A lot of the advice about charisma or communication tries to alleviate the same anxiety — How am I coming across? — and then offers tips on telling a compelling story, making a perfect pitch or a better argument, or how to have a surprising fact or quirky anecdote in your back pocket to wow your audience. But if you watch the people who are most interesting in conversation, they’re not the ones desperately sweating out an interesting story for attention. They’re visibly interested and creating interest is a lot easier than producing charm because you don’t have to manufacture it. You just have to unlock it, and ley curiosity not just improve the conversation but changes everyone’s brain and nervous system. How Curiosity Affects the Brain and Reduces Anxiety My friend and colleague Judson Brewer has watched this happen in brain scanners. Curiosity lights up the networks associated with learning and insight as the brain comparing and connecting and working produces new ideas. And, it does something else interesting- curiosity quiets anxiety in the …