Social Engineering Blogs

An Aggregator for Blogs About Social Engineering and Related Fields

The Humintell Blog July 16, 2014

Why are we so easily Deceived ?

stockvault-read-a-book106337Many people rely on their intuition rather than their knowledge when trying to discern truth.  This may seem like the opposite of what should happen, but new research finds that there are ways we can be tricked into thinking that something feels familiar, trustworthy and true.

The Washington Post writes on why most people are so easily duped. It seems that instead of recruiting your general knowledge to answer a claim, you’ll turn to your intuition.

Cognitive psychologist, Eryn Newman, delved into the question of, How we come to believe that things are true when they are not?  In her research at UC Irvine , Newman and colleagues used photos to look at the powerful effect images have on our memories, beliefs and evaluations of others. Past research has shown that photographs can aid in a person’s comprehension and make it easier to learn new information.

However, cognitive psychology research shows that photos can also be misleading. Photographs are a moment from a real event, so we often view them as evidence that an event actually took place. Sometimes with just the notion that a photo is a representation of a real event, we are tricked into believing a claim even when it is not actually substantiated by the photograph.

In a study by Elizabeth Loftus and others at UC Irvine, people who saw a doctored photo of President Obama shaking hands with the former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad actually said they remembered the event happening — even though it was completely false. Photos can even trick us into remembering false events from our own childhood. People who saw a doctored childhood photo came to remember a false event (riding in a hot air balloon) with the same detail and emotion that you would expect from a real memory.

This feeling of familiarity could influence us in a variety of contexts. In the courtroom, an easy name might make a witness or expert seem more credible. In the workforce, an easy name might help an individual’s résumé float to the top of a stack. And in the news, a photo — even one that is only loosely related — might make a story seem more credible.

How can we avoid being taken in by a false sense of truthiness? Cognitive psychology research has shown that people are often unaware of their biases or how information influences their judgments. But simply being warned about the influence of names and photos might just make us a little more cautious — leading us to look for truth that comes from books, and not the gut.

 To Learn more information on these topics and how the pronunciation of our words also influences are beliefs, Read the Entire Article.

Filed Under: Nonverbal Behavior, Science

The Humintell Blog July 14, 2014

The Science of Emotions

Given their inherent subjective nature, emotions have long been a nearly impenetrable topic for scientific research. Affective neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp explains a modern approach to emotions, and how taking the emotions of other animals seriously might soon improve the lives of millions.

 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Filed Under: Science

The Humintell Blog July 1, 2014

Monkey Face – Don’t Mate with Me!

Monkey Faces

Courtesy William L. Allen

Science Magazine reports on a research that highlights the importance of the face and its signal value in evolutionary history.

The Guenon monkey species tend to live in close proximity to each other, but it is important that they don’t interbreed as such offspring has been found to be infertile.   From an evolutionary standpoint, this species would have died off (or at least drastically decreased the size of their population) if they were not able to somehow know this and not interbreed.

So how has nature dealt with this?

Researchers reported, in Nature Communication, that the Guenon species that live in close contact have evolved certain facial expressions to prevent interbreeding.

The researchers used facial recognition algorithms to analyze photos that were compiled over a year and a half time frame.  They found key features that illustrated the the differences between neighboring species, which is counter to a past belief that it was environmental factors (i.e.lighting etc) that caused the Guenon facial diversity.

Filed Under: Nonverbal Behavior, Science

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • …
  • 128
  • Next Page »

About

Welcome to an aggregator for blogs about social engineering and related fields. Feel free to take a look around, and make sure to visit the original sites.

If you would like to suggest a site or contact us, use the links below.

Contact

  • Contact
  • Suggest a Site
  • Remove a Site

© Copyright 2025 Social Engineering Blogs · All Rights Reserved ·