Social Engineering Blogs

An Aggregator for Blogs About Social Engineering and Related Fields

Body Language and Hotel Employees

The Baltimore Sun has just reported that body language helps hotel employees interact better with customers.

In this rough economic time it is especially important for pricier hotels to employ experts to help their employees interact well with customers and ensure that they have a great experience.  Hotels are finding every way possible to ensure that their customers are kept happy in an effort to  promote return business.

One hotel chain Affinia, sought the advice of a body language expert to ensure high quality service for their customers.  Housekeeping up to maintenance were trained to spot the signs of frustration, discontent and anger.  Even hotel reservation teams can benefit from this training according to Chrissy Denihan, Affinia‘s  chief comfort officer.

The hotel industry relies heavily on good rapport.  If a person has a unpleasant experience at a hotel then they are less likely to stay at that hotel chain again especially if the cost is high.  Word of mouth can really build or ruin a hotel chain.

According to Denihan, research shows that women often respond better to face-to-face interaction whereas men prefer side-by-side communication.   Also, the biggest mistake is to talk too calmly (when someone is upset) and be too soothing,” Denihan said. “The person on the line doesn’t hear a sense of urgency to help them.”

What are your thoughts on hotel chains employing body language experts?  Do you think it will help in customer relations or have neutral effect?

Detecting the Truth!

There are many products and people out there claiming to have all the answers to deception detection.  However, not all of these are based on actual scientific research or might be based on antique scientific techniques that are outdated and now being proven inaccurate.

So how can someone actually tell if a person is lying?

According to the experts such as Dr. Matsumoto and Dr. Mark Frank, there is no one tell tale sign of deception.  Average men and woman (without training) are only able spot deception about 50% of the time.  Yep that’s right, their odds of detecting deception is no better than chance.

An interesting article in The Morning Post Exchange, depicts Pamela Meyer, a social media expert with an MBA from Harvard and a Masters in Public Policy, stating that we are lied to between 10 to 200 times a day.

In the article, Meyer goes on to delineate the pandemic of deception she believes we are facing today.  Throughout the accompanied video she “arms people with tools that can help take back the truth”.  Much of what she says is backed by scientific research on nonverbal communication, body language and the seven universal facial expression of emotion.

Scientific American also chimes in on the debate of body language and communication.  The article comments on mis-communication due to our advances in technology.  With the popularity of texting and emailing (especially since the invention of smartphones, which makes access to the internet readily available)  communication has lost some important social aspects necessary for understanding.   The succinct article suggests that communication is a two-way street and hand gestures as well as vocal inflection and microexpressions play a significant role in how we are interpreted (i.e. understood) and how we interpret others.

As our technology advances exponentially, we are able to realize the benefits and limitations of the devices we use today to detect deception.

One example is the polygraph machine, which was invented in the early 20th century which is still being used today. The reliability of the polygraph is debatable and it is not admissible in a court of law, but law enforcement agencies use polygraph machines all the time.  So what are the benefits and limitations of such a device? We previously blogged about the polygraph conundrum and its pros and cons.

Take a look at the video below from Michael Shermer (which we originally viewed on Eric Goulard’s blog), which poses a potential answer to the question:  Can the polygraph machine really scientifically measure if someone is lying?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Cleansing Your Body Cleanses Your Mind

Feeling guilty about that carmel macchiato you just gulped down, having doubts about the job you just interviewed for, or feeling a little seasonal depression?  Well, just jump into the shower or suds up your bath and clean your body.

Yes that’s right, cleansing your body can cleanse your mind.  US News Health has reported that researchers at the University of Michigan revealed that hand-washing and bathing help people rid themselves of emotional baggage.

Their findings were a review of past studies and were published in Current Directions in Psychological Science.  An interesting link between cleanliness and our minds is that in past studies people judged others more harshly for moral wrongs when they were in a messy room or exposed to a bad odor.

Just remember, there is always two sides to every coin, and people who think they are clean (key word think) also tend to believe they are morally superior to others.  As we all might have experienced, this is not always the case.

Another query to ponder, what about those of us who are constantly washing our hands or worrying about germs.  Well, a different study revealed that people feel less guilty when they think of something immoral they had done if they used an antiseptic wipe.

Researcher Spike W.S. Lee. points out, “Cleansing is about the removal of residues.  [It also] removes the residual influence of earlier experience.”  That last remark applies to both happy memories and bad ones the researchers purport.

What are your thoughts on the researcher’s findings?  Does cleansing your body help you also cleanse your mind?