Social Engineering Blogs

An Aggregator for Blogs About Social Engineering and Related Fields

The Language of Language

What do people unconsciously communicate through things such as intonation, accent and phrasing?  And is it really possible to detect a lie?

Well, that is exactly what computer science professor and expert in spoken language, Julia Hirschberg, is setting out to examine.  Things to take into consideration, according to Hirschberg, “How do people convey that it’s another person’s turn to speak? What do people mean when they say ‘okay’? There are so many different ways it’s used.”

Reported on PHYSORG.COM Hirschberg is working with Barnard psychologist, Michelle Levine and Andrew Rosenberg on her current research project that was funded by a $1.5 million grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to study deception in speech across cultures.

In 2003 Hirschberg began her work with deception in speech, which is one of the largest collections of such data partly because, as she purports, it is so difficult to collect real lies in situations where the truth is known.

“The best liars are the people who tell the truth most of the time,” said Hirschberg, who received her Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania.  This year, she received the International Speech Communication Association’s Medal for Scientific Achievement as well as the James A. Flanagan Award for Speech and Audio Processing from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

She hopes that her research will make great strides in the fields of security such as deception detection and language development.

What are your thoughts on this type of research? Do you think it is important to be able to delineate the signs of deceptions on a regular basis, or should such research findings be kept for science and security fields?  Could such research findings possibly impede our social relationships?

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?

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?