Amygdala hijack

They know we'll panic.

They are intentionally triggering a physiological response known in psychology as an amygdala hijack.

An amygdala hijack.

Break that down for me.

The amygdala is the primitive emotional center of your brain responsible for processing immediate threats and triggering the fight or flight response.

That makes total sense.

Scammers, on the other hand, rely on intimidation and manufactured urgency.

They will threaten you with dire consequences if you break the connection because they know that the moment you hang up the phone, the amygdala hijack ends.

Here's what actually is happening.

Psychologist Daniel Goleman named this exact moment the amygdala hijack.

When your brain's threat detection center, the amygdala, takes over before your prefrontal cortex, the part responsible for reasoning and impulse control, can catch up.

For a few seconds, you are quite literally not thinking.

But when it was her time to speak, she fell into what she called the white hole.

And that's something that I would say is her experience of something called the amygdala hijack.

Have you heard that term? I have heard you talk

about it, but please share some details.

You know, you see these people that are really uncompromising in business.

That's a defense mechanism.

And do men and women experience this amygdala hijack differently?

No, it's physiologically the same for all of us.