Social Engineering Blogs

An Aggregator for Blogs About Social Engineering and Related Fields

Psychological Manipulation

People make decisions and behavior modifications everyday based on certain reasons they feel are justifiable. If you were to dig deep enough, you would most likely be able to figure out why you do the things you do…or rather why you think you do the things you do. You see, there are certain things that happen in our environment that influence our behavior purely from a subconscious standpoint, bypassing the thinking brain completely. Because of this, the cause of that particular behavior is often inaccurately attributed to something else our conscious brain picked up on. The interesting part about this, is that you can create these types of behavior adjustments in other people without them even knowing it. This is the art of psychological manipulation.

Lets say you’re raising money for a business and are trying to get someone to donate. Based on this persons interests, you know that they might not want to donate to your cause. To prevent this from happening, you can make use of an NLP technique that’s designed to subconsciously implant the idea of donating money inside this persons mind. This can be accomplished by slightly adjusting your tone when saying certain words to them.

For instance, you could mention seeing people donating blood at the pharmacy around the corner when you were driving over to your bank. Saying something like “I saw a sign that the pharmacy put out asking people to donate blood while I was on my way to the bank to deposit some money this afternoon.” This type of statement would most likely just be considered small talk by the other person. However, when you lower your voice slightly when saying the words “donate” and “money”, giving them a more commanding tone, their subconscious mind will pick up on this command giving you a better chance of getting a donation from them.

This is an extremely powerful psychological manipulation technique, that can become even more powerful the more you use it before you ask for the donation. The more embedded commands you’re able to use, the better your chances of success will be. Now I know this technique seems quite simple, and in a lot of ways it is, but you’ll need to practice using it on a smaller scale first to get the proper tone down. At first, lowering your tone on certain words will probably sound unnatural and honestly a bit odd, but that’s just due to your lack of practice. The more you use it, the more natural it will sound to yourself and others. Before long, you’ll be able to use this tactic to influence the behavior of anyone you want at the drop of a hat.

Of course this is just one of many different psychological manipulation techniques you can use to control certain situations you might run into on a day to day basis. When combined with other tactics that I will be discussing soon, you’ll be able to accomplish virtually anything your heart desires.

Talk soon

Gestures & The Fist Bump

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Courtesy of StockVault

NPR reports on the Fist Bump as the new High-Five!  The fist bump became a big issue when President Obama used it in his 2008 campaign as a greeting to a restaurant employee.  As most of us know the fist bump has gained popular standings to signal a job well done, “I agree with you”, or “what’s up”.

Howie Mandel, a well known comedian, has also contributed to the popularity of this gesture as he uses it quite often in his role as a judge on  America’s Got Talent.  The question is, where did the fist bump come from and how did it become so popular that the President of the United States has come to use it as well?  Did this gesture originate in the U.S. and do other cultures have similar versions of this nonverbal gesture?

According to the article, the fist bump came about from America’s sports world, noted David Givens, an anthropologist with the Center for Nonverbal Studies.  The first bump was a way that friends greeted each other on and off the field.

“The fist bump is one of the few gestures that is equal,” Givens told Goats and Sodas (NPR’s new blog, covering health and all sorts of development around the world),  “You could do it with President Obama, and you’d both be equals at that time.“

Usually when two people shake hands its a nonverbal communicator of who wants to be or who is in control of the meeting. Usually the person who’s hand is on top is in control, but with a fist bump neither person has the “upper hand”.

Humintell’s Director Dr. David Matsumoto also commented on the Japanese greeting of the bow, which is similar to the American greeting of a hand shake.    “The bow is a form of respect,” Matsumoto,  psychologist at San Francisco State University noted, “But the varying degrees of angle of the bow, when bows are performed, and to whom, all show something about hierarchy.“

The fist bump is spreading widely across the nation, and according to Givens, is due in large part  to the fact that it is NOT just a greeting but also a  sign of approval and triumph.

Other cultures have varying degrees of the high five or greeting gesture.  Many nonverbal gestures have multiple meanings depending on the culture they belong to.

To learn more about gestures and what they mean…Check out Humintell’s newest webinar recording:  “World of Gestures”

Surround Yourself With The Skills You Do Not Possess

Surround Yourself I am a big fan of the concept surround yourself with the skills you do not possess.  This can mean seeking out a individual different to yourself, working with someone who extends your thoughts and takes it somewhere new or perhaps engaging a whole team that have strengths you do not possess.

I have recently been working on a design piece and I knew I didn’t like what we had, I just didn’t know why.  As part of the larger brief I decided to engage a marketing agency that could provide some specialist skills in concept and branding.

At one of the firms I visited I was comfortable form the start.  I have followed their work for almost 12 months and have been impressed.  I liked them. From the first meeting there was a connection.  We were speaking the same language and it just seemed to fit.

So I told them that I had walked in with a brief but also a problem.  The problem as I mentioned above was the design element I didn’t like but I didn’t know why.  I gave them the back-story on the company.  We explored the nuances and where opportunity lay.  They wanted a week to think about things and were very clear that they wanted me to come back to look at the ‘draft’ before they presented it to the entire leadership group. Great use of Liking and kicking the relationship off through no-risk cooperation.

With a great deal of anticipation I went back to see them this week.  We did the social thing up front and Liking was certainly at play.  We spoke around all sorts of topics and laughed and after about 15 minutes we got into the presentation.  They presented some background on their methodology and provided an overview on the specifics of what we were about to be shown.  They provided plenty of praise for the brief we had delivered and the specific nature of the deliverables.

I deliberately took a female colleague with me to both meetings because the goal we were seeking to achieve is a corporate brand that appeals to women and she was far more qualified than I to make a call on that.  Seated, anticipation piqued.  The Director of the company stood, walked out of the room and came back with a portfolio.  It was face down and this little piece of Scarcity (i.e. I couldn’t see the design work they had done) was killing me.

They said, what they had developed was just to see if they understood the brief and developed entirely from what I said I wanted.  Great use of Consistency, as they were about to pitch me something in my own words.  They told me if they didn’t get it right they would go back and rethink it – a nice Contrast to some others we had spoken to and as an Authority they were willing to admit upfront if they didn’t get it right but they would go away and fix it.

All the while the director was tapping on the documents, which I still couldn’t see, and this was making me a little distracted with impatience.

Finally, he turned the one and only concept around.  I looked at it and then looked at my colleague.  And we both smiled.

What they presented was there all along.  It was integral to everything we had discussed, yet we were far too close to see it.  This team, with their fresh set of eyes, took what we had told them, and had given it back to us with their own spin.  A clearer and crisper version of what we had said.

So the question is, could we have come up with this on our own?  The answer is no.  We had too much baggage and were too close to it.  Were they any smarter than us?  The answer is again no.  They asked the right questions and listened to what we said in order to understand what we were trying to show but couldn’t.  Did they possess skills we did not possess?  Yes.  The depth and quality of the concept was amazing and this was only possible by listening to what we wanted and more importantly to what we didn’t.

In that moment, we were emotionally connected to the concept, the one we had given them, but the one they had gone to the effort of drafting.  And then they asked, “Are we pitching against anyone else?”  And I said, “As of now.  No!”

Implication for you

Sometimes you can bang around for ages on a persuasive problem.  Thinking about how best to approach your target of influence.  Thinking about the stakeholders involved and their attitude toward your proposal.  But I would always encourage you, that once you have thought about the principles of persuasion that are available to you, always sense check it with someone else to see what you have missed.  Perhaps present it to knowledgeable others long before you get stuck, to ensure you maintain momentum.  If they see something you don’t, it doesn’t mean they are smarter than you, it just means they are not burdened with the same biases and filters you are, having worked on the problem for so long.

Remember:  No one person can know everything.  Therefore surround yourself with the skills you do not possess.   Tell them what you are thinking and let others contribute to your success!

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