Social Engineering Blogs

An Aggregator for Blogs About Social Engineering and Related Fields

Inside the Interrogation Room

ABC News’ “Primetime: Crime” was granted unprecedented access to the inner-workings of the Houston Homicide Division, to explore how Homicide Detective Sgt. Brian Harris conducts interviews in the interrogation room, otherwise known to law enforcement as “The Box”.

Sergeant Harris emphasizes that coercive interview techniques are ineffective when trying to illicit information from a suspect: “I treat them with dignity,” he told ABC News’ Chris Cuomo. “If they can see me as a person that views them with dignity, the chances of communicating are starting to open up.”

Indeed it’s true: when trying to illicit information from someone, research shows that non-coercive interview techniques based on rapport building have been proven to be the most effective.  One extremely important part of rapport building involves reading emotions and then reacting to those emotions appropriately.

Take a look at the video below for Part 1 of “Inside the Interrogation Room”.

Also, don’t forget to take a look at Dr. Matsumoto, Dr. Hwang and Dr. Frank’s front cover article “The Role of Emotion in Predicting Violence” in this month’s edition of the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin.

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Understanding Cultures Around the World

The news of the death of dictator Kim Jung-Il of North Korea has created divergent emotions among the population of the entire world.

Many people are relieved to hear of the austere and ruthless dictator’s death.  People from varying countries especially democratic countries such as the United States feel relief that the wave of oppression, which has engulfed North Korea for over 4 decades (Kim Jung-Il reigned from 1994-2011) is hopefully now over.

However, the scene within the country reveals a very different interpretation of the epic event.  Mourners for former North Korean leader lined streets and public squares outwardly lamenting his death.  Cries could be heard at every corner and tears were seen dripping down the faces of North Koreans everywhere.

How can that be, one might ask themselves, if their government was so oppressive?

Understanding different cultures is the key to understanding the reactions of many North Koreans.

IntelliCulture Humintell’s newest cross-cultural adaptation course is designed to help the individual broaden their understanding of culture, where it comes from and how it influences behavior.

IntelliCulture provides useful tips on how to leverage cultural differences and think critically when encountered with a difficult cultural situation.

In spite of what seems to be, for at least some, genuine lament for Kim Jung-Il’s death, the Washington Post National has reported that strict punishments will be dealt out to North Koreans who did not seem genuine in their lamenting of the former North Korean leader. 

They purport that punishments will include either six months in a labor camp or a re-education camp.  The North Korean government; however, reports via their news agency KCNA that this is a mere smear campaign.  They officially stated that even bears and magpies lamented their former leader.

New Facial Expression of Emotion?

HealthCanal.com purports that new research suggests that there is a facial expression for anxiety.

Published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the study focused on the facial expression of the emotion of anxiety and claims to have found the facial characteristics that are connected to the display of that emotion.

The research, conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King’s College London, was not clear if they were going to try to conduct additional research to see if this could be considered a universal facial expression.  It is clear though that further research needs to to be undertaken before any concrete assertions are confirmed.

What are your thoughts on a facial expression for anxiety?

Lead author of the study Dr. Adam Perkins affirms that many animal studies link anxiety to risk assessment behavior, suggesting anxiety can be explained as a defensive adaptation. We wanted to see if this was also the case in humans.’

In the study facial expression images were correctly matched in 89% of emotive scenario presentations on average. The facial expression generated in response to an ambiguous threat scenario was correctly matched to ambiguously threatening scenarios in 90% of scenario presentations.

The IoP researchers delineated scenarios that elicited standard emotions, such as happiness, sadness, anger, disgust and surprise to a group of participants.  Then they described scenarios containing ambiguous threats, which are known to elicit risk assessment and anxiety in rodents.

The study’s findings seemed a bit vague.  They suggest that, “anxious facial expression appears to have both functional and social components – its characteristics help assess our surrounding environment, and communicate to others our emotional state.” However, that same definition can be said of the seven universal facial expressions of emotion along with specified FACS characteristics.

What do the researchers feel are the immediate benefits of this study?

Well, Dr. Perkins states, “We hope our findings will in due course help doctors more effectively diagnose anxiety in their patients.  We also think the findings may also help security personnel identify individuals engaged in wrongdoing by means of their anxious, risk assessing facial expression.”

To see  short facial expression video click here and scroll down.