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The article ends on a bit of a depressing note: The real winners will be public-relations firms, which now know to coach the boss to hesitate more, swear less
by jazzdev 16y ago
The article ends on a bit of a depressing note:
The real winners will be public-relations firms, which now know to coach the boss to hesitate more, swear less and avoid excessive expressions of positive emotion.
- hga 16y agoI suppose so, but how many of us will ever be directly reporting to a boss who's gotten such training? In the context of big(er) companies reporting on their financial results this matters, but we are often the type of insiders who can predict that a company is in trouble, even if figuring out the timing is difficult.
- SoftwareMaven 16y agoI seem to have a real knack for figuring it out. I've identified the storms coming several times and bailed safely before any storm all but one time. That one was tricky because nothing material changed in the company and I was a recent hire (<6 months) so didn't have a good feel for the company yet (the fact nothing material changed was the whole problem...) It really isn't that hard to recognize if you poke your head above the cubicle walls on occasion. The real trick is being able to figure out where you stand in those situations.
- j_baker 16y agoThis is the problem with detecting lying based on verbal cues: they're really easy to fabricate. The most reliable way to detect lying is by picking up on a person's involuntary nonverbal cues. If you are good enough at picking up on them, you can easily tell when someone is lying.
- Robin_Message 16y agoTell us more! :)
- j_baker 16y agoUnfortunately, I'm not the best person to go into much detail. If you're interested in this subject, I'd highly recommend checking out "Telling Lies" by Paul Ekman: http://books.google.com/books?id=7I_wDDfrwCgC&dq=ekman+telling+lies&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=T7tuTJPoC4m8sAPeu6mhCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=7I_wDDfrwCgC&dq=ekman+t...
- cdr 16y agoAssuming they haven't had practice at suppressing nonverbal cues, anyway.
- j_baker 16y agoThese cues can be suppressed, and most people do so naturally without any practice. The thing is that these cues happen unconsciously. They usually show up before the conscious intellect can suppress them. Let me give you an example. Oliver North was summoned to Congress to testify about the whole Iran Contra affair. I forget what the question was, but the important part was North's response. If you watch closely, you can see his lower lip extend below his upper lip for a split second: he pouted. He was upset by the question somehow, but didn't want to show it, so he quickly suppressed it. Apart from psychopaths, there are very few people (less than 1%) who can totally suppress these types of cues.
- cdr 16y agoMaybe if you're taping someone you might be able to catch something, but it's very difficult in my experience to catch a tell from a practiced liar live - a part of one of my hobbies involves catching people lying, so I've had a little experience.
- quanticle 16y agoThe problem with non-verbal cues is that one has to have video or be physically present in the room to observe them. The paper was conducting an analysis of investor conference calls, where the investors on the other side of the line had no idea what sort of gestures the executive was making.