Charles Duhigg

Journalist @NewYorker & NYT Bestselling author of The Power of Habit and Supercommunicators. Over 15M+ readers.

Check out Supercommunicators 👇

[Charles Duhigg @cduhigg]

Supercommunicators just spent its 22nd week on the New York Times bestseller list, so I want to share 10 🚫shallow questions vs. 🤝deep questions to help you become a supercommunicator at work:

A thread 🧵

[Charles Duhigg @cduhigg]

In 1995, psychologists manufactured genuine closeness between total strangers in under an hour using 36 questions, and the only thing that made it work was that both people took turns answering them. Closeness was never really about years or chemistry. It is two people taking turns being a little brave.

#CharlesDuhigg #Supercommunicators #CommunicationScience

[Charles Duhigg @cduhigg]

When someone you love is struggling, jumping straight to advice is the exact move that shuts them down. Ask a deep question about how they felt, loop back what you heard, and check if you got it right because that is the moment they actually feel understood.

#CharlesDuhigg #Supercommunicators #CommunicationScience

[Charles Duhigg @cduhigg]

A polished email used to signal effort, intelligence, and care. Now AI can produce the same thing in seconds, which means the signal that took centuries to build has quietly stopped working. When polish costs nothing, it stops being proof. You have to start looking for the thinking underneath.

#CharlesDuhigg #Supercommunicators #CommunicationScience

[Charles Duhigg @cduhigg]

Motivation is not a personality trait you either have or you do not. It is a skill, and research shows the prerequisite for it is believing you are in control, which you prove by making a choice, any choice, before you feel ready. Stop waiting for the feeling and start with the one piece you actually want to do.

#CharlesDuhigg #PowerOfHabit #HabitScience

[Charles Duhigg @cduhigg]

A neuroscientist discovered that the feeling of instantly clicking with someone is not a metaphor, it is two brains literally falling into alignment, a phenomenon called neural entrainment, and our brains evolved to crave it. The people who create that feeling most consistently are not more charming, they just ask more questions, match the other person's energy, and make it obvious they actually want to understand you.

#CharlesDuhigg #Supercommunicators #NeuroscienceOfConnection

[Charles Duhigg @cduhigg]

Research shows the missing ingredient in lasting change is not willpower, it is belief, and the fastest way to build it is borrowing it from people who already have it. The people around you are not just company. They are the difference between a change that fades and one that actually sticks.

#CharlesDuhigg #PowerOfHabit #HabitScience

[Charles Duhigg @cduhigg]

Henry Molaison had part of his brain removed in 1953 and could no longer form a single new memory, yet he kept getting better at tasks he had no recollection of ever practicing, which is how scientists discovered that memory and habit run on two completely different systems in your brain. You do not break a bad habit with willpower because the habit was never sitting in the thinking part of your brain to begin with , you break it by keeping the cue and the reward and changing only the routine in between.

#CharlesDuhigg #PowerOfHabit #HabitScience

[Charles Duhigg @cduhigg]

In 2012, scientists wired up two guitarists and watched their brains, breathing, and heartbeats synchronize the moment they played together, and researchers found the exact same thing happens when people simply tell each other stories. Connection is not about the right words. It is two nervous systems falling into the same rhythm, and it only switches on when you are genuinely present.

#CharlesDuhigg #Supercommunicators #NeuroscienceOfConnection

[Charles Duhigg @cduhigg]

The most powerful move in any hard conversation is a half second pause before you answer, because every conversation is either practical, emotional, or social and you only connect when you are both in the same one. You are not bad at conflict. You just answered the wrong conversation.

#CharlesDuhigg #Supercommunicators #CommunicationScience

[Charles Duhigg @cduhigg]

MIT researchers discovered that habits are never actually deleted from the brain, they are permanently encoded, which is why a habit you quit months ago can come rushing back the moment the original cue reappears. You cannot erase a bad habit. You can only build a new one strong enough to overpower it.

#CharlesDuhigg #PowerOfHabit #HabitScience

[Charles Duhigg @cduhigg]

Every conversation is either practical, emotional, or social, and the only reason most conversations go wrong is because two people are in different ones at the same time. Match the conversation the other person is actually having and that is when people feel genuinely understood.

#CharlesDuhigg #Supercommunicators #CommunicationScience

[Big Think @bigthink]

How to diagnose a habit | Charles Duhigg @cduhigg

[Siim Land @siimland]

I just published a podcast with Charles Duhigg about:
- The neuroscience of habits
- Why behavior change is so difficult
- How to redesign your habit loops
- Why GLP-1s may be changing more than appetite
- How to use the "habit window" to create lasting change

Worth listening to if you want to understand how habits really work: https://t.co/vN48SSsbs6

[Big Think @bigthink]

How to define the conversation | Charles Duhigg @cduhigg

[Auren Hoffman @auren]

career advice from Charles Duhigg:
always assume you'll be wildly successful and also assume it'll take 2-10x longer than you think. if you'd still do it, you actually like the activity. if you only want the outcome, it's a bad bet.

[Charles Duhigg @cduhigg]

Vulnerability is not crying on someone's shoulder, it is the moment you share something they could judge you for and watch how they respond. When they withhold judgment instead, your brain registers it as safety.

[Charles Duhigg @cduhigg]

When a conversation is going well, your breathing, heart rate, and even your brain activity start to sync with the other person, a phenomenon neuroscientists call neural entrainment.

[Charles Duhigg @cduhigg]

Teachers are now being trained to ask one simple question before any difficult conversation: do you want to be helped, hugged, or heard?

[Charles Duhigg @cduhigg]

I've toured the world, written bestsellers, and spoken about communication on the biggest stages — and the conversations I think about most are the ones with my kids.

[Charles Duhigg @cduhigg]

Relaxation is an active state. We need to do something to get there.