Social Engineering Blogs

An Aggregator for Blogs About Social Engineering and Related Fields

Genuine Sadness or Posed Grief? Gerard Baden-Clay

The story of murdered mother Allison Baden-Clay has gripped Australia for the past several months.

Allison’s husband Gerard Baden-Clay was accused and convicted of killing his wife Allison at their home in the affluent western Brisbane suburb of Brookfield on April 19, 2012, and dumping her body on the banks of Kholo Creek at Anstead about 14 kilometres away.

In his only television interview since the day she disappeared, Gerard pleaded for his wife’s return.

Take a look at the video below. What do you see? What do you not see? Is this posed grief or genuine sadness? What influences your opinion?

For more on the Baden-Clay story, visit this page

Click here to view the embedded video.

 

Gestures & The Fist Bump

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Courtesy of StockVault

NPR reports on the Fist Bump as the new High-Five!  The fist bump became a big issue when President Obama used it in his 2008 campaign as a greeting to a restaurant employee.  As most of us know the fist bump has gained popular standings to signal a job well done, “I agree with you”, or “what’s up”.

Howie Mandel, a well known comedian, has also contributed to the popularity of this gesture as he uses it quite often in his role as a judge on  America’s Got Talent.  The question is, where did the fist bump come from and how did it become so popular that the President of the United States has come to use it as well?  Did this gesture originate in the U.S. and do other cultures have similar versions of this nonverbal gesture?

According to the article, the fist bump came about from America’s sports world, noted David Givens, an anthropologist with the Center for Nonverbal Studies.  The first bump was a way that friends greeted each other on and off the field.

“The fist bump is one of the few gestures that is equal,” Givens told Goats and Sodas (NPR’s new blog, covering health and all sorts of development around the world),  “You could do it with President Obama, and you’d both be equals at that time.“

Usually when two people shake hands its a nonverbal communicator of who wants to be or who is in control of the meeting. Usually the person who’s hand is on top is in control, but with a fist bump neither person has the “upper hand”.

Humintell’s Director Dr. David Matsumoto also commented on the Japanese greeting of the bow, which is similar to the American greeting of a hand shake.    “The bow is a form of respect,” Matsumoto,  psychologist at San Francisco State University noted, “But the varying degrees of angle of the bow, when bows are performed, and to whom, all show something about hierarchy.“

The fist bump is spreading widely across the nation, and according to Givens, is due in large part  to the fact that it is NOT just a greeting but also a  sign of approval and triumph.

Other cultures have varying degrees of the high five or greeting gesture.  Many nonverbal gestures have multiple meanings depending on the culture they belong to.

To learn more about gestures and what they mean…Check out Humintell’s newest webinar recording:  “World of Gestures”

Music & Our Emotions

Spotify is a music streaming service (much like Pandora) that provides digital rights management-restricted content from record labels to the greater public.

With the inception of the mobile phone, specifically the iPhone (and iPods), music had become a more intrinsic part of  our lives. Music can have powerful effects on our emotions and with today’s technology we can listen to tunes in almost any part of the world.

Spotify worked with Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience  Professor at the University of Groningen, Jacob Jolij, to reveal some of the songs that trigger the clearest emotional responses from their listeners.

Below is a listing of popular songs and the emotions they elicit:

1. Happiness – Mostly uptempo, major key note songs such as Katy Perry’s Birthday.

2. Sadness – I Need from One Republic. Sad songs tend to be in a minor key and have a slow tempo – exactly what one would expect the opposite of songs that evoke happiness. In a previous blog post we explored research that looked into why people enjoy listening to “sad” music.

3. Anger –  Songs with negative lyrics and in a minor key David Guetta – Bad

Anger, opposed to sadness, is what we call an approach-emotion: it involves movement, a dimension anger shares with happiness.

4. Overcoming Fear – Coldplay’s, Magic has a slower beat and has major cords

Fear is a negative emotion, characterized by a stress response that prepares you for a ‘fight-or-flight’ reaction. In order to overcome fear, the very first thing you need to do is to minimize your stress response, followed by managing your internal thoughts.

If you want to preview the songs listed above check out the links below provided by Spotify.