among strangers is mediated by endogenous oxytocin release after physical contact. Evolution and Human Behavior, 29, 375-383. Trust is a Hormone: OT Expression

▪ 1,300 healthy young Chinese adults in Singapore in a non-clinical setting were studied

▪ Those with higher expression of CD38 and CD157 a gene that governs the release of OT, had more close friends and better social functioning

▪ Variation in CD38/CD157 accounted for 14 percent of the variance in social skills in the study population (a rather large size)

▪ Those with lower CD38/CD157 expression were found to engage in fewer social interactions, were less socially adept, and had fewer close friends

Chong, et al., (2017). ADP ribosyl-cyclases (CD38/CD157), social skills and friendship. Psychoneuroendocrinology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.01.011 Oxytocin Enhancers and Inhibitors < Women, on average, produce more oxytocin (OT) than men INHIBITORS Progesterone

Epinephrine (in high stress situations we switch to a survival mode)

Testosterone

• Decreases as men age when they are in committed relationships and have children but rise with social status

• Released 5 to 10 times higher in males

• Synthetic testosterone administered to men, relative to a placebo, to act more selfish and entitled

ENHANCERS

Estrogen ACTH (moderate stress) Oxytocin Meta-Analysis Research

) • 19 studies • 21 studies • 23 studies • 18 studies • Conducted a • OT leads to • Neural • Intranasal • Oxytocin meta-analysis of 7 intranasal OT trust more trust activation oxytocin administration game (481 • OT effects are greatest in the administration showed participants) weaker, temporal enhances the greater showed that the absent or lobes recognition of attenuation of combined effect mixed when • Left insula in facial the cortisol in size of intranasal

partner is both sexes expressions of response to al., (2015) et Nave OT on trust was

Wigton et al., (2015) small and not emotions, and Cardoso al. et(2014) laboratory unknown shows most reliably different activation that it elevates tasks that Kranenburg Kranenburg et al., (2013 from zero - the level of in- strongly

Van IJzendoorn et al., (2012) Van group trust activated the HPA-axis Bakermans Oxytocin Research Cautions/Limitations 1. Oxytocin can produce positive, neutral, or negative effects depending on the context and the person ( 2. Intranasal oxytocin may reduce trust in people who are socially anxious, have borderline personality disorder and people with trait aggressiveness

3. While oxytocin increases in-group trust, it can produce out-group bias, envy and schadenfreude (De Dreu et al., 2012)

DeWall et al., (2013). When the Love Hormone Leads to Violence: Oxytocin Increases Intimate Partner Violence Inclinations Among High Trait Aggressive People. Social Psychological and Personality Science, DOI: 10.1177/1948550613516876.

Bartz et al., (2015). Differential Effects of Oxytocin on Agency and Communion for Anxiously and Avoidantly Attached Individuals. Psychological Science, 25, 1-10

Bartz, et al., (2010). Oxytocin can hinder trust and cooperation in borderline personality disorder. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 6, 556-563.

Bartz et al., (2011). Social effects of oxytocin in humans: context and person matter. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15, 301- 309. In-Group Identities and Biases The Bias Iceberg (Nowack & Zak, 2020) In-Group Bias: Race

▪ 3-month-old infants, not newborn infants, demonstrate racial bias in favor of members of their own race and by looking longer at own-race faces Racial bias begins at younger age, without experience with other-race individuals

▪ Six to eight-month-old infants followed the gaze of members of their own race more than other-race individuals to videos showing an animal image Infants are biased to learn information from own-race adults as opposed to other-race adults

Kelly, D., et al., (2008). Three-month-olds, but not newborns, prefer own-race faces. Developmental Science, 8, F31-F36.

Xiao, N., et al., (2017). Infants Rely More on Gaze Cues From Own-Race Than Other-Race Adults for Learning Under Uncertainty. Child Development, DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12798 In-Group Bias: Race

▪ Empathic neural responses increase significantly when participants viewed faces of other races with participants who had been born in or immigrated as a child (between 1 and 9 years of age) to a Western country populated predominantly by Caucasian people or in new immigrants (5 years or more in society)

Zuo, X. & Han, S. (2013). Cultural experiences reduce racial bias in neural responses to others' suffering. Culture and Brain, 1, 34-46, 10.1007/s40167-013-0002-4

Cao, Y. et al., (2015). Racial bias in neural response to others' pain is reduced with other-race contact. Cortex, 70, 68-78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2015.02.010 In-Group Bias: Religion

▪ Neural responses for empathy and distress were recorded (fMRI) with 130 participants observing six hands being pricked with a needle or cotton swab ▪ Religious labels were placed above the hands (e.g., Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Atheist, etc.) ▪ Empathic neural responses decreased significantly when participants viewed hands pricked of other religions that differed from their own ▪ A single word label is enough to influence how much you care about others Atheist David Eagleman (2015). The Brain with David Eagleman, Episode 5 In-Group/Out-Group, PBS In-Group Bias

▪ Gender ▪ Speech/Voice ▪ Age Nationality ▪ Socioeconomic status ▪ Ethnicity ▪ Sexual orientation ▪ Physical Abilities ▪ Education ▪ Height ▪ Health ▪ Weight ▪ Occupation ▪ Appearance ▪ Political Affiliation ▪ Hobbies ▪ Religion Individual-Level Approaches to Minimizing Bias

1. Enhance an empathy mindset through training (Shuman, Zaki, & Dweck, 2014; Halperin, Goldenberg, et al., 2011, 2016)

2. Practice empathy-based perspective taking (Ames et al., 2008)

3. Practice compassion based mindfulness meditation (Valk et al., 2017)

4. Reflect on decisions involving others each day and those you might exclude

5. Make a commitment to interact with someone you perceive as different (step outside your comfort zone) and explore similarities and differences Building High Trust/Safe Cultures Research on Minimizing Bias Organizational-Level Approaches to Building Trust Cultures 1. Provide feedback to leaders on practices that can contribute to a high trust team

2. Encourage and reinforce an appreciation culture that impacts well-being and engagement (Leiter et al., 2016; Stocker et al., 2019)

3. Encourage healthy lifestyle practices in employees to minimize incivility (particularly sleep; Nowack, 2017)

4. Articulate company values around empathy and tolerance for differences in the initial interview/selection processes (Nook, 2016)

5. Screen, select and promote for high civility and emotional/social competence (Porath, 2016)

6. Evaluate current selection, promotion, succession, evaluation and hiring processes (use practices that provide unambiguous information about candidates’ qualifications)

7. Utilize standardized selection tools and procedures, and other methods that predict future job performance

8. Mandate a diverse slate of candidates and blind review (Bohnet et al., 2016)

9. Provide employee training/coaching on conflict, communication, feedback and listening skills to enhance tolerance for differences Questions The Neuroscience of Trust and High Performance Teams References

Zak, P. J. (2018). The neuroscience of high-trust organizations. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 70(1), 45-58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cpb0000076

Nowack, K. (2019). The Female Advantage. Training Journal Magazine, June 2019

Nowack, K. & Zak, P. (2018). The Neuroscience of Empathy. Talent Economy, April, 2018.

Nowack, K. (2017). Facilitating Successful Behavior Change: Beyond Goal Setting to Goal Flourishing. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 70, 1-19. Zak, P. (2017). The Neuroscience of Trust. Harvard Business Review, 95, 85-90.

Zak, P. (2017). Trust Factor: The Science of Creating High Performance Companies. AMACOM, New York.

Nowack, K. and Zak, P. (2017). Brain Trust. Talent Economy Magazine, 2, 28-33. Barraza, J. A., Zak, P. J. (2009). Empathy toward strangers triggers oxytocin release and Subsequent generosity. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1167, 182–189. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04504.x

Barraza, J.A., McCullough, M.E., Zak, P.J. (2011). Oxytocin infusion increases charitable donations regardless of monetary resources. Hormones and behavior, 60, 148- 151.

Kosfeld, M., Heinrichs, M., Zak, P. J., Fischbacher, U., Fehr, E. (2005). Oxytocin increases trust in humans. Nature, 7042, 673–676. doi:10.1038/nature03701 Nowack, K. (2015). Do Men and Women Lead Differently? Talent Management Magazine,11, 26-28.

Zak, P. (2008). The neurobiology of Trust. Scientific American, 298, 88-95.

Zak, P. J., Stanton, A. A., Ahmadi, S. (2007). Brosnan, Sarah, ed. Oxytocin increases generosity in humans. PLoS ONE, 11, e1128. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001128 Zak, P., Kurzban, R., Matzner, W. (2005). Oxytocin is associated with human trustworthiness. Hormones and Behavior, 48, 522–527.

Zak, P. J., Kurzban, R., Matzner, W. T. (2004). The neurobiology of trust. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1032, 224–227.