Social Engineering Blogs

An Aggregator for Blogs About Social Engineering and Related Fields

Susan Constantine Reports on the Jodi Arias Trial

Jodi Arias is on trial in Arizona for the murder of her on again, off again boyfriend Travis Alexander.

Her trial has been filled with numerous memory lapses, recantations, and to many she seems to be a master manipulator and habitual liar.  She originally reported that she was not present at the crime scene and then later admitted to being present and taking photos of Travis.

Susan Constantine, Humintell’s Florida affiliate and body language expert has commented on the Arias trial.  She has been featured on numerous TV stations and in many articles such as US News‘ article on body language and job interviews.

In the 3 minute clip below, Susan talks about Jodi’s poised and controlled demeanor breaking down and her leaking microexpressions such as contempt.

Facebook Emotions

Emotions have become a popular topic as global communication becomes more widely spread not just to businessmen and women but to social media junkies as well.  One of the biggest social media sites is Facebook.

Facebook continually updates its site to keep up with the needs and desires of its followers.  As emoticons have become more popular on the iPhone and Android, many Facebookers tried to include them in their status updates.  These would either not show up or show up but later disappear.

Engadget writes about Facebook’s new sharing option for user status updates.  They have created not only a group of “emoticons”  for people to capture and share how they are feeling with a picture or two but icons that let your friends know exactly what you are doing.

The company began testing this new sharing option back in January and has now released it to their general users.  Some might remember way back to 2006 and note that this is similar to a previous MySpace feature.  However, Facebook has taken it a step further (as they often do) and added icons of books, TV shows, music, food as well as emoticons for emotions.

The question now is, is this really a good thing?  For many people it is and will add a little drama and color to their otherwise monotone written dialogue.  However, some fear that for the younger generations it will replace the already too short acronym style communication.   Could future posts just be linear images of pop culture icons?

Most of the icons (excluding the emoticons) are also linked to their product websites so not only is this a “convenience”  for the social media communicator but it has the ability to generate revenue as well, which in a consumer driven county is on high demand.

So end it with a smiley, winky face or a an image of the Game of Thrones and bring your friends along for your ride of life.   To find out more on the benefits of this new feature and how it works click here.

 What is your take on this new feature ? 
Are you for it or think it will cause communication issues with future generations?

Amanda Knox: A Hot Spot

Amanda Knox was recently interviewed by ABC’s Diane Sawyer in her first Primetime interview after she returned home from Italy where she spent 4 years in a prison after being convicted of murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher.

At the beginning of the interview, Knox shows what we call a “hot spot”: an inconsistency between what she says and what her nonverbal behavior says. Can you spot it in the video below?

Remember, seeing a hot spot does not necessarily mean that the person is lying. Rather, they are indicators of areas of concealed thoughts or feelings.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Want more hot spotting practice?
Take a look at these past blog posts: Looking for Hot Spots and Hot Spotting: Practice Makes Perfect