Social Engineering Blogs

An Aggregator for Blogs About Social Engineering and Related Fields

Anomalies and Deception Detection

While reading people can help in better communicating, it can also help in determining if somebody is lying to you. It was for this purpose that Humintell’s Dr. David Matsumoto and Dr. Hyi Sung Hwang worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigations to develop a rubric for how to effectively tell if you are being lied to.

Here, they focus on a series of tell-tale indicators, or behavioral anomalies, that give clues into the emotion or motivation of an individual. Law enforcement officials use these to verify statements or attempt to predict possible acts of aggression. While the subtlety of such indicators makes them difficult to detect, it also means that the interviewee does not necessarily know when they have exposed themselves.

One type of indicator consists of verbal cues. For instance, lies tend to omit details, use fewer words, and lack clear or defined structures. This is complicated however, as sometimes detailed descriptions of fictitious accounts are also markers of a lie. They offer an example of when an interviewee gives subtle details about a situation that, according to them, didn’t occur.

Another crucial type of indicator rests in purely non-verbal behavior. These often include excessive blinking, certain gestures, and fleeting microexpressions.  For example, when an interviewee is trying to conceal fear, their eyes might flash suddenly, revealing the white above the iris.

While we distinguish these two types, they are deeply interwoven, and a successful interviewer must keep both considerations in mind.

It is also important to expand on the term “anomaly.” While many people think that lying behavior is just universally evident, this is not always the case. Instead, a skilled interviewer must try to learn as much as they can about the person’s underlying personality. It is when people notably deviate from their baseline behavior that deception indicators are most apparent.

We also have to clarify that many so-called experts in deception detection emphasize indicators that have not been supported by empirical evidence. These often focus on eye contact, arguing that a failure to look an interviewer straight in the eye is a sign of deception. Numerous studies have disproven this persistent claim, so it is important not to let this sway your assessments.

While we would love to just list out everything to look for, these indicators are often either incredibly subtle or context-dependent.  After working closely with law enforcement to train them in these detection techniques, however, Dr. Matsumoto reported a dramatic increase in accuracy, from 10 to 25 percent!

Thankfully, these techniques are not limited to high-level law enforcement. While Humintell is proud to work with all sorts of agencies, we are also thrilled to work with people like you. We offer both a comprehensive class in evaluating truthfulness and a course in predicting possible signs of aggression that can help translate these ideas into making you the best people reader and deception detector possible.

Cultural Gestures and Verbal Cues

Many gestures may be universal, but are associated verbal cues translatable?

Last week’s Olympics blog discussed the universal gesture of triumph and touched on Humintell’s research into the universal nature of many gestures. However, just knowing that many gestures are universal is not enough to effectively read people. Instead, it is important to connect them to verbal messages.

This is exactly what Humintell’s Dr. David Matsumoto and Dr. Hyi Sung Hwang attempted to do in a 2013 study. This research catalogued various gestures, including both culturally similar ones as well as gestures that vary drastically between cultures.

They asked participants from all over the world to list out gestures based on a comprehensive list of possible verbal messages. These gestures were then shown to participants from the same region in order to maintain validity in the experiment. This process allowed Drs. Matsumoto and Hwang to determine which gestures were recognizable as the verbal cue in question.

Interestingly, they found that universal and varying gestures tended to convey categorically different emotions. While many culturally-specific gestures had complex associated messages, universal gestures tended to convey pretty elemental or basic emotions.

Still, they did notice differences. Some verbal messages, such as an insulting one, occurred in every culture but with different associated gestures. Other gestures occurred universally but with different meanings, including the “A-Ok” symbol in Western cultures which conveyed a variety of meanings, including a reference to “money.”

Finally, there were some gestures which were culturally specific and who’s verbal message existed nowhere else. For instance, the gesture for “apology” only occurred in South Asia, and the signal for “hunger” was not present outside of East Asia. No other regions used these gestures or used gestures to convey these concepts.

This sort of research is critically important for those of us who want to better read people. Many gestures convey verbal messages, clarify speech, or amplify certain meanings, all of which add nuance to complex social interactions.

If we simply exclude gestures from communication, we miss a whole sphere of human interaction. Moreover, when trying to interact across cultures, especially if we do not speak a common language, a focus on universal gestures can go a long way towards bridging otherwise intractable differences.

The trick, of course, is knowing which gestures mean the same thing in different cultures. While this blog tries to help you build this knowledge, it can only do so much. Instead, we encourage you to take advantage of Humintell’s specialized cross-cultural training programs to make you a better people reader, regardless of where in the world you happen to be.

Universal Olympian Triumph

The Olympics are also an incredible insight into the universality of emotional expressions.

In addition to being an amazing showcase of emotions, as we discussed last week, the Olympics also demonstrate the unity of human emotions across cultures. Given that the Games bring athletes together from all over the world, they present a prime study in the differences and similarities between differents expressions of emotions.

Followers of this blog should be familiar with the phenomena of universal basic emotions but also with the reality that cultural differences do complicate the process of reading people. Gestures, eye contact, and social cues all vary, so we cannot rely on excellent people reading skills in one culture to replicate our abilities in other situations.

However, as Humintell’s Dr. David Matsumoto maintained in a radio interview last week, there are some emotions that span such cultural divides. One of these is the expression of triumph, which is so frequently showcased by Olympic victors.

As mentioned last week, Dr. Matsumoto’s research has found that, upon winning the gold, Olympic athletes almost invariably showcase the same emotion: triumph.

Interestingly, this is not traditionally included as a universal basic emotion, but all the same, Dr. Matsumoto found it again and again in pictures and videos of triumphant competitors. He noted: “When we studied pride, there was always something gnawing at me because some of the expressions that were previously labeled pride just didn’t make that much sense to me.”

Eventually, he and fellow Humintell researcher Dr. Hyi Sung Hwang labeled this emotion triumph, contending that “Triumph has its own signature expression that is immediate, automatic and universal across cultures.” Instead of the subtle, self-satisfied smile that marks pride, triumph is displayed in a jubilant, almost aggressive fashion.

In the aforementioned radio interview, Dr. Matsumoto pointed out that this emotion holds even in cultures where dominance and triumph are generally deemphasized in favor of humility, and it can be seen amongst non-human primates and even other animals as well. This all suggests a deep evolutionary and biological root behind the emotion of triumph, which we have also noted with other emotions.

Moreover, its manifestation is not just limited to a facial expression. Triumph is often accompanied by a sort of “victory stance,” with arms raised and head held up high. This holds for victors from all over the world, emphasizing past research that found similarities in gestures universally across cultures.

Last week we emphasized that the Olympics are a great time to focus on trying to read expressions, because they are particularly pronounced in both defeat and victory. But reading facial expressions is only one facet of successfully reading people. This week, we would like to encourage you to look at gestures. Can you note the features of a triumphant stance? Does anything else jump out at you?