A large Danish study called The effects of Covid-19 related policies on neurocognitive face processing in the first four years of life was recently published in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience.

The study authored by Carlijn van den Boomen, Anna C. Praat, Caroline M.M. Junge, and Chantal Kemner investigated the effects of Covid-19 related measures on two facets of face processing in children aged 5 months to 3 years:

1. Face categorization (differentiating between faces and houses)
2. Emotional face processing (differentiating between happy, fearful, and neutral facial expressions of emotion)

Their research showed that babies and toddlers who grew up during the pandemic struggled to differentiate between happy and fearful facial expressions of emotion.

The children studied showed a marked difficulty in processing happy facial expressions, which the researchers believe was due to the limited variety of face-to-face interactions during the pandemic.

Background

The researchers wanted to study whether social restrictions introduced during the pandemic, such as reduced in-person interactions and widespread mask-wearing, may have shaped early brain development.

Studies have shown that infants are sensitive to emotions expressed through facial expressions since their first year of birth. In fact, a study published in PLOS ONE, suggests that fetuses even practice their own facial expressions while in utero!

The team wanted to know:

• Whether a reduced variety of facial exposure might influence how children process faces and how quickly they do so.
• Whether children can distinguish between different facial expressions of emotion (known as emotional face processing).

The Methodology

To investigate the questions above, the researchers used electroencephalography (EEG) to measure brain activity in over 900 children aged 5 months, 10 months, and 3 years.

462 children were tested before the onset of the pandemic, while 473 others were tested between March 2020 and April 2022 when COVID-19-related isolation and mask wearing policies were in place.

By testing the children at these different time periods, this allowed researchers to compare brain responses in children who had typical social exposure to those whose early years were shaped by limited social interactions and more frequent mask use in adults.

In the first part of the study, children passively viewed a series of images that included neutral faces, faces showing the facial expression of happiness, faces showing the facial expression of fear, and houses.
EEG recordings focused on event-related potentials (ERPs), patterns of electrical activity that occur in response to specific stimuli. The researchers analyzed three well-known ERP components linked to face processing.

The Results

1. Faster Face Processing

When it came to how quickly the brain responded to faces, the researchers found no meaningful differences in 5 or 10-month-old infants between those tested before and during the pandemic.

However, in three-year-olds, there was a notable difference.

Young children tested during the pandemic showed earlier responses to faces than their pre-pandemic counterparts, indicating faster neural processing of facial information.

The finding of faster face processing was somewhat unexpected.

In typical development, the speed at which the brain processes faces increases with age and experience.

However, some previous research in adults has shown that reduced facial information — such as when faces are masked — can lead to quicker processing.

2. Face Categorization

In contrast, the ability to tell the difference between faces and non-facial objects, known as face categorization, appeared unaffected by the pandemic.

Across all age groups, children tested before and during the pandemic showed similar patterns of brain activity when viewing faces versus houses.

This suggests that this fundamental aspect of face processing is resilient and may not depend as strongly on a wide range of facial experiences.

3. Reduced Differentiation of Emotional Expressions

One of the most striking findings emerged when the researchers examined how children responded to emotional expressions.

Children tested before the pandemic showed distinct patterns of brain activity when viewing happy, fearful, and neutral faces. But among those tested during the pandemic, this differentiation was reduced or absent.

In both ten-month-olds and three-year-olds, brain responses to happy and fearful faces became less distinguishable, especially in the later ERP components, which are thought to reflect attention or familiarity.

These differences were particularly driven by a reduced neural response to happy faces.

While children in the pre-pandemic group showed stronger brain responses to happy expressions, those tested during the pandemic had weaker responses.

This pattern suggests that happy faces were either less familiar or attracted less attention in the post-pandemic group.

Explanations

1. The researchers propose several possible explanations for their findings:
2. The variety of happy expressions that children saw may have decreased during the pandemic, due to both mask-wearing and the emotional toll experienced by caregivers.
3. If children saw fewer smiling faces, their brains may have become less attuned to recognizing and reacting to them.

The brain’s emotional face processing system is known to be shaped by experience, especially during early development.

Just as infants need to see a variety of faces to build a robust mental representation of them, they may also need a range of emotional expressions to learn how to distinguish them.

Consequences

This study is significant not only for parents but also for policymakers, as it demonstrates the broader societal impacts of pandemic-era policies.

Facial expressions of emotion are important cues in social and cognitive learning. As such, the limited processing of such cues can have far-reaching consequences for the further development of children.

This is important to know for policy makers, and for parents of and individuals working with children that were 0-4 years old during the pandemic.

Moreover, this insight could also benefit children born in non-pandemic times children, as they benefit from a variety of social experiences as well.

Limitations

The study does come with some limitations.

While the researchers inferred that children tested during the pandemic had reduced facial input, they did not measure the exact nature or frequency of children’s social interactions.

Researchers suggest it’s possible that some families maintained relatively typical social environments, while others experienced more extreme isolation.

Other factors, such as parental stress, mental health, and daycare attendance, may also have influenced the outcomes.

Additionally, while brain activity patterns were measured, the study did not assess behavioral responses, such as whether children could label or respond appropriately to different facial expressions.

Dr. Matsumoto’s Thoughts

The results of this study are not surprising, given the growing number of studies demonstrating the negative and somewhat deleterious effects of the use of masks on facial emotional expression recognition and identification in young children.

These negative effects are expected, given the importance of the exposure of the emotional expressions of others in human (and nonhuman) socio-emotional development.

These findings also dovetail with the many deleterious effects of the lack of play with others in childhood over the past several decades. Play with others is incredibly important for learning valuable skills, including problem solving, self- and emotional-regulation, communication, dispute resolution, and many others.

All of these skills are also vitally important in adulthood as well; and learning to read other’s facial expressions of emotion lays at the core of many of these skills.

These emotional detriments that have occurred because of the decrease in play and especially masking during the Covid pandemic may have serious effects for years to come.

Yet, we can all do something to self-correct, which would involve making greater efforts to allow our kids to interact with others, play outside, and deal with problems on their own, all of which can be facilitated by making sure our children learn to read facial expressions of emotion.

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Guest blog post by Ron Holloway, CEO, Holloway Resilience Solutions

In today’s uncertain world, leaders must be prepared to guide their teams through crises. Success during challenging times isn’t about avoiding adversity, but rather facing it with the right mindset and approach.

One of the most effective methods I use in coaching leaders is rooted in logotherapy principles and benefit finding, which help individuals not only survive but thrive during periods of disruption. The key is to frontload resilience, both logistically and psychologically, to transform crises into opportunities.

Seeing the Big Bad Wolf as a Fur Coat, Not Fangs

In times of crisis, most people instinctively focus on the fear and danger—the “big bad wolf” with sharp fangs. But what if we shift our perspective? What if instead of seeing the wolf as a threat, we view it as a valuable asset, like a fur coat that can keep us warm? This is the essence of benefit finding: reframing challenges in a way that reveals hidden advantages.

Crises often reveal vulnerabilities in organizations, but they also expose opportunities for growth, transformation, and innovation. Leaders who embrace this mindset can help their teams not only weather the storm but come out stronger on the other side.

Emotional Intelligence in Leadership Webinar

Frontloading Resilience: Logistical and Psychological Preparation

Resilience is a combination of preparation, adaptability, and mindset. By frontloading resilience, we equip leaders and their teams to face crises head-on with confidence and clarity. This involves two key components:

• Logistical Resilience: This includes preparing systems, processes, and infrastructures to withstand disruptions. Whether it’s supply chain flexibility, business continuity planning, or ensuring robust communication networks, logistical preparation ensures that when a crisis hits, the company can continue to function effectively.
• Psychological Resilience: The psychological side is equally critical. Using logotherapy, which emphasizes finding meaning in adversity, we help leaders and teams see beyond immediate fears and focus on the larger purpose. This involves cultivating a mindset where challenges are viewed as catalysts for growth and innovation. It’s about framing the crisis not as an existential threat but as a stepping stone toward something greater.

Logotherapy in Action: Finding Meaning in Adversity

Logotherapy, developed by Viktor Frankl, teaches that humans can endure almost any hardship if they find meaning in it. In a business context, this means that when teams are aligned with a clear mission and purpose, they can face even the most difficult challenges with greater resilience.

When crises occur, I work with leaders to reconnect with their organization’s mission. This could involve refocusing on customer needs, finding new market opportunities, or identifying ways to innovate under pressure. By doing so, teams shift from a mindset of survival to one of purpose-driven action. They stop fearing the crisis and start seeing it as a chance to reaffirm their values and pursue new avenues of growth.

Practical Steps for Leaders to Build Resilient Teams

Here are some actionable steps leaders can take to frontload resilience in their organizations:

1. Conduct a Pre-Crisis Audit: Evaluate the logistical strengths and weaknesses of your organization. Ensure there are contingency plans for various scenarios and that critical systems can function during disruptions.
2. Build Psychological Safety: Foster an environment where team members feel supported, even when mistakes happen. Encouraging open dialogue about fears and uncertainties can reduce the emotional impact of a crisis.
3. Frame Challenges as Opportunities: Regularly practice reframing challenges. Discuss past crises and how they were overcome. Identify areas where adversity led to unexpected gains or innovations.
4. Develop a Crisis Mission Statement: Create a clear mission for how the team will navigate crises. This should align with the company’s values and emphasize the opportunity to grow stronger, not just survive.
5. Practice Benefit Finding: During times of stress, encourage teams to actively seek out benefits from challenges. Whether it’s finding efficiencies, identifying new market needs, or streamlining processes, the ability to “find the fur coat” in the wolf’s threat is a critical skill.

Conclusion

Crisis doesn’t have to be feared—it can be leveraged. By frontloading resilience through logistical and psychological preparation, and embracing the principles of logotherapy and benefit finding, leaders can turn crises into opportunities.

With the right mindset, the “big bad wolf” becomes an asset, not a threat. Your teams will emerge stronger, more focused, and more aligned with the organization’s mission.

For more insights on how to build antifragile teams and thrive in times of uncertainty, visit Holloway Resilience Solutions.

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In their study entitled “If you blink at me, I’ll blink back. Domestic dogs’ feedback to conspecific visual cues“, researchers out of the University of Parme, “investigated the behavioral and physiological responses of 54 domestic dogs to videos of conspecifics performing blink”.

Research has already shown domestic dogs tend to blink more around other dogs. They also appear to blink to keep the peace with their canine companions—and humans as well—when tensions rise.

The Methodology

Lead researcher Canori and her colleagues created a variety of 12-second videos of a terrier, a cocker spaniel, or a border collie looking at the camera. In some clips, the dogs were blinking, and in others, they weren’t.

A third set of videos showed the dogs licking their noses, a well-known gesture that can signal eagerness or frustration in dogs.

The researchers then edited the videos and strung them together into 71-second clips. In clips with blinking and nose licking, these movements occurred every 4 seconds throughout the clip.

The team then showed the videos on a large screen and in random order to each of 54 adult pet dogs of various breeds who had never interacted with the dogs in the videos.

Researchers outfitted the canine viewers with heart monitors to assess their emotional reactions and also filmed them to spot blinking and other behaviors.

The Results

A few of the dogs got bored and fell asleep but the rest blinked about 16% more on average when watching the other dog blinking than during the two other kinds of scenes.

They found that when dogs witnessed other dogs blinking, they were more likely to blink. They compared these habits to the other behaviors such as nose licking and remaining still and attentive.

Interestingly, only the blinking caused the mimicry effect. Experts suggests that this nonverbal behavior is similar to when we see others yawn and then yawn ourselves.

The researchers suggests that blinking has been a means to express non-aggressive intentions towards members of their own species.

Reciprocal blinking in dogs might help to:

• Facilitate social bonds
• Cope with frustration
• Communicate non-aggressive intentions

Similar to yawning, researchers believe this behavior is related to emotion contagion; the phenomenon when someone’s emotions lead to or produce similar emotions to others.

Even if the blinking is purely reflexive, the results suggest dogs have evolved to use it in meaningful ways.

Researcher Francesconi notes the animals showed no signs of stress in their faces or heart rates while watching the videos.

“Blinking could be a way, for example, to signal, ‘I’m relaxed, and you can be, too.’”

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As technology advances, scientists from around the globe have been investigating the use of AI to help recognize animal pain signals.

Through computerized facial expression analysis, this AI technology can quickly and accurately recognize pain signals in animals. In some cases, AI is better at this task than some humans!

This AI technology has been used in animals from sheep to horses to cats.

An example includes the Intellipig System developed by scientists at the University of the West of England Bristol (UWE) and Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC).

Intellipig examines photos of pigs’ faces and notifies farmers if there are signs of pain, sickness, or emotional distress.

Facial Expressions in Animals

Like humans, animals convey how they’re feeling through their facial expressions. In fact, humans share 38% of our facial movements with dogs, 34% with cats and 47% with primates and horses.

But, as an article in Science points out, “the anatomical similarities don’t mean we can read animals’ faces like those of fellow humans. So, researchers studying animal communication often infer what an animal is experiencing through context”.

An example of this is pain; researchers studying animals can induce mild discomfort or be cognizant of pain signals after an invasive procedure such as castration.

After spending countless hours observing the faces of animals in painful or stressful situations, scientists can then compare them against animals who are pain or stress-free.

As a result, scientists developed “grimace scales” which provide a measure of how much pain or stress an animal is experiencing based on movement of its facial muscles.

In addition, like the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) used on humans, experts have also become skilled at coding facial movements in animals (AnimalFACS).

Amazingly at present, the FACS system has been adapted into 8 different species and their manuals are freely accessible through the animalfacs.com website:

• ChimpFACS: common chimpanzees
• MaqFACE: rhesus macaques
• GibbonFACS: hylobatid species
• OrangFACS: orangutans
• DogFACS: domestic dogs
• CatFACS: cats
• EquiFACS: domestic horses
• CalliFACS: marmoset species

However, coding work is incredibly tedious, and human coders need 2 to 3 hours to code 30 seconds of video.

This is where AI comes in.

AI can do the same task almost instantaneously, but first it must be taught.

Teaching AI to Read Animal Faces

At the University of Haifa, scientists Anna Zamansky and her team have been using AI to pinpoint the subtle signs of discomfort in animals’ faces.

There are many steps in teaching AI to read animal faces.

These steps include:

1. AI learning to ID parts of the face crucial to creating expressions (this is done by manually flagging important parts of the face associated with specific muscle movements).
2. Feeding AI a plethora of landmarked photos to teach it to find landmarks on its own.
3. AI identifying specific facial expressions by analyzing distances between landmarks.
4. Cross referencing expressions against grimace scales to determine signs of pain or distress.

Zamansky’s team trained their AI on photos of Labrador retrievers who were either eagerly anticipating a treat or were able to see the treat but were prevented from reaching it.

Their AI was able to successfully detect whether the dog was happy or frustrated 89% of the time.

The AI also successfully differentiated happy and frustrated horses in the same experiment.

Despite some limitations to their technology, Zamansky’s team is about to release an AI based app that will allow cat owners to scan their pets’ faces for 30 seconds and get easy to read messages.

The technology also extends to horses- researchers in the Netherlands have developed a similar app that scans resting horses’ faces and bodies to estimate their pain levels.

This app could potentially be used in equestrian competitions to improve animal welfare and fairness in the sport.

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A recent review published last year in the journal Plos One found that spontaneous laughter leads to health benefits.

The article combined the results from eight separate studies to answer the question: Does spontaneous laughter reduce cortisol levels?

What is Cortisol?

Cortisol is an essential hormone that affects almost every organ and tissue in your body.

It’s produced by the adrenal glans and plays many important roles, including: maintaining blood pressure, supporting immune function, boosting metabolism, and helping you stay awake.

When you are under stress, your body produces more cortisol; therefore, it is a good measure of stress levels. Too much cortisol can lead to weight gain, digestive problems, muscle weakness, depression, and anxiety.

Universal Laughter and Deception

Laughter as Medicine

Since the 1970s, medical experts have learned that laughter can boost pain tolerance and improve overall well-being.

This recent meta-analysis identified eight studies in which participants were encouraged to laugh by watching a funny video, working with a laughter therapist, or participating in a self-administered laughter program.

Some of the studies measured participants’ cortisol levels before and after a laughter session and others included control groups, which measured cortisol levels of participants without laughter.

Combining the data, researchers found that cortisol levels fell by 31.9% for people who participated in laughter interventions — and even a single laughter session led to a 36.7% reduction in cortisol. It didn’t matter how long participants laughed; any laughter led to reductions in cortisol.

Their analysis concluded that “spontaneous laughter is associated with greater reduction in cortisol levels as compared with usual activities, suggesting laughter as a potential adjunctive medical therapy to improve well-being.”

Other Health Benefits of Laughter

This recent review builds on previous research that has found that laughter can improve your overall health, well-being, and life satisfaction.

Here are few studies and benefits of laughter:

• A 2018 review found that laughter and humor interventions appear to enhance well-being in older adults.
• Laughter is also found to improve mental health and bolster personal development.
• Evidence suggests that laughter helps improve cardiovascular health.
• Laughter can decrease pain perception. One study found that laughter therapy reduced pain scores of people living with terminal cancer by nearly half.

The take-home message: Laughter is good medicine, and there is data to prove it. So do your best to find opportunities to laugh and giggle as often as possible.

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We’re excited to announce the launch of The Humintell Emotion Primer – a pocketbook guide to the basics of emotion.

It’s a little book that we put together that summarizes and describes some of the major points about emotions, especially about the basic emotions that we talk about in our work and that we’ve studied and written about for decades.

This Emotion Primer starts with a little introduction and it has 7 sections– each dealing with an important aspect about what makes emotion special.

1. The first section defines an emotion from our perspective. This is so important because in our experience, most debates and arguments about emotion occur because of differences in people‘s definitions of emotion and we think it’s always important to let people know what our definition of emotion is.

2. The second section describes the various types of emotions that exist and focuses on basic emotions. Research over the past half century plus has shown that basic emotions have features that other emotions don’t have. Now, humans have a lot of different emotions and some people have suggested that we don’t believe that other emotions are emotions. Of course we do! It’s just that basic emotions are a special class or category of emotion.

3. The third section talks about those features of basic emotions that distinguish them from other types of emotion. Remember, these features have been demonstrated in decades of research.

4. The fourth section talks about the differences between emotions and feelings. This is important because many people confuse them and use those terms interchangeably in our everyday lives.

5. The fifth section is on our affective world and distinguishes emotions from other phenomena that are emotional, like moods, personalities, and psychopathologies. This is also important because many of us don’t distinguish between emotion and other affective phenomena.

6. The sixth section lists the elicitors and functions of each of the seven basic emotions. This section is really important to understand the differences among them and to gain an appreciation of why emotions were important in the history of humans and in our every day lives today.

7. The seventh section has examples of each of the seven universal facial expressions along with a summary listing of the points that are mentioned in the other sections.

8. At the end, there’s a QR code that you can also scan and that leads you to a place on our website where we have all kinds of additional readings, blogs, and videos about emotions that we’ve done in the past. This section should round out this program well with additional insights and examples.

If you put it all together, there’s a lot of information about emotions that start with this little primer and then point us in different directions.

In the end, this primer is not a novel or a long and boring scientific treatise, but it does have very quick descriptions of the most important aspects of emotions.

This is exactly the same kind of information that anyone who wants to improve their knowledge and understanding of emotion should access.

We really hope you enjoy it. Get a Humintell Emotion Primer for yourself!

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Children Sleep Study

Researchers analyzed sleep and behavior data of 143 six-year-olds, mothers of whom were trained about responsive parenting in the first 2.5 years following birth.

The children wore sleep-monitoring devices on their wrists for a week. The devices kept track of when the children went to sleep, the quality of their sleep, and how long they slept.

The behaviors and emotions of the children were then tested in person in a clinic where they participated in various tasks that were intended to evoke frustration.

One task involved each child selecting a toy that they wanted to play with from a large selection. The chosen toy was placed in a clear box and locked.  The child was then given a set of keys, none of which unlocked the box.

The team then observed the child for self-regulated behavior, including self-talk and trying each key, and a lack of self-regulation — which included throwing the keys without trying them all.

After four minutes, the children were handed the correct key to the box and allowed to play with the toy.

Another task involved in the study was collaborative, which tested the children for their ability to cooperate.

Sleep and Emotion Regulation

The results showed that the more a child’s bedtime changed each night, the worse they regulated their behavior and emotions.

Findings from the study suggest that the regularity of the children’s sleep schedules—whether they went to sleep and woke up at approximately the same time each day over the course of a week—exhibited a greater influence over their emotional control and behavior than the duration or quality of sleep.

Children with more consistent, regular sleep schedules showed greater control over their emotions and behaviors.

This research sheds light on the nuanced nature of developmental sleep research, especially regarding the relationship between consistent sleep and emotional regulation.

Though duration of sleep is important, regular and consistent sleeping and waking times may be more instrumental in supporting children’s emotional control.

Bedtime Routines

Research has also shown that regular bedtime routines are vital to getting adequate sleep, yet only about 65% of families in the US report engaging in a routine 5 or more times a week.

Certain activities might help children with sleep. These include:

• Providing a healthy snack
• Hygiene (bathing or brushing teeth)
• Reading
• Singing
• Physical contact (massage or cuddling)

Studies also show kids who don’t get enough sleep may be more likely to develop high blood pressure, obesity, even depression.

Finally, think again before you reach for that smartphone or tablet to soothe your child before bedtime- research has also shown that doing so may also affect a child’s emotion regulation ability.

References

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Doctors may soon be able to diagnose a severe form of depression, known as melancholia, simply by looking at someone’s (lack of) facial expressions.

According to VeryWell Mind, melancholia is a form of major depressive disorder (MDD) that is characterized by a complete loss of pleasure in all or almost everything.

In addition, research has found that people with melancholic depression have a higher risk for unemployment, psychotic features, inpatient treatment, and suicide risk than people with non-melancholic depression

It is estimated by researchers that about 5-10% of people who are depressed have melancholia – which could represent as many as 2 million Americans.

Depression and Facial Expression Study

The study entitled “Markers of positive affect and brain state synchrony discriminate melancholic from non-melancholic depression using naturalistic stimuli” was published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Author Dr. Philip Mosley and colleagues showed 70 depressed people, 30 of whom had melancholia and 40 of whom did not, two different videos.

• Video 1 was a clip from Ricky Gervais‘ stand up comedy set ‘Animals,’ which involved funny skits about nature documentaries.
• Video 2 was a short film called The Butterfly Circus, which features a moving story about a circus troupe inspiring hope in Depression-era America.

While the patients watched the videos, their facial and brain activity was recorded, the former with a camera to track every minute muscle twitch during the Gervais set, the latter with the patient in an MRI machine while watching The Butterfly Circus.

Depression Study Results

The difference between the two patient sets was stark. For the Gervais video, although the patients with non-melancholic depression were still depressed, they did respond with facial expressions and giggles.

Meanwhile, the patients with melancholic depression were completely impassive. Mosley describes them like “statues” with “no facial movement at all, no smiling, no chuckling.”

Something similar happened in the MRI machine. The brains of patients with non-melancholic depression lit up, particularly in the cerebellum, which is involved with automatic emotional responses.

“With people with melancholic depression,” Mosley said, “those emotional regions of the brain – the ones involved in detecting and responding to stimuli with an emotional tone – were just doing their own thing, disconnected, not integrated with the rest of the brain, not involved in processing with other regions of the brain that are relevant in these tasks.”

Depression Study Implications

This study’s discovery could help doctors differentiate between melancholia and regular depression earlier. While melancholia is a more severe condition, it’s still treatable.

Dr. Mosley suggests these patients don’t tend to respond well to traditional talk therapy, so diagnosing them early could also help establish a more tailored treatment plan for them.

If a person with the condition is diagnosed early, most respond very well to medications, which work to balance the chemistry of the brain. And quicker treatment can help them avoid the most invasive therapies that may be required if the condition has progressed.

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C20 is a live interactive webinar hosted by Dr. Chad Kessler, Executive Director of Emergency Medicine for Veterans Affairs (VA).

The podcast was originally launched in April 2020 to provide up-to-the-minute COVID-19 news and resources quickly and efficiently to clinical employees across VHA. Today, C20 covers a variety of public health and medical topics and is available to all at VA.

It is designed to be a quick discussion where guests concisely present engaging and informative content to an audience of busy VA providers, clinicians, VA employees and Veterans.

What makes a good interaction between a physician or clinician and their patient?

Dr. Kessler and Dr. Matsumoto started by discussing physician or clinician body language as it relates to patient perception of their care.

Dr. Matsumoto believes it starts with the patient’s perceptions of how much the caregiver is interested in them.

We’ve all heard the term “active listening” but what concretely does this mean?

Spending a minute to sit down and make eye contact and ask someone how they’re doing can make a huge difference in perceived interest.

Dr. Matsumoto emphasizes there is a lot of nonverbal behavior that is centered around the concept of active listening and the “active” part of that term does not involve listening. It’s the engagement of our bodies with the individual.

Examples of engagement can include:

• Sitting (getting down to the patient’s level)
• Looking someone in the eye (pay attention to me)
• Asking simple questions (like “how are you doing”)

In fact, there is research that shows those kinds of perceptions are related to many different things in the healthcare system such as treatment regime adherence, decreases in lawsuits, better assessments, etc.

Dr. Matsumoto emphasizes that feeling seen or heard is essential to getting any interaction off to a good start.

One Mistake To Avoid When Building Rapport

What’s one mistake you can avoid to build rapport in interactions?

Dr. Matsumoto speaks about the concept of “mirroring” which he describes as a double edged sword.

Studies have shown that when people organically start to mirror themselves, they have better rapport in interactions.

However, if a person perceives that the other individual is simulating their postures, this may have the opposite effect.

Dr. Matsumoto suggests not to try and mirror the other person’s body language. Just be genuine in the interaction; listen normally, naturally, and empathetically.

When you do so, one’s body will start to engage appropriately to the interaction.

What does building trust actually mean in an interaction?

Building trust means allowing a person to be vulnerable and that person knowing they won’t be judged, criticized or attacked.

Building trust starts with non-judgmental listening.

An important reminder before engaging in an important conversation may including taking a breath or two to calm your body and mind.

Dealing with Cultural Differences in Medicine

Doctors see patients from all walks of life. How do cultural differences fit into the connection and interaction?

Cultural differences are big in nonverbal behavior but one thing that is consistent across all people of all cultures are facial expressions of emotion.

We’re all generally pretty good at reading facial expressions in others since we learn how to do so in our every day lives.

With regard to other things like orientation, body posture, orientation and especially gaze and visual attention, there are differences.

In fact, people of other cultures may perceive healthcare workers as higher status and may avoid direct eye contact because of this fact.

While the cultural differences do exist in some behavior, they can be mitigated a lot by interest and engagement behaviors.

These interest and engagement behaviors are all the same across cultures:

• Paying attention
• Direct eye contact
• Speaking nicely and empathetically
• Using our own body postures and orientation

These behaviors will go a long way in mitigating cultural differences.

To listen to the entire episode, visit this page!

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Whether we realize it or not, we’re all salespeople and every interaction is a negotiation in which we persuade and influence others.

Some of us do this professionally; sales people sell products and attempt to have people purchase those products; teachers sell knowledge and skills and attempt to persuade students to learn that knowledge and skills; law enforcement officers sell jail and attempt to persuade alleged criminals to buy jail time.

All of us do so as well in our personal lives; parents try to get their kids to clean their rooms and married couples get their partners to take out the trash.

Not only are we all salespeople trying to persuade and influence others; we’re all relatively good at it.

In fact, every individual needs to be at least somewhat successful in doing so because without some degree of success at persuading and influencing others, individuals would not survive.

Every group, society, and culture requires people and groups to persuade and influence others for the individual’s, group’s, society’s, and culture’s survival.

As John Donne once wrote in his famous poem, no man [person] is an island, and our ability to live and thrive in our families, communities, societies, and cultures is evidence of our ability to persuade and influence others.

Thus, people have learned or acquired a long time ago the basic skills necessary to persuade and influence others.

I say “acquired” because we don’t know the degree to which our abilities to influence others are hardwired into us as humans, or whether those skills are entirely learned from our cultures and communities.

I suspect that we have the biological hardware (brains) and some innate software in our minds to learn those skills from our families and communities. Regardless of their origins, however, we all persuade and influence others, and we’re relatively good at it.

Just look at the growth of the world’s population across time. If people weren’t good at persuading and influencing others, we wouldn’t get along and our societies and cultures, let alone marriages and families, would not survive and thrive.

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How does this persuasion and influence occur?

There’s a long history of research in psychology examining how people influence others.

For example, very classic research on conformity and compliance conducted by Solomon Asch demonstrated how groups can influence individuals to make obviously mistaken judgments or say obviously incorrect things.

Stanley Milgram’s classic research on obedience showed how average people will do drastic things against others on the basis of instruction from an authority figure.

Phil Zimbardo’s well-known prison study demonstrated how power assigned to a group of people made that group engage in demeaning behaviors against others who were not so assigned.

Perhaps the most well-known author in this area is Robert Cialdini. Through his own ingenious experiments and collating the results from many other studies, Cialdini extracted six universal principles of persuasion and influence that were at work when people persuade others to do something. (His more recent work identified a 7th principle as well.).

For example, consider the principle of reciprocity, which Cialdini suggested activated “the web of indebtedness.” When we receive something from someone, we have an obligation to give something back in return. This is true for getting a gift, receiving an invitation, or hearing a compliment.

Every society and culture is built on this principle; if this principle didn’t exist no society would function correctly and the alternative is social chaos.

Same is true for the principle of authority. Hierarchies exist in every society, culture, group, and organization, and if we didn’t comply to the wishes of authority, hierarchies would cease to exist and societies and cultures would not function properly. The alternative again is social chaos.

What is Tactical Social Influence?

Here at Humintell, we take that classic work on persuasion and influence and incorporate other scientific breakthroughs over the decades to deliver what we call Tactical Social Influence.

For example, one interesting aspect of all principles of persuasion and influence that is not discussed much is the fact that they all operate because of affect and emotion.

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