Unconscious communication as "honest signals"
MIT researcher Alex (Sandy) Pentland used tiny devices called "sociometers" to collect thousands of hours of data about the unconscious speech patterns that can influence the outcome of conversations. For example, the way you talk in an interview -- even if neither you or the interviewer are remotely aware of your tone -- may have a tremendous impact on what the employer thinks of you. We all know this of course, but Pentland has actually studied it scientifically. The value of the sociometers isn't in producing a verbal record of a conversation but rather quantifiable information about more subtle cues like tone and physical activity. Apparently, Pentland was able to use the data, not the words themselves, to accurately predict how a conversation about, say, a date or an investment pitch, would play out. He calls these cues "honest signals," and has just written a new book about the idea, titled Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World. From the MIT News Office:
Honest Signals (Amazon), "Tuning in to unconscious communication" (MIT)The features he found that are highly predictive of outcomes, he says, "match the literature in biology about signaling in animals." In fact, Pentland suggests, the non-linguistic channels of communication that are measured by the sociometers may have started among our ancestors long before the evolution of language itself, forming a deeper, more primal way of understanding intentions, coordinating activities and establishing power relationships within the group.
"Half of our decision-making seems to be predicted by this unconscious channel," says Pentland, the Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences. "That's exactly the channel that you see in apes" as they coordinate their activities without the use of language... The data gathered from the devices can be used not only to predict the outcomes of specific interactions between people, but even the relative productivity of different teams within a company. "This information is not in the organizational charts," Pentland says. "This human side is missing from all traditional measures" of how groups of people work together.
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Well, I can tell you that I would not hire anyone who phrases every statement as a question, the way 20-something affluent girls do? My SIL does this and I can't believe she has a real job with real responsibilities and that people take her seriously?
Also, people react differently to things. I can't stand pushy women, but some people like being told what to do.
Tells.
Tells. Yes, exactly. That would be a better name for the project too!
Ironic perhaps, that we're discussing this in the blogosphere, where unconcious body language and tone of voice are so conspicuously absent, and where we ~consciously~ choose emoticons to fill the gaps... ;)
We may add in emoticons to fill gaps, but that still only reinforces our conscious message. We tack in a smiley to ensure the other party knows we're speaking lightly, or that we were clearly joking and didn't mean to offend.
Contrast that with smiling in person when pitching an idea: It's really hard to smile in a convincing way when you aren't really confident in yourself. Similarly, when emailing a resume for a desired job, nobody would try to find some way to emoticate (can we count that as a word today?) nervous habits such as rocking on your feet or playing with the change in your pocket.
It's the things we usually don't think about that make you say "he didn't seem very confident in that pitch" when the words spoken would have suggested the opposite.
llikkkkkee stttttttammmereerd typ[ing??/
Woodycodeblue @5 - "It's the things we usually don't think about that make you say "he didn't seem very confident in that pitch" when the words spoken would have suggested the opposite."
- or are you saying that the typed message can reveal things you wouldn't notice when meeting face-to-face?
I just can't tell....
"The Gaze in Strategy
The gaze should be large and broad. This is the twofold gaze "Perception and Sight". Perception is strong and sight week.
In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things. It is important in strategy to know the enemy's sword and not to be distracted by insignificant movements of his sword. You must study this. The gaze is the same for single combat and for large-scale strategy.
It is necessary in strategy to be able to look to both sides without moving the eyeballs. You cannot master this ability quickly. Learn what is written here; use this gaze in everyday life and do not vary it whatever happens."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKrKMLw9XoE&NR=1
That sounds like an interesting read. I have paranoid personality disorder and hopefully this would be able to help me out.