Social Engineering Blogs

An Aggregator for Blogs About Social Engineering and Related Fields

Negotiating: Get Angry, it helps.

© John Hix | Dreamstime Stock Photos

Contrary to popular belief or even instinct; anger is a productive emotion when it comes to negotiations.

The Wall Street Journal comments on new findings that purport displaying anger in a negotiation proves productive.

However, this is only true if the anger that is being displayed is real.  Faked anger elicited a negative response and greater demands, but people who seemed truly angry we able to conjure up a more beneficial negotiation outcome.

These finding coincide with previous research that suggests anger signals dominance and promotes compliance.   The researchers state that fake anger displayed in this experiment undermined the trust in the negotiation but real anger came across as tough.

In the book Nonverbal Communication: Science and Applications , Humintell affiliate Andy Boughton expounds upon the concept of negotiation in chapter 13  entitled Negotiation and Nonverbal Communication.  He points out  that ‘in negotiation…there is one rule to rule them all – information is power!‘

“I find it best to use closed ended questions when establishing the baseline.” 

Some specifics he looks for are manipulators (unconscious fidgets we do to relive stress), emblematic slips (nonverbal gestures with specific symbolic meaning within a given culture) and microexpressions (emotions that last less than 1/2 second on the face).

To learn more about Boughton’s views on negotiation and on Dr. Matsumoto’s book Nonverbal Communication: Science and Applications click here.

Perceptions of Beauty: Dove Commercial

This video has been making its rounds on Facebook and Twitter.  It was published on Apr 14, 2013 on YouTube and has over 7.5 million hits.

Interesting and startling fact:  Only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful.

Dove, a self proclaimed entity that is committed to creating a world where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety, decided to conduct a compelling social experiment that explores how women view their own beauty in contrast to what others see.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Let us know what you thought of this commercial.  Would you like to see more companies making commercials like this?

Cultural Adaptation & Global Dexterity

© Diane Cramer | Dreamstime Stock Photos

Cross-Cultural Adaptation has become a hot topic in this global business world.  From the Internet, Skype and overseas travel,  it is important to be able to adapt and communicate with a variety of varying cultures.

Andy Molinsky, who is an associate professor at Brandeis University’s International Business School and author, has broached the topic of global dexterity.

Forbes  comments on Molinsky’s topic and how important it is to not only be able to work in a global economy but be able to work well in a culturally infused workforce.

“People doing  work in today’s global economy must be capable of moving smoothly and seamlessly across cultures. That’s true for simple cases of etiquette, like learning how and when to bow or shake hands, but it’s especially critical when performing core professional tasks such as giving or receiving performance feedback, pitching an idea to your boss, getting heard at a meeting, networking, or motivating others. These are situations that make or break your ability to be an effective global manager and leader.”

So how does one try to adapt to a different culture?  The key is to Really learn the culture really well.  This means more than just reading a book or two on the people/country you are working with.

One of the most challenging aspects of varying cultures is the differences between that culture and your own. That is the behaviors you need to learn are different from what your used to and might even require that you act in a way that conflicts with your intuition.

An example, from the article:   A Korean employee in the US having to learn how to deliver constructive feedback to an American boss, when in Korea, you would never interact with a boss in that manner.

Molinsky points out that it’s not just knowledge that’s important its the ability to take what you know and put it into action.

Humintell has a Great Cultural Adaptation Tool that improves a person’s global skill set and teaches them how to interact more effectively with people from different cultures and achieve their goals !

Purchase IntelliCulture and interact more effectively with people from different cultures to achieve your goals