Is Eye Contact Overrated, Power and Eye Contact

Is Eye Contact Overrated?

I think that speakers make less eye contact than listeners and that is really what this research finding shows rather than any truths about debating. 

  

Is eye contact overrated?

Don't look now, but...

By Chris Gayomali | October 3, 2013     

Traditionalists and high-powered guys with Machiavelli on their Kindles will probably tell you that looking straight into another person's face and maintaining unflinching eye contact is the age-old secret to the Powers of Persuasion. In actuality, though, the opposite may be true, especially in the midst of a heated debate.
"Debate" is the operative word here. Unlike previous psychological studies analyzing the bonds forged when a mother stares into a baby's eyes, or when two lovers tenderly lock gazes, this time a team of researchers from Harvard University and the University of British Columbia sought to understand eye contact from a different vantage point: Does looking into another person's eyes really help your cause when you're trying to win an argument?
The short answer: Perhaps not. The new paper, published in the journal Psychological Science, only took a look at 20 participants, but the results are intriguing. Researchers had subjects share their opinions on contentious issues, such as affirmative action and assisted suicide, then watch recorded talks by a speaker on those same topics. At the same time, researchers used eye-tracking technology to determine when and (more importantly) if participants were looking at the eyes of the person in the recording.
When participants shared an opinion with the speaker, they were more likely to establish eye contact. But when they disagreed, suddenly their gaze was less focused. "The participants were less likely to change their opinions if they were looking into the eyes of the speaker, especially when the speaker was also looking directly at the participant, rather than to the side of the screen," says Alexander Sifferlin at TIME:

To test this again, the researchers had the participants watch more videos, but sometimes they were told to look into the speaker's eyes, and other times they were instructed to look at the speaker's lips. The participants who looked into the speaker's eyes were once again less likely to change their opinions compared to participants focusing on the speaker's lips. [TIME]

Now, most people simply aren't accustomed to making consistent eye contact. "Your eyes naturally go back and forth between the eyes and the mouth," co-author Julia Minson, a psychologist and assistant professor at Harvard, tells Forbes. "There's also some time when your eyes just wander around."
Of course, the study does have its flaws. Video interaction is a poor substitute for person-to-person interaction, so all those reactive subtleties communicated by body language are lost in transmission.
Still, not locking eyes may be your best tactic going forward if you're trying to make a point. Putting your phone away probably helps, too.

Is eye contact overrated?

Don't look now, but...

By Chris Gayomali | October 3, 2013

 

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Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

How to Use Tech Tools in the Doctors Office and Still Serve Your Patient.

How to Use Tech Tools in the Doctors Office and Still Serve Your Patient.
I speak  to  and consult with Doctors, Nurses and other Health Care professionals about body language and patient care and advise hospitals and medical offices on how to design their office space and use technology in ways that best serve the patient and the bottom line.  There are 4 new tech tools that have the potential to interrupt the rapport and trust that needs to occur between the patient and the health care professional.
Steps for Using Technology in Patient Care to Show More
 The most important thing to remember is to think, look at, touch and interact with the patient First before thinking about looking at, touching or interacting with technology. So for example coming in with your smart phone (that now has the EKG technology available) in your hand and ready to show the patient as you are introduced. Have it put away. Greet the patient, establish rapport, discuss the technology then show the technology in a way that makes it a part of the two of you as a unit rather than the technology as the magic device. If the patient is male that means standing or siting side by side with them as you introduce the technology if the patient is a women that means ideally interacting face to face and introducing the technology. (See my blogs and articles on side by side vs face to face.)
 Below are the four new tech tools. Which ones are you using in your office.
Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net.

4 tech tools that are disrupting the doctor's office

Need to take an ECG? There's an app for that now.

By Carmel Lobello | THE WEEK December 17, 2013

    

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n 2013, technology permeated health care like never before. Diagnostics came to our smartphones, robots came to our surgery rooms, and Dr. Phil invested in a startup that wants to facilitate online doctors' visits.

Here are four groundbreaking medical tools that either hit shelves or revved up development this year:

AliveCor

(Facebook/AliveCor)

A smartphone case that can charge your phone is handy, but a smartphone case that can record and transmit an ECG takes the cake. This spring, the FDA approved AliveCor, a black case with silver censors, for over-the-counter sales. The tool helps users monitor their heart palpitations by simply placing her fingers over the censors, then transmitting the recording to a doctor.

This has several benefits. First, any patient experiencing the kind of random heart arrhythmia they can't self-induce in a doctor's office can simply buy one, record when the irregularity occurs, and send the data to a doctor. After a doctor diagnoses the problem and writes a prescription, the device can also serve to gather information about how a prescription is working.

A third benefit: AliveCor can help reassure a patient with a harmless or even phantom murmur that nothing is wrong — making life a little easier for hypochondriacs and their doctors.

CellScope Oto

(Facebook/CellScope)

This one is especially beneficial for physicians who work with children, and therefore parents.

The tool is essentially a camera-fitted Otoscope (that flashlight thing doctors stick in your ear during a physical) that attaches to a smartphone. The doctor can view the inside of a patient's ear, take photos of an ear drum, and store those photos for later use. Then, when a patient has an ear ache, the doctor can compare the photos taken during a healthy physical with the new photos to both make a diagnosis, and help parents understand what's going on inside their children's ears.

If the CellScope Oto becomes available to parents, they could perform ear exams on their children and send the photos to a doctor. This could help them avoid unnecessary doctor's visits, where the kids risk picking up a bug in a waiting room.

The anesthesiologist robot

(Sedasys Video)

Anesthesiologists, some of the highest paid doctors, are responsible for administering sedation and keeping a patient ticking during surgeries. This year, Johnson & Johnson released what some are calling a robot anesthesiologist — a system named Sedasys that "automates the sedation of many patients undergoing colon-cancer screenings called colonoscopies," says The Wall Street Journal.

Anesthesiologists see big problems with the bots, warning they may not be able to respond accurately to complications. But tests so far show the machines are not only safe, but may even reduce the risk of over-sedation. And hospitals see a clear benefit: Cost. J&J will lease the machines to doctor's offices for about $150 per procedure, compared to the $600 to $2,000 that anesthesiologists typically charge.

Scanadu Scout

(Scanadu Press Releases)

This year, a Silicon Valley startup drew funding to develop a device fit for Spock: A small tricorder shaped like a hockey puck that can monitor all kinds of vital signs. By holding it up to the temple, a patient can monitor her heart rate, temperature, and respiratory rate as well as measure oxygen levels in blood, and run an electrocardiogram.

This could be a kind of holy grail of telemedicine — something that allows patients to communicate a lot of health data quickly and remotely to their doctors.

Again, this could help nervous types avoid unnecessary emergency visits, and allow doctors to urge those in trouble to go to the emergency room stat. Scanadu hopes to have it set and ready to ship by early 2015.

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Why Justin Bieber is the perfect narcissist

Why Justin Bieber is the perfect narcissist

 

I have been researching and writing quite a bit lately on Narcissism. I am particularly interested in how to recognize them from their nonverbal behavior and how those behaviors may assist them in becoming successful.

 

Why Justin Bieber is the perfect narcissist

Beliebe in the academic research on self-infatuation

By Keith Wagstaff | October 8, 2013

 

 

Consider the Bieber. The 19-year-old pop star has repeatedly engaged in reckless behavior with little consideration for those around him, regularly pairs tank tops with gold chains, and once said that if Anne Frank were alive today, she "would have been a Belieber."
In other words, he is a massive narcissist. (Also in this category: Miley Cyrus). But how did he get that way?
Luckily, there is a wealth of academic information that explains the self-absorbed media sensation that is Justin Bieber. Let's look at the four qualities researchers have recently linked with a high probability of narcissism.
Creativity
In a new study published in the journal Thinking Skills and Creativity, British researchers found that people who think of themselves as creative and who engage in creative activities are more likely to display narcissistic tendencies.
First, subjects were asked to rate how creative they were, and how many creative activities (like writing a poem or choreographing a dance) they had participated in over the last year. Then they were asked to answer questions from the Narcissistic Personality Inventory.
It turns out that agreeing with statements like "I am more capable than other people" was "the variable that most strongly predicted not only self-assessed creativity (no surprise there), but also engagement in creative activities," according to Tom Jacobs at Pacific Standard.
In a previous study, Cornell researchers found that narcissistic people were better at selling their creative ideas — in this case, movie concepts. Ideas were accepted more often when pitched by a narcissist, even when judged unimpressive on paper. Jacobs sums up the link between narcissism and creativity thusly:

There's no evidence at this point that narcissists are more creative than the rest of us. But there is evidence that they think they are, and that that belief drives them to try their hand at various creative pursuits. [Pacific Standard]

Wealth
Another sign of narcissism: Wealth. This summer, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, published a study that showed that people who were wealthy scored higher on a series of four tests meant to measure narcissism. One them involved a mirror, which moneyed subjects were more likely to use before getting their picture taken.
Not only that, the effects scaled up, meaning that "the wealthier you were, the more entitled and narcissistic you were," according to PBS.
Obsession with social media
Research has also shown that narcissists are more active on social media. The young and self-absorbed especially prefer Twitter, which one study called a "means of amplifying one's own perceived superiority to others."

Facebook, on the other hand, was used by narcissists to curate a positive image of themselves. Science has yet to determine where Instagram selfies rank against other social media phenomena, but considering the top hashtag on Instagram is #me, there is a good chance there is a link to narcissistic behavior.
Youth
Speaking of young people, a study by San Diego State University professor Jean M. Twenge found that millennials scored 30 percent higher on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory than young people from the 1970s. More college students today, according to Twenge, rank themselves as "above average" and use more first-person singular pronouns in their writing.
Not everyone agrees with her research. Some critics point out that young people are intrinsically more self-absorbed than older people, no matter the generation, while others note that she only talked to young people from elite colleges, who don't represent millennials as a whole.
Of course, any of these academic studies could be overturned in the future. Like IQ tests, many question whether the Narcissistic Personality Inventory is flawed.
Still, the research over the past few years does paint a pretty convincing picture of what makes a person narcissistic. A millennial singer with a huge social media following who has enough money to crash his Ferrari into a photographer? Yeah, that sounds like this guy:

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Why We Like Round Curvy Shapes, Attraction

Why We Like Round curvy Shapes, Attraction


It not only effects the way we look at art, but it effects and may be because of what we find attractive.


Do our brains find some shapes more beautiful than others?

And what exactly is happening in our brains when we look at these shapes?

By Megan Gambino, Smithsonian | November 19, 2013

 

A century ago, a British art critic by the name of Clive Bell attempted to explain what makes art, well, art. He postulated that there is a "significant form" — a distinct set of lines, colors, textures, and shapes — that qualifies a given work as art. These aesthetic qualities trigger a pleasing response in the viewer. And that response, he argued, is universal, no matter where or when that viewer lives.
In 2010, neuroscientists at the Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute at Johns Hopkins University joined forces with the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore to conduct an experiment. What shapes are most pleasing, the group wondered, and what exactly is happening in our brains when we look at them? They had three hypotheses. It is possible, they thought, that the shapes we most prefer are more visually exciting, meaning that they spark intense brain activity. At the same time, it could be that our favorite shapes are serene and calm brain activity. Or, they surmised, we very well might gravitate to shapes that spur a pattern of alternating strong and weak activity.
To investigate, the scientists created ten sets of images, which they hung on a wall at the Walters Art Museum in 2010. Each set included 25 shapes, all variations on a laser scan of a sculpture by artist Jean Arp. Arp's work was chosen, in this case, because his sculptures are abstract forms that are not meant to represent any recognizable objects. Upon entering the exhibition, called "Beauty and the Brain," visitors put on a pair of 3D glasses and then, for each image set, noted the their "most preferred" and "least preferred" shape on a ballot. The shapes were basically blobs with various appendages. The neuroscientists then reviewed the museum-goers' responses in conjunction with fMRI scans taken on lab study participants looking at the very same images.
"We wanted to be rigorous about it, quantitative, that is, try to really understand what kind of information neurons are encoding and…why some things would seem more pleasing or preferable to human observers than other things. I have found it to be almost universally true in data and also in audiences that the vast majority have a specific set of preferences," says Charles E. Connor, director of the Zanvyl KriegerMind/Brain Institute.

"Beauty and the Brain Revealed," an exhibition now on display at the AAAS Art Gallery in Washington, D.C., allows others to participate in the exercise, while also reporting the original experiment's results. Ultimately, the scientists found that visitors like shapes with gentle curves as opposed to sharp points. And the magnetic brain imaging scans of the lab participants prove the team's first hypothesis to be true: these preferred shapes produce stronger responses and increased activity in the brain.
As Johns Hopkins Magazine so eloquently put it, "Beauty is in the brain of the beholder."
Now, you might expect, as the neuroscientists did, that sharp objects incite more of a reaction, given that they can signal danger. But the exhibition offers up some pretty sound reasoning for why the opposite may be true.
"One could speculate that the way we perceive sculpture relates to how the human brain is adapted for optimal information processing in the natural world," reads the display. "Shallow convex surface curvature is characteristic of living organisms, because it is naturally produced by the fluid pressure of healthy tissue (e.g. muscle) against outer membranes (e.g. skin). The brain may have evolved to process information about such smoothly rounded shapes in order to guide survival behaviors like eating, mating, and predator evasion. In contrast, the brain may devote less processing to high curvature, jagged forms, which tend to be inorganic (e.g. rocks) and thus less important."
Another group of neuroscientists, this time at the University of Toronto at Scarborough, actually found similar results when looking at people's preferences in architecture. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences earlier this year, they reported that test subjects shown 200 images — of rooms with round columns and oval ottomans and others with boxy couches and coffee tables — were much more likely to call the former "beautiful" than the latter. Brain scans taken while these participants were evaluating the interior designs showed that rounded decor prompted significantly more brain activity, much like what the Johns Hopkins group discovered.
"It's worth noting this isn't a men-love-curves thing: Twice as many women as men took part in the study. Roundness seems to be a universal human pleasure," writes Eric Jaffe on Co.Design.
Gary Vikan, former director of the Walters Art Museum and guest curator of the AAAS show, finds "Beauty and the Brain Revealed" to support Clive Bell's postulation on significant form as a universal basis for art, as well as the idea professed by some in the field of neuroaesthetics that artists have an intuitive sense for neuroscience. Maybe, he claims, the best artists are those that tap into shapes that stimulate the viewer's brain.
"Beauty and the Brain Revealed" is on display at the AAAS Art Gallery in Washington, D.C., through January 3, 2014.
More from Smithsonian...
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Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

How We Should Wash Our Hands and Just How Bad We Are At Washing Them

How We Should Wash Our Hands and Just How Bad We Are At Washing Them

Shaking Hands with All Those Pesky Germs Out There Seems Like a Scary Thing to do
I am a body language expert and I wrote the book SNAP about first impressions. I tell my clients to shake hands to bond and create rapport with people quickly. I have done years of research on handshakes so I think you should read this article and learn how to properly wash your hands and you might want that that person in the rest room with your to wash their hands as well.
Here is the research on germs a
We are very, very bad at washing our hands, says science

A whopping 95 percent of people are doing it wrong

By Chris Gayomali | December 16, 2013

 

Let's talk about a very important and delightful subject: Washing your hands.
Your hands, as you've probably discovered by now, are very useful things. They help us tap keyboards, greet friends, and scratch itches. They also have the miraculous ability to hold stuff.
But because they're in a constant state of contact with the world and all its invisible ickiness, your hands can double as Petri dishes for bacterium like E. Coli and other fun diseases. One 2008 study, for example, identified more than 4,700 bacteria species spread across a rather narrow sample of 102 human hands. Hand-washing is in many ways our immune system's first and most powerful line of defense.

But the fact of the matter is that we are very, very terrible at washing them. One recent study from Michigan State University found what may be the most disgusting statistic available: After observing 3,749 people using public restrooms (don't ask), researchers discovered that just five percent — five percent! — of all men and women were washing their hands correctly.
To make matters worse, research suggests hot water might not do all that much to stave off pesky germs, unless you somehow possess the bizarre ability to withstand 212°F temperatures.
Furthermore, the FDA is calling the safety of our current crop of antibacterial soaps into question: Triclosan, a chemical used in more than 75 percent of antibacterial soaps, might interfere with how hormones affect the body, "messing with fertility and puberty and increasing one's risk of cancer," reports The Verge.
So as we approach Flu Season 2013-14, what's the best way to wash your hands and keep germs and other nastiness from invading your delicate immune system? For the time being, at least, it may be best to stick with regular, non-antibacterial soaps. Frequency is still key: Wash your hands when you get into the office, after you press an elevator button, after gripping a subway pole, anytime you're about to put food in your mouth, etc.
If you need a refresher, here's how to best wash your hands, per the CDC's official hand-washing page:

Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), turn off the tap, and apply soap.

Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Be sure to lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.

Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds. Need a timer? Hum the "Happy Birthday" song from beginning to end twice.

Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.

Dry your hands using a clean towel or air dry them. [CDC]

And remember: Do not touch the doorknob bare-handed on your way out.

 

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Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.