uldn't it be nice to know how to tell if someone is lying? We're going to see what the research has to say on detecting lies, avoiding deception and more. And this is the industrial strength package. We'll look at how to avoid being deceived by the pros in this arena: con artists. To get the real answers, I called an expert. Maria Konnikova is a contributing writer at The New Yorker. Her wonderful new book is The Confidence Game. Maria has insights from research on how…
ou must be tired of them. They're everywhere. Narcissists. And if you think there are more of them than ever, you're right. Research shows we are experiencing a narcissism epidemic. From The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement: In data from 37,000 college students, narcissistic personality traits rose just…
nt to know how to be charming? Ask yourself: What do you want in any friend or partner? Someone who is happy for you, wants the best for you and delights in your successes. Right? And research agrees: Being happy for people during their good times is more important than how we deal with the bad: What really makes couples bond? How they handle the good times, not the bad. What about conversations makes people like you? How you add to their good feelings in…
m pretty sure I just heard a gunshot. And that means she's dead. Hold on, I guess I better back up and explain... A 911 call came in. A domestic dispute turned into a hostage situation. The perpetrator has a gun on his wife and child. ESU (Emergency Services Unit, basically, the SWAT team) arrived, as did 4 NYPD hostage negotiators. And me. We stacked up outside the door to the apartment. But things were not going well. Shouting between the husband and wife was…
w do you deal with out of control kids? The authors of the bestseller How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk have some great ideas that can help any parent. It's really powerful, impressive advice. But here's the odd thing: reading the book, I could have swore I had seen similar ideas before. And I had... When I was interviewing and researching FBI hostage negotiators. No, your 9-year-old Jimmy probably isn't committing serious acts of violence (except maybe against…
ey're one inch from your face, boiling with rage, screaming and yelling at you. And all you want to do is scream and yell back. But you know that's not going to be good for anyone... I've talked before about how to deal with others who are angry and irrational, but how can you control those emotions in yourself? Looking at the neuroscience, there's a right way and a wrong way to do it. So let's dig into the research on how to…
metimes your closest and most important relationships are also the most difficult. Why? Columbia business school professor Adam Galinsky and Wharton professor Maurice Schweitzer have an answer: All your relationships are both cooperative and competitive. We work together with the ones we love but we also have a bit of rivalry going on at times. It's natural, but difficult. That competitiveness can be why friends and loved ones can have such a positive and motivating influence on us. But it can also…
es it ever feel like people are all self-absorbed jerks? Like they're not listening? Only in it for themselves? You're not crazy. Empathy is declining. Via Empathy: Why It Matters, and How to Get It: A recent study at the University of Michigan revealed a dramatic decline in empathy levels among young Americans between 1980 and today, with the steepest drop being in the last ten years. The shift, say researchers, is in part due to more people living alone…
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