Social Engineering Blogs

An Aggregator for Blogs About Social Engineering and Related Fields

Pokertox: Botox for Poker Players?

According to Huffington Post, a doctor of aesthetic medicine in New York, Dr. Jack Berdy,  has just introduced “Pokertox,” a program of Botox and facial fillers designed to enhance a player’s “poker face,” their ability to hide any sign of facial emotion that might tip off other card players on whether they have a good or bad hand.

The process requires Berdy to consult with players about what they believe their “tells” are – the unconscious signals they give off to other players.

“Some people might get a card they like or don’t like and raise their eyebrows,” Berdy told The Huffington Post. “If that’s the common reaction, we can put Botox in certain areas to minimize them.”

For Berdy, “Pokertox” was a way to combine his occupation with his love of gambling, and he’s hoping to make a jackpot, especially since an application of “Pokertox” only lasts about three or four month, requiring further applications for players to keep up appearances.

But it’s not a sure bet for him. So far, no one has signed up for the service since he began offering it last week, and many poker players, such as Josh Hale, are skeptical.

Hale, who has competed on the World Poker Tour, thinks the idea may be 10-to-15 years too late.

“The game has moved on from bluffs, and is more analytical these days,” he told HuffPost. “Players might look at physical tells, but they are relying more on betting patterns and bet sizing.”

Do you play poker? What do you think? Would pokertox help give you an edge at the game?

Subtle Expressions – Did You SEE That ?

Leveraging nearly 50 years of study and research, Humintell combines state-of-the-art behavioral science with real world practical experience to provide unique training.

Nonverbal behavior is a major component of communication, and facial expressions of emotion are the most important and complex signal system humans have.

Humintell’s advanced Subtle Facial Expression Training better known as SubX provides the user with facial expressions of lower intensity that are a major part of everyday communication especially in Detecting Deception .

Research has documented the existence of seven universally expressed and recognized facial expressions of emotion. The impact of this finding is immense: all people – regardless of race, culture, ethnicity, age, gender or religion – express these emotions in the face in exactly the same ways.

The ability to accurately read signs of emotion in the form of macroexpressions, microexpressions and subtle expressions is an extremely important skill for establishing relationships, building rapport, eliciting information, negotiations, and management positions.  Anyone who interacts with others on a face to face basis will benefit from our training.

Test your skills, try our Advanced SubX Training today!

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Raise the Bar Not Your Voice

USA Today has reported on yelling in the workplace and at home and why for many this is so prevalent.  Past research has shown that roughly 88% of parents yell or shout  (a thousand families were included in these findings) at their children.

An interesting tid-bit is that 100% of  parents of 7 years-old admitted to yelling at their child often.  Research has found that yelling at your kid is exhausting for both the yeller (mostly parents) and the receiver of the yelling (mostly kids). Children who are yelled at regularly learn to tune out the yells and therefore, truly do not hear anything that the yeller is trying to communicate to them.

We all fall prey to yelling at some point or another for whatever reason, but chronic yelling can have a very negative affect on the trust and security of our relationships.

Why do we Yell? Well, for various reasons but the underlying truths are we are angry, frustrated or need to simply let it out (vent).  John Armando , a licensed clinical social worker, says,

“That belief, that things should be the way we want them to be, tends to trigger that primitive behavior in us. I think yelling would be an example.  I’ll increase my volume as a way of trying to solve this problem. But, people get intimidated and push back. So what you get is more of the problem…(Yelling) almost never works, yet we continue to try it. And we continue to escalate.”

 All that information is great, but What can you Do to curve your Yelling outbursts?  Well the article goes onto note the following ideas.

1.  Understand  the Difference between Teen and Adult Brains: 

Teenage brains are very reactive (not simply rebellious) and sense anger, shock and fear more readily than adults .  Scientifically teens use their amygdala (911) area of the brain to process emotion.  Whereas, adults use their pre-frontal cortex where problem solving and reason are mediated.

Food for thought opinion of the writer] this might be an adaptive trait since they are as “children” subject to the rule and regulations put in place by the “adults” that surround them.

The article suggests that they might yell because they feel a threat to their emotional well-being or as a Mayday response to an adult’s yelling causing them to run or debate or  tune it all out.

2.  Simply Calm Yourself:

Always try to diffuse the stressor in relationships by gaining distance on it and acknowledging that we are all just human and have the same emotions, fear, sadness, anger, frustration, etc.

Saying to yourself or out loud that you are never going to yell again is a recipe for more yelling and a sure way to deem yourself a failure,which can lead to anger or frustration, therefore more yelling.

3.  Break the Yelling Cycle by actively implementing the following Strategies: 

a.  Breathe, breathe, breathe.  Whether it is to start your day or at the moment before an eruption  Take a breath in for four counts and out for seven.

b.  Notice you body’s physical response, your heartbeat, sweat, etc before an urge to yell.  This can help strengthen you Self-Regulating neural pathways to boost self-calming.

c.  Regular exercise, including Yoga, are always a good ways to boost your immune system and inflammation making you feel better overall, which can have an impact on how you handle the “little things”.

Do you have any techniques that work for stressful situations or to curb yelling?  Share them with the Humintell Community !