Social Engineering Blogs

An Aggregator for Blogs About Social Engineering and Related Fields

How to Quickly Create New Habits in Your Life

A friend of mine mentioned that she was having trouble getting in the habit of going to the gym every morning, so I promised an explanation of how I have created so many beneficial habits in my life in the past year.   I thought that the email that I sent her might actually be useful for others who are having the same type of issue.  Not that anybody out there has trouble creating habits that improve their life at all.

My email is below…

My reading of the latest research says that forming a habit comes down to three things (with an optional fourth):

Turning that habit in to a precise behavior (instead of “I want to get in shape”, “I want to go to the gym 3x per week”).
Deciding on an “anchor” for that behavior within your life.  The anchor point determines the behavior that immediately precedes the new behavior: “After I brush my teeth upon waking on M/W/F I will put on my gym clothes and walk to the front door to leave”)
Repeatedly be triggered to perform that behavior at the right anchor point
(Optional) To really make it stick, it helps to create (social) accountability around that behavior

There are a bunch of tools to do this.  If the habit is small, start with BJ Fogg’s latest research project, called “Tiny Habits” (http://tinyhabits.com/).  Joining BJ’s project is the easiest and best way for you to get a really solid understanding of how to form interesting habits in your own life and perform the first two steps.

Once you’re good at doing the first two things for yourself, all you really need to do is the third.  There are a few sites that have popped up to help with that:

Habit Forge: http://habitforge.com/
21Habit:  http://21habit.com/

Note that Habit Forge has built in to it the ability to create “teams”, which provides the fourth step I mentioned earlier.  21Habit uses a financial accountability model, costing you money for every day that you don’t complete your habit.  Each of these strategies is more or less likely to work, depending on the individual.   But neither of these are really needed as much as the first 3 steps.

So, if you want to start going to the gym, here’s what you do.

Decide what the target behavior is.  (I like the one I chose above, but it could be anything: “”)
Decide on the anchor point in your life.  An example could be: “When I get in my car to leave the office, I will drive to the gym and walk in the front door”.  (Notice that your goal doesn’t have to be related to actually working out: if you walk in the front door, you’re likely to, but you may just walk right out again.  This is what BJ Fogg calls “baby steps” – we don’t have to do the entire behavior, just the part of it that is cognitively easy enough to create the habit)
Set a trigger to remind you at that time where you’re going.  Could be one of the services above (that work by email), a calendar reminder, or a sticky note on your steering wheel.  As long as you’re reminded close to the time that you actually leave the office.
If you want to make it even more likely, find something to hold you accountable: it could be a workout buddy or someone else who you want to impress, it could be your entire Facebook friend list, or it could be one of the services above.

Since meeting BJ Fogg last year, I’ve used this same format to implement a whole pile of new habits in my life, from improving my workout routine to changing the way I eat and the way that I floss my teeth.

 


Understanding Cultures Around the World

The news of the death of dictator Kim Jung-Il of North Korea has created divergent emotions among the population of the entire world.

Many people are relieved to hear of the austere and ruthless dictator’s death.  People from varying countries especially democratic countries such as the United States feel relief that the wave of oppression, which has engulfed North Korea for over 4 decades (Kim Jung-Il reigned from 1994-2011) is hopefully now over.

However, the scene within the country reveals a very different interpretation of the epic event.  Mourners for former North Korean leader lined streets and public squares outwardly lamenting his death.  Cries could be heard at every corner and tears were seen dripping down the faces of North Koreans everywhere.

How can that be, one might ask themselves, if their government was so oppressive?

Understanding different cultures is the key to understanding the reactions of many North Koreans.

IntelliCulture Humintell’s newest cross-cultural adaptation course is designed to help the individual broaden their understanding of culture, where it comes from and how it influences behavior.

IntelliCulture provides useful tips on how to leverage cultural differences and think critically when encountered with a difficult cultural situation.

In spite of what seems to be, for at least some, genuine lament for Kim Jung-Il’s death, the Washington Post National has reported that strict punishments will be dealt out to North Koreans who did not seem genuine in their lamenting of the former North Korean leader. 

They purport that punishments will include either six months in a labor camp or a re-education camp.  The North Korean government; however, reports via their news agency KCNA that this is a mere smear campaign.  They officially stated that even bears and magpies lamented their former leader.

New Facial Expression of Emotion?

HealthCanal.com purports that new research suggests that there is a facial expression for anxiety.

Published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the study focused on the facial expression of the emotion of anxiety and claims to have found the facial characteristics that are connected to the display of that emotion.

The research, conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King’s College London, was not clear if they were going to try to conduct additional research to see if this could be considered a universal facial expression.  It is clear though that further research needs to to be undertaken before any concrete assertions are confirmed.

What are your thoughts on a facial expression for anxiety?

Lead author of the study Dr. Adam Perkins affirms that many animal studies link anxiety to risk assessment behavior, suggesting anxiety can be explained as a defensive adaptation. We wanted to see if this was also the case in humans.’

In the study facial expression images were correctly matched in 89% of emotive scenario presentations on average. The facial expression generated in response to an ambiguous threat scenario was correctly matched to ambiguously threatening scenarios in 90% of scenario presentations.

The IoP researchers delineated scenarios that elicited standard emotions, such as happiness, sadness, anger, disgust and surprise to a group of participants.  Then they described scenarios containing ambiguous threats, which are known to elicit risk assessment and anxiety in rodents.

The study’s findings seemed a bit vague.  They suggest that, “anxious facial expression appears to have both functional and social components – its characteristics help assess our surrounding environment, and communicate to others our emotional state.” However, that same definition can be said of the seven universal facial expressions of emotion along with specified FACS characteristics.

What do the researchers feel are the immediate benefits of this study?

Well, Dr. Perkins states, “We hope our findings will in due course help doctors more effectively diagnose anxiety in their patients.  We also think the findings may also help security personnel identify individuals engaged in wrongdoing by means of their anxious, risk assessing facial expression.”

To see  short facial expression video click here and scroll down.