Social Engineering Blogs

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Gestures and Culture

stockvault-the-eight-wonder100380Gestures are one of the first things to come to mind that can cause a major cultural faux pas.  People from every culture have been guilty of unintentionally offending people from other cultures through the use of inappropriate gestures.

Huffington Post reports on the dos and don’t in cultural gesturing.

For instance in America we tend to use the OK sign to communicate that everything is going well.

In many countries such as Brazil, Germany and Russia, the OK sign is offensive.  In Japan it means “money” and is commonly used in France to mean “zero“.

Another example of gesture confusion across cultures, that the article points out, is the “V” hand symbol used most often in America to represent “peace“.  Popularized during the 1960′s but first used by Winston Churchill in England around WWII, this seemingly benign symbol can mean so much more.   In Australia, the United Kingdom, South Africa and a few other countries, it can mean “up yours“  if it is made with the palm is facing inward.

The thumbs-up gesture is commonly used in America as well as other cultures to signify a job well done. However, in Australia, Greece, or the Middle East — especially if it is thrust up as a typical hitchhiking gesture would be — it means essentially “Up yours!” or “Sit on this!”

Body Language conveys roughly 90% of what we communicate to the people around us.  It is vital especially for good relations that we are aware of how and what we communicate to people from different cultures.

Humintell understands the importance of proper communication across cultures, which is why we have developed IntelliCulture – Humintell’s cross-cultural adaptation training tool.  IntelliCulture helps you understand what culture is, which groups have culture and which do not as well as how to think critically when encountered with a difficult cultural situation.

Have a better understanding of the definition of culture and where it comes from
Understand which groups have culture and which ones don’t
Understand what culture is made of and how it influences behavior
How to overcome cultural differences
How to control your emotions when dealing with people from other cultures
Think critically when encountered with a difficult cultural situation
Improve interactions among people of different cultures

– See more at: http://www.humintell.com/improving-your-global-skills/#sthash.5dMqMONU.dpuf

Have a better understanding of the definition of culture and where it comes from
Understand which groups have culture and which ones don’t
Understand what culture is made of and how it influences behavior
How to overcome cultural differences
How to control your emotions when dealing with people from other cultures
Think critically when encountered with a difficult cultural situation
Improve interactions among people of different cultures

– See more at: http://www.humintell.com/improving-your-global-skills/#sthash.5dMqMONU.dpuf

 Do You Know Any Cultural Gestures that Weren’t Mentioned?
Share them with the Humintell Community!

Dark Triad Recap #2

We’ve covered a lot of new ground since we created our Dark Triad Summary page last month.  As our research continues to progress, we’ll update this page periodically to help you stay up to speed.  As always, feel free to contact us with questions, or drop a comment on a past or future Dark Triad post if you have any tips or insights you’d like to share.

Here’s the latest version of the Dark Triad Summary page:

What Is The Dark Triad?

The Dark Triad is a term used by social psychologists that refers to three inter-related personalities: sub-clinical narcissism, sub-clinical psychopathy, and Machiavellianism.  The connections between these traits were first documented in 2002 by psychologist Delroy L. Paulhus.

How Are The Dark Triad Personalities Measured?

The most common tool for measuring sub-clinical narcissism is the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, or NPI.  It usually contains 40 items, although the Corry version uses only 23.  Psychologists still debate the validity of this tool.  The most common tool for measuring sub-clinical psychopathy is the Psychopathic Personality Inventory Revised, or PPI-R.

In 2010, personality researcher and Dark Triad specialist Peter K. Jonason published a consolidated tool for measuring Dark Triad traits called The Dirty Dozen.  The tool contains 12 of the most reliable and representative items pulled from the NPI, PPI-R, and MACH-IV (Machiavellianism) tools.

Narcissism

1.  I tend to want others to admire me.

2.  I tend to want others to pay attention to me.

3.  I tend to expect special favors from others.

4.  I tend to seek prestige or status.

Psychopathy

5.  I tend to lack remorse.

6.  I tend to be callous or insensitive.

7.  I tend to not be too concerned with morality or the morality of my actions.

8.  I tend to be cynical.

Machiavellianism

9.  I have used deceit or lied to get my way.

10.  I tend to manipulate others to get my way.

11.  I have used flattery to get my way.

12.  I tend to exploit others towards my own end.

How Does The Dark Triad Relate To The Big Five Personality Traits?

The Big Five personality traits are Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness:

Extraversion: This trait includes characteristics such as excitability, sociability, talkativeness, assertiveness and high amounts of emotional expressiveness.
Agreeableness: This personality dimension includes attributes such as trust, altruism, kindness, affection, and other pro-social behaviors.
Conscientiousness: Common features of this dimension include high levels of thoughtfulness, with good impulse control and goal-directed behaviors.
Neuroticism: Individuals high in this trait tend to experience emotional instability, anxiety, moodiness, irritability, and sadness.
Openness: This trait features characteristics such as imagination and insight, and those high in this trait also tend to have a broad range of interests.

All three personalities are associated with disagreeableness (low agreeableness).  Narcissism and psychopathy both share an association with high extraversion.  Research suggests that narcissists can be neurotic; psychopaths generally are not.

How Are Dark Triad Traits Exhibited?

Personalities exhibit themselves through various factors.  Our simplified narcissism factor model has two factors, borrowing from the Corry Two-Factor Model:

Status-Seeking (Trying to assume power or control over others through leadership or expertise)

Overconfidence (Believing others are more interested in oneself than in other things)

 Our simplified psychopathy factor model has three factors, borrowing from the PPI-R Three-Factor Model:

Recklessness (Disregarding consequences of one’s actions to oneself or to others; lack of planning/goal-setting)
Nonchalance (Disdaining potential danger/embarrassment; inability to feel stress)
Coldheartedness (Lacking remorse when one’s actions negatively affect others)

 The Big Question – What, if anything, enables Dark Triad males to sleep with more women, more often, with less romantic commitment? 

There are at least three possibilities:

1. Dark Triad males may employ unique social strategies that effectively enlarge their pool of potential successes.

One online survey showed Dark Triad males have lower mate-selection standards for traits like creativity, kindness, and liveliness, and characteristics like physical attractiveness and social status.  If that is true, then these men are simply lowering their standards and increasing their options, not attracting more women.  However, another study’s findings suggest that narcissists do not lower their standards when choosing which women to target.  Although the men in this study were paid to approach women, they weren’t incentivized to approach women indiscriminately.  In other words, more approaches did not increase their individual payouts.  They were motivated purely by personal preference.  In our opinion, the second study’s findings are stronger.
In Positive Psychopathy, we examined 7 different psychopathic traits featured in Kevin Dutton’s book, The Wisdom of Psychopaths.  Four traits – focus, mental toughness, fearlessness, mindfulness, and action – are traits that strategically help psychopaths in social situations, including dating and seduction:

Focus – The ability to mute distractions in extremely hectic environments.  Focus is obviously a useful trait in any situation.  By quickly seeing, processing, and remembering tiny details most people miss, psychopaths with this traits excel where others fall behind.
Mental Toughness – The ability to remain unfazed in high pressure situations.  A psychopath with a high level of mental toughness does not respond negatively to criticism or rejection; he simply continues on until he succeeds.  Only a psychopath absorbs stress this easily.  For the rest of us, high rates of failure are inefficient and emotionally taxing.
Fearlessness – The ability to approach high-risk situations without apprehension or inhibited faculties.  It allows the psychopath to try things that other people don’t attempt.  These endeavors have fewer competitors, and succeeding at them is easier for the psychopath as a result.
Mindfulness – An intense, Zen-like state of attention for a current task.  Very similar to focus, mindfulness enables the psychopath to ignore not only present distractions, but also future worries and consequences.
Action – The companion trait to fearlessness.  Action allows psychopaths to constructively channel their natural disdain for risk and embarrassment; they proceed with a task that’s likely to fail even if they know it probably will.  Because psychopaths attempt high-risk endeavors more often than most people, they can claim more individual successes.  From a distance, it seems as if they succeed at them more often than they actually do.

2. Dark Triad males may possess personality traits that are intrinsically attractive.

In Zeroing in on Narcissism, the researchers isolated boldness as a mediator of narcissistic attractiveness.  They did not, however, test what common narcissistic behaviors best demonstrate boldness (besides simply walking up to girls and blatantly asking for contact information.)  We plan on using Vangelisti’s list of narcissistic conversational tactics to help us determine what some of these behaviors could be.
Charm, one of Kevin Dutton’s seven positive psychopathic traits, is the exception to the other six; the rest are strategically useful because they statistically increase success rates for psychopaths in social situations. Charm, however, is intrinsically attractive; it almost always succeeds.  Whether or not it can be learned or mimicked is an open question.

3. Dark Triad males may appear more physically attractive than the average male.

“Zeroing in on Narcissism” also isolated physical attractiveness as a mediator of narcissistic attractiveness. Cleanliness and neatness of dress were two characteristics common to narcissists in the Back Zero-Acquaintance study, but the researchers didn’t control for physical attractiveness.  Given the results of these two studies, it seems that narcissists put more effort into their physical fitness and aesthetic appearance than the average person.  This isn’t surprising, but it is important.
Decades of research suggests that attractive people are afforded more benefits than unattractive people.  If the Dark Triad males is in fact better-looking than the average male, his successes in and out of the dating world could simply be the result of a kind of stereotyping called behavioral confirmation.

Deceptive Dimensions: Intro to Deception

A successful persuasive campaign usually ends with another person acting against his or her own interests in favor of yours.  Since most people are naturally selfish, getting them to act against their interests requires deception.  Rare are the times when all the facts will be on your side, rarer still will be the times when you need to persuade someone to act selfishly, and rarest of all are the people who won’t use deception when trying to persuade you.  Basically, if you’re not deceiving, you’re probably not persuading; attempting to influence someone without deception is like trying to win a war without bullets.

So far, our Dark Triad project has kept us busy with one kind of deception: creating false impressions.  But the project we’re opening up with this post will, hopefully, make another form of deception safer and more efficient for you.  It’s something you do hundreds of times each day, with little or no thought: lying.

You’re probably very good at lying already.  In fact, you’re probably such a good liar that you don’t notice yourself doing it until you get caught.  Also, you’ve lied so much for so long to so many people, that by now, you’re just going through the motions.  If you had a shitty weekend, you lie to your coworkers on Monday and say, “It was fine.”  If you’re running late, you say, “I’ll be there in five minutes,” even if you have no idea how the long the traffic jam you’re stuck in will last.  If you have an engagement ring in your pocket and your girlfriend asks why you look so nervous, you say, “I’m not nervous, why would I be nervous, why, do I look nervous to you, I swear, everything’s fine, I’m not nervous, I swear!”

Ever wonder if anyone actually believes you?

We do.  We want to help you to become a better liar.  That’s why we’re here.

The first step in putting a beneficial habit (in this case, your lying habit) under conscious control is to breakdown the behavior into parts. Once you can control each individual aspect, you can control the whole behavior much more easily.  Thankfully, lying has already been broken down for us by none other than Paul Ekman, the world’s leading expert on emotions, body language, facial expressions, and, of course, deception.

In 1969, Ekman and co-author Wallace Friesen published, “Nonverbal Leakage and Clues to Deception.”  This article initiated decades of research on deception and non-verbal behavior, changed the way law enforcement and security specialists handle interrogations and screenings, pioneered the discovery of micro expressions (involuntary facial expressions that occur without conscious awareness), and inspired a short-lived TV crime drama on FOX.

For us?  Well, for now, we just want it to change the way you think about lying.  The article is mostly theory, designed to provide definitions and concepts to assist in the research that came after it.  In that spirit, we will keep the analysis to a minimum.  Think of this post as a glossary you can refer back to as our project progresses.
 
Terms
 
Usually, we lie on the fly, and then forget about it.  We want you to look at each lie more carefully.  Every one has characteristics common to all lies that affect how easy the lie will be and the odds that you will get away with it.  Ekman calls these characteristics deceptive dimensions.
 

Deceptive Dimensions – Characteristics of specific social situations where lying is involved.

Deceiver – The liar or the person thought to be lying.

Detector – The person being lied to or who thinks he is being lied to.

Stakes – For the deceiver, the stakes are the incentives to lie and to avoid being caught.  For the detector, the stakes are the incentives to catch the deceiver in a lie.

Salience – The degree to which deception is an explicit focus of conscious concern.

 
Salience is determined by how much lying is expected in a situation.  High saliency occurs in situations where everyone involved is acutely aware that deception is happening; the deceiver knows he is lying, and the detector knows she is probably being lied to.  Car sales, contract negotiations, and pick-ups are all situations of high saliency.  Low saliency usually occurs when lie detection is not a priority; job interviews (where the interviewer is primarily focused on qualifications) and low-stakes game-play are examples of low saliency.  Saliency is also affected by personal history, stereotyping, or personality.  For example, a repeat philanderer explaining why he’s coming home late is in a situation of high saliency when lying to his wife.  A straight-laced high school student is in a situation of low saliency when lying about cheating on a test.

Symmetry – The relative degrees of saliency between liar and detector.

Every lie has either asymmetrical or symmetrical saliency.  Asymmetrical saliency occurs when one person, either the deceiver or the detector, is less aware than the other that a lie is occurring.  Usually, the detector has lower saliency than the deceiver, but sometimes the deceiver has lower saliency.  Examples of this latter situation are when a person is delusional (he is lying to himself), and when the detector is paranoid or is making false accusations (the “deceiver,” in this case, is actually being truthful.)  Symmetrical saliency almost always occurs in situations where the stakes are extremely high for both deceiver and detector.  Car sales, contract negotiations, and pick-ups fit this description.  Symmetry also describes situations where one or both persons are occupying the role of deceiver and detector.  In labor/management disputes, for instance, the role-play is symmetrical: both parties are deceivers and detectors simultaneously.

Leakage – Involuntary behaviors (usually non-verbal) that indicate information is being concealed.

Sending Capacity – The relative ability of different regions of the body to convey messages.

Sending capacity is measured in speed, variety, and visibility.  In the 1969 article, Ekman considers three general regions of the body: the face, the hands, and the legs.  The face has the highest sending capacity in all three categories; the hands rank second and the legs rank third.  (Later on, Ekman’s work will help us look at these regions in greater detail; for now, these three general categories are sufficient.)  Each region’s sending capacity is affected by anatomy and culture.  The face’s sending capacity, for example, is high because it’s highly innervated and has an intricate musculoskeletal structure, enabling it to form many expressions very quickly.  It’s also highly visible because most people are trained to look at the face during conversation.  The legs, on the other hand, are not highly innervated, contain just a few very large muscles compared to the face, and are usually hidden from view under a table or desk.  Furthermore, it isn’t culturally permissible to look at a person’s legs (especially a woman’s) during conversation, so even if the legs are visible, you couldn’t watch them for leakage without getting slapped.

Feedback – The information a deceiver uses to determine if his or her lie is being believed or if he or she is lying well.

Feedback and leakage originate in the same degree from the same regions of the body; the face provides the most, the hands the second-most, and the legs the least.  Feedback is mostly external; it comes back to the deceiver from the detector.  Internal feedback is rarer; it is only received by the deceiver if he is aware of his or her own facial expressions and body language during deception.

Applications

Understanding saliency and symmetry is crucial for effective lying and lie detection.  Lying is hardest under symmetrical, high-salience conditions where the liar is both deceiver and detector.  Lying is easiest under asymmetrical, low-salience conditions where the deceiver is not expected to be a detector.  If you have time to plan before telling a lie, try to figure out the salience, the symmetry, and your expected role.  If you’re heading into a symmetrical, high-salience situation where you’ll be expected to lie and be lied to, you might want to stall for time, find an alibi, and collect evidence undermining the other person’s lies.  If you’re heading into the opposite situation, don’t sweat it; save yourself the time and energy.  Most likely, though, you’ll be dealing with something in between these two extremes.

Leakage, feedback, and sending capacity (according to Ekman’s hypothesis) are interrelated.  The greater the sending capacity a region of the body has, the more a detector will focus on it, and the more the deceiver will try to control it.  When lying, the deceiver will do his best to control his face; when being lied to, the detector will do her best to watch the face of the deceiver.  As a result, something strange happens; the legs and hands (the poorest senders) leak more deception clues than the face (the best sender).  But nobody – neither deceiver nor detector – notices it.  When the face leaks, it’s imperceptibly fast, and neither person is likely to notice.  This is great news for a liar like you.  You’re already good at controlling your facial expressions from years of practice, and the people you’re lying to are trying to catch you by looking at the one area of your body that leaks the least.  They probably wouldn’t know how to interpret leakage from your hands or legs even if they did look.  But even better news is the edge you could have on them when they try to lie to you; watch their legs and hands.  Learn how to read leakage from these poorly-monitored body regions, and you will catch them.

Sources

Ekman, P., and Wallace, Friesen V. (1969). “Nonverbal Leakage and Clues to Deception.” Psychiatry Journal for the Study of Interpersonal Processes, 32(1), 87-106.

Next Post in Series: Intro to Deception – Deceptive Dimensions