Some mind-blowing facts about social psychology

Here are some psychological facts that I find pretty amazing. I sure hope that they blow your mind! ;)

How to Increase Your Influence

We think a lot about what we are going to say but not how we are going to say it. One aspect of being influential that plays a big role in how we are perceived is our nonverbal communication. Try using the head tilt. The head tilt is the universal sign for “I’m listening.” People do this naturally in conversations when they are interested in hearing all the details about what’s being said. By tilting your head slightly, you can let others know that you want them to keep talking.

Rapid Feedback

Receiving feedback is a success life-hack. It allows us to improve much more quickly than we would otherwise. Those we consider to be great successes know the importance of receiving input on their performance. Feedback allows us to course correct right away, where it could take months or longer for us to figure out the problem on our own. The takeaway here is not be afraid to ask for help. It can make a big difference in the end.

Psychopathic Tendencies

I find the psychology of a psychopath to be pretty fascinating. Psychopaths are master manipulators because they lack the ability to feel empathy, guilt, conscience or remorse. They will use the people around them to achieve their goals, and they won’t stop or question themselves because they’ll never feel bad about what they are doing. Their grandiose sense of self-worth and their failure to accept responsibility for their actions allow them to take advantage of others again and again.

Have a great day! :)

Destroy Your enemies just by psychologically

Great Britain isn't called Great without a reason. At one point of time they ruled 90% of the world.

Infact, this Telegraph article says

Britain has invaded all but 22 countries in the world in its long and colorful history.

And it was extremely difficult for the countries to get independence. It took years of struggle and millions of lives to get freedom.

Every country which was ever colonized, by UK or anyone else, tried a common approach to gain freedom: Violence.

The countries would get oppressed, have a revolt or a mutiny. People would die, war would bring hunger, poverty and more death. In the end, after a painful struggle, probably the ruling county might give away the freedom. Yet it came at a great cost.

However, there was one man who did something different. He didn’t wanted to just get freedom, he wanted to make sure the enemy is destroyed at the core.

He did not follow the traditional approach. He took the road “never” traveled.

He did the unexpected. He did not attack the ruling country with swords or guns or bombs. He did the exact opposite.

He used non-violence. He used peace. He used truth.

Mahatma Gandhi destroyed the roots of enemy by destroying them psychologically. He set out the non-cooperation movement. He motivated half of India to follow him.

And there was nothing enemy could do to stop him. You can’t scare him, you can’t defeat him. He even said: If someone slaps you on one side of your face, turn the other one to him.

Destroy the enemy in a way they least expect. Do not be vulnerable.

Some military tips/tricks/hacks that are useful in civilian life

   Some of the hacks that are useful in day to day life style even for a normal person can practice that are used by military

• Sometimes ranks get in the way of work. A major who is a slave driver may not be able to get his subordinates to accomplish an intended task. Even sabotaging can happen. Thing is, rank reflects nothing except perhaps your duration in the armed forces which can imply many things. The best way to lead people to do things is to do it with them.
• Don’t ever ask someone to do something you aren’t ready to do it yourself. You’ll lose their respect. Your reputation takes a hit, and before you know it, people cast doubts on your decisions. They start second guessing you.
• Nobody goes to work to fail. Norman Schwarzwkopf said that. Some times its bad job match. Some times soldiers have other pressing personal matters bothering them. Realistically you can’t solve everything. But if you try, they know you have their backs and will fight for you.
• How much are you willing to sacrifice? If a friend messes up, protecting him and keeping quiet can be costly for others.
• Controlled aggression. There is a degree of programming done to soldiers. You don’t want a soldier who is always aggressive, he won’t be able to think straight. Its conditioning, where you can flick on the aggression when called for and switch it off for rationality. Its a great thing to have. You can pick that up from martial arts.
• Mental conditioning. The army training produced men who don't flinch in danger. Right out of army, I was in a cab that got into an accident. Didn't flinch. Didn't blink. Was plenty annoyed that I was going to be late for the movie. You become a little numb to danger.
• After a sprint, you’d find it hard to breathe. Its common for many to breathe as hard or as fast as they can. Fight that urge. Instead, hold your breathe. You won’t die. But it triggers a response in the body to slow down the heart rate from its frantic pace. After 10 seconds, take slow deep breaths. Fight the urge to indulge in rapid breathing.
• Everyone can have different objectives, everyone different roles, but no matter what, everyone must have the same goal to fight for, otherwise the fight falls apart pretty quickly.
• Every soldier thinks the other soldier knows what he is doing. Often, both are as clueless as goats.
• Make a decision. A bad one if you have to. But you must never ever be without a decision. Your team can forgive you for bad decisions. Some times bad decisions can be backtracked. Indecisiveness however is unforgivable (I’m guilty of decision paralysis myself).
• Rolling in the mud, keeps mosquitoes away from you. But it also means the camouflage uniform will be a single brown or orange shape (depending on the mud type) and this shows up against plants.
• Amatuers debate tactics. Professionals discuss logistics. The groundwork requires more emphasis than the actual fight.
• The smartest people aren’t always the best soldiers. Maybe it’s better to put them somewhere safer where they can think up solutions without getting us killed.
• The combat knife is overrated, but you’d never ever find me without one. They are useful as grounding pins incase you enter an area prone to lightning. They also split wood and can be used to dig (I’m serious).
• If you want to move a battalion to fight a battle, you are moving men and material, not just weapons to a fight. People think it is merely a case of putting people on lorries and moving them there. There will be a lot of loose ends to tie up. People and vital equipment get left behind often. If that happens, you’d end up with a half-functioning battalion arriving in chaos. My point is, the tiniest little things we overlook like personnel registry, which platoon goes into which lorry, or which equipment must be towed by which vehicle, everything must be written down in paper form. Paperwork is dreadful but necessary. Because if you don’t bring a fully functioning battalion against me, and I bring my fully functioning one with all personnel and equipment accounted for, chances are I will win. I cannot emphasise again how the tiny important details matter so very much.
• Never ever, leave people behind. We spent 2 days looking for a person we assumed was lost in the jungle. Turns out we left him back in the bunk because of a personnel accounting error. The whole purpose of it is to drum into each other that no matter what we will never give up on you. It breeds trust. Like family.
• Battles are like mathematics. Assume unit 1 is strong, 2 mediocre, and 3 weak. If the enemy arranges their units as 1-2-3, should you meet them as 1–2–3 as well? No, meet them as 3-1-2. Present your weak one to their strong. The weaker unit will suffer. Thus their job is not to fight but to merely hold on to survival. Use your strong unit to overcome their mediocre ones. Use your mediocre unit to overcome their weak ones. Soon, you will outnumber the opponent.
• Never ever underestimate an enemy. We had a battalion training exercise where three of us (elite recce troopers and I was the accompanying signaller) on a ridgeline harassed a platoon (27 of them) on the move and kept them from their objectives for an hour. After a while they sent the entire company against us only to discover that they were fighting only 3 guys. They thought we were a platoon sized enemy on a flanking maneuver. Against overwhelming odds, always try to fight in an environment that is hostile or difficult to your opponent (they had to climb the ridge and circle it to get to us). If it isn’t, then move until you are in a much better position or realm.
• Weight. I know its common to see US soldiers carrying so much stuff on their body. The amount of gear they wear. The excessive amount of nylon their webbing has. Their MRE packs amaze me, because I call that unneccessary weight. The US army is largely vehicle bound. I’d shed a lot of stuff and carry the bare minimal because in our army, we aren’t as vehicle bound. Its common to hear that we need to tab 20–30km for a single mission in the forest/jungle where no vehicles can enter. I learned that perhaps the bare minimal makes for faster movement.
• The more equipment you have, the more logistics you’d require to support or move that equipment. And those logistical teams doing those work? Even they too need logistics to support their work, and it goes on. Every important task needs people, but these people need to be provided for to accomplish their task. And the supporting crew themselves need to be provided for all the way back to the beginning of the logistics chain. This creates a long logistical headache. Thus to thin down the personnel needed for logistics and move them to the frontline, reduce the amount and variety of equipment. Bring ONLY those you absolutely need. Anything else is just waste.
• Items for trading. Always carry things that others will need, to trade, gain favours, or make friends. I don’t smoke, but I carry cigarattes, and a jar of peanut butter.
• Into the fight. Know that you are always superior in many ways. No matter how the enemy is stacked against you, know that you have some advantage they don’t. The larger they are the slower they move or pivot. But have the sense that you have your limitations.
• Always try to win. Don’t ever let the other fucker win. Remember that you are superior always.

Productivity Tips and Hacks: How to change you'r life completely in the next year or two

What can you do to change?

Optimize everything about your life.

That means literally everything: how you think about your life, which steps are the most important for achieving your personal goals, what you eat, how you get (and stay) fit, how you study. Everything!

How can you do it?

You can do it with super small habits you can practice every day.

What’s the benefit?

It makes everything much easier. It’s not intimidating. It’s not impossible. It’s not something only other people can do - YOU can do it! And the best part? It gets you much closer to the best version of yourself - the one you will proud of becoming!

When should you start?

TODAY.

What are the habits you can practice every day?

Here are 7 habits that can make a really big impact on your future life.

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ONE. Be laser-focused on making progress: Start your day with this question: What is the one thing I am committed to completing today?

• Why this habit matters: it encourages you to think strategically about your life, it keeps you focused on your goals, it forces you to prioritize, and it serves as a personal promise to yourself.
• How you can incorporate this habit into your day: put it in writing. Write it in big bold letters on a sheet of paper and hang it on your bedroom or bathroom wall. Read it out loud as you start your day, and come up with an answer on the spot. Then, as you go through the day, make sure you’re working on completing what you’ve identified as your one thing.

TWO. Create your unique morning routine.

Why is a routine important? Because it helps you become the master of your own time, you can start working on things that are important to you, and you can be more calm knowing in advance what your day will look like. Here’s what your morning can include:

• A short workout (15–20 minutes): a morning yoga routine, a 15 minute bootcamp session, a set of sun salutation poses or a 20-minute power walk.
• A balanced breakfast to give you energy: a combination of protein, fruits, and healthy fats such as oatmeal or a parfait with fresh fruit.
• More brain boosting food to fuel you through the day that includes seafood, spinach, kale and quinoa.

THREE. Be smart about the way you study.

• When should you study? EARLY in the day. Why? Because the early hours of the day are the optimal time for your analytical brain to perform the most complex tasks (in the case of studying, these can be reading, comprehension, application, repetition). Some scientists call this time of day the brain’s peak performance time, and it's roughly 2-4 hours after we wake up. So, for example, if you wake up at 6, your peak times for review are between 8 and 10 a.m. You can extend this time until midday so that you cover the most important concepts by lunchtime.
• How should you study? With a timer. Why? Reviewing for hours at a stretch is not the best way to study. Using a timer is beneficial because (a) you divide up your day into manageable increments which helps your brain to focus in a more targeted and effective way, (b) you can use it to practice exam questions in an exam mock-up session, and (c) you have time for some physical exercise to give your brain time to process new information. For example:
• For reviewing, set the timer to 30 or 60 minute blocks. When you're done with one segment, step away from your desk, and do something completely unrelated to work to give your brain a chance to rest: take a 5 minute walk, look out the window, stretch your body, grab a cup of coffee or tea.
• For practicing exam questions, use the review questions provided either in your textbook or other course materials (and if you have neither, create your own questions based on the most important concepts from each chapter). Write the questions down on a sheet of paper. Then, use thePomodoro technique to give yourself only a short time to answer each question. This technique consists of 25 minute blocks of time, followed by 5 minute breaks.
• Use each 25-minute block of time to cover several questions, and go down the list until you’ve covered them all.
• Say your answers out loud. Write an outline of the basic points you want to make in your answer, then talk it through out loud. This technique helps you review, recall, and retain what you’ve learned in a much better way than just silently looking over the material.
• How can you boost your memory and focus? Take a walk. Performing some form of physical exercise, even if it is targeted and short, improves your brain's cognitive performance, problem solving ability, and even boosts long-term memory. Step away from your desk and walk for 30 minutes. If your neighborhood or college campus is noisy, take your headphones with you and listen to some relaxing instrumental music.

FOUR. Tackle procrastination head on: Replace saying “I can’t do this right now” with “why not?”

Procrastinating may sound like the easy way out. Why? Because it doesn’t require a lot of effort to procrastinate. In fact, it’s almost a default reaction to something challenging that’s in front of you. Consider this:

• Think carefully if there is something else hiding behind procrastination. Maybe it is fear of not being able to do something successfully.
• Next time you feel like procrastinating, rather than immediately saying “I can’t”ask yourself where the resistance is coming from. Be honest with yourself. Find out what it is so you can do something about it.
• The biggest benefit to making this change is this: whenever you say “why not?” you win over fear. There is something really powerful when we leave a little space open for possibilities, instead of shutting the door in our own face. It’s a subtle change in attitude towards ourselves than can have a tremendous impact in our lives.

FIVE. Think at least two steps ahead: Develop your life strategy.

Focus on the work you’ve planned to complete today, but always keep your eye on at least two steps ahead. When you have a strategy in place, everything you do each day will have more purpose. How?

• Rethink your daily actions and how you react to what’s happening around you. Is your behavior geared towards achieving a one-time effect, or will you feel benefits in the long run?
• Are you merely reacting to events or being proactive about them?
• Is what you’re doing today going to help you become who you want to be in 10 years? Become strategic so that you can achieve long term results that your future self can benefit from.

SIX. Set long-term goals for yourself.

• Identify your top 3 goals. For example: graduate from college, get an advanced degree, find a job that is the best fit for your skill set, develop a skill that you've always wanted, get physically fit, relocate to a city or country where you would like to live and work, etc.
• Then, under each goal, write down 3 things you will need to do on a regular basis to make progress. For example: if your goal is to get physically fit, then the things you should focus on can be creating a meal plan for the week to eat healthier, working out regularly, and doing research on YouTube for fun workouts that don't take up too much time and can be incorporated easily into your day.
• Finally, create a weekly schedule to fit in the activities you've identified as important to achieving your goal. Divide each day into hourly increments, then block off time for your activities. You should still be able to find a couple of hours where you can do what you set out to do.

SEVEN. Use your evenings for dreaming big.

Evenings (or anywhere after 6 p.m.) can be scheduled for strategic thinking. This is when the brain eases into a different tempo when it can be more creative. If you're setting goals and strategizing where you want to be in 6 months' time or a year with your personal development, this is when you can outline your next steps. It's a great time for creating and contemplating the big picture. Here’s what you can contemplate:

• Ask yourself: Where do you see yourself in the future, who do you want to become, what would be an ideal lifestyle for you?
• Map out your dreams: Write down in detail what this ideal lifestyle would be like. Cover all areas of your life: what is that dream job, the daily schedule, the people you’d be working with? What does the city look like, the apartment or house you’d be living in, the commute to work? Do you see yourself with a partner, a family, children, with pets? Dedicate some time to describing every little aspect in detail.
• Make it visual: Get a large sheet of paper, then find photographs (from magazines, for example) that look like a visual representation of what you’d like your ideal lifestyle to be. Add pictures and write down phrases that are powerful and meaningful to you, and that pertain to your goals: your college degree, the perfect job, your ideal and fit self, your dream home, the dog you’d like to have one day, etc.
• Incorporate it into your day: Put your vision map somewhere where you can see it first thing in the morning: in the bathroom as you’re brushing your teeth or in the bedroom when you’re getting dressed. Look at it often, absorb the pictures, read the words. Make it a daily habit to spend time observing everything you’ve put on your vision map.
• Make the connection: As you’re dreaming big, ask yourself what can you do every single day to get you closer to your dreams. It is only when we are proactive about our life that we can truly make dreams come alive, make them real, make them part of who we want to become.

Some brain hacks that a neuroscientist or a psychologist knows that most people dont

The Psychology of Persuasion

Everyone has to engage in some form of persuasion throughout most of their life. Whether you are deciding with friends where to eat lunch or convincing a boss you deserve a promotion, you can always benefit from knowing the secrets of persuasion.

In Dr. Robert Cialdini's bestselling book "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion,"he summarizes an array of social science studies and contributes a few of his own in order to better understand how people make decisions.

What he found was:

• Behavior is heavily influenced by unconscious psychological factors
• These psychological factors can be identified and utilized
• If used correctly, people have no idea that they are being manipulated

The purpose of his book was not to teach people how to manipulate others, but instead how to safeguard themselves against sales & marketing tactics. However you choose to use the below information is up to you.

"The 6 Principles of Persuasion"

Reciprocity

Free samples. Have you ever seen free samples being handed out in grocery stores or while walking down the street? Rest assured they aren't doing this out of the kindness of their hearts. Studies have shown a dramatic increase in efficacy of marketing tactics if they are preceded by a "gift" which triggers a natural feeling of debt in the target.

• In 1985, in the midst of a bloody civil war and a horrible famine, Ethiopia sent thousands of dollars in aid to Mexico after an earthquake. Why such a profound reaction? Because 50 years earlier, Mexico helped Ethiopia diplomatically when they were invaded by Italy.
• The Hare Krishnu religion exploded in popularity in the 60s and 70s, and there isevidence that at least part of their success was due to the practice of offering strangers flowers before asking for donations or time.

Consistency

An amazingly powerful concept. People will go to extraordinary lengths without even realizing it, just to remain consistent with their past actions and beliefs. This is related to the psychological concept of cognitive dissonance. This principle is especially significant if past behavior is public or written down, in which case it can't be denied. (This is why New Years' goals are followed through much more when broadcast online and shared extensively.)

• A study was done that found the vast majority of people, unsurprisingly, are not willing to allow a large, ugly sign saying "Drive Safely" to be put in their front yard. However, if you approach these people a few weeks prior and first ask them to do something much smaller (e.g. bumper stick or doormat), they will be significantly more likely to accept the large sign when you come back later.
• People who are given "cancer awareness" buttons for a week are many times more likely to donate to cancer afterwards. Why? A piece of their identity is now wrapped up in "cancer awareness" and to remain consistent with this, they must donate.
• Around Christmas time, toy stores will deliberately run out of stock of certain items. But you promised your child you would buy a certain present! What do you do? You buy a bunch of other products to compensate. Then a few weeks later, the toy stores get "resupplied" and your kid notices the toy at the store, and you end up buying it anyways. You need to remain consistent with your recent decision to buy lots of toys for your child, and also your original promise you couldn't keep.
• American POWs in Vietnam betrayed secrets of the United States without being tortured. Why would they do this? An amazing psychological tactic. The Chinese would sponsor writing contests, where prize winners would get small rewards (food, water, etc). At first the requests were relatively benign- such as "Is the United States perfect?" Soon, they were asked to expand on some of the flaws in the United States. They they sat in groups and discussed their reasons. Then they recorded anti-American speeches. All of this was voluntary, and slowly began to change part of their identity. To remain consistent with each small step, they eventually were willing to give away large amounts of information.

Social Proof

Why are there those silly laugh tracks on sit com TV shows? Because they work! People are extremely susceptible to the opinions of others, even when obviously false.

• People in this study by Solomon Asch were given a picture of three lines, and asked to identify the line most similar in length to another test line. The answer was always obvious. What's the catch? Well each room had 1 naive participant, and a number of confederates who were working with the study. The image would be passed along the room, where each confederate would purposefully give the obviously wrong answer. 75% of the time, when the image got to the participant, the answers of the others proved too powerful to ignore and he would conform, also giving the obviously wrong answer.
• Another study by Stanley Milgram (soon to be talked about in the next section), Leonard Bickman, and Lawrence Berkowitz found something amazing. They put 15 men on a street corner, instructed merely to stand there and look up at the sky. Within moments, up to 80% of nearby pedestrians also stopped and began looking up at the sky. Demonstrating social proof- in that many of them assumed that nobody would look up at the sky without a good reason.

Authority

In the aftermath of World War II and the atrocities committed by many seemingly normal Nazi commanders, greater attention was focused on the nature of authority in influencing people's behavior. It turns out, authority is one of the most powerful effects yet discovered.

• Stanley Milgram conducted the infamous social psychology studies that bear his name (Milgram Experiment) in the early 1960s. He found that 65% of apparently normal people would give electric shocks of increasing power up to the point of death, when encouraged and directed to by an imposing authority figure (the experimenter). This shocked the psychological community, who had predicted less than 1% would go to such a level.
• Numerous studies have discovered that men and women dressed in professional attire (doctor's lab coat, business suit, etc) are able to command the obedience of others to a surprising degree. For example, if a man in a suit begins to jaywalk then nearby pedestrians are significantly more likely to accompany him than if he were dressed normally.
• Security professionals have demonstrated consistently that social hackers are able to gain entrance to any number of "private" facilities merely by acting and behaving as if they belong there. For example, if you dress in the uniform of a bank officer and stand in front of an apparently broken ATM, you will likely see a 90% success rate in asking people to hand over their money.

Liking

We all know that we are more likely to respond to a request from somebody we like than from somebody we dislike. But how much further does this feeling go? Apparently, a lot further!

• It turns out that there are a lot of subtle things to influence our degree of "liking" for other individuals. One of the most important is similarity- in other words, we like those who seem like us. A 2005 study found that people are more than twice as likely to fill out surveys and return them if the person making the request as a similar sounding name.
• Association is a major component. Why do beer and car commercials feature models in skimpy outfits? Because we implicitly draw associations between the model (who we like) and the product (she likes the car, so we like the car).
• Physical attractiveness- the halo effect at work. It turns out that we are likely to assign a host of other positive attributes to people we find physically attractive. Ever wonder why "good guys" in movies are typically handsome and the "bad guys" usually portrayed as disgusting?

Scarcity

One of the most fundamental attributes of persuasion, salespeople have been using the concept of scarcity for a very long time (ever hear or see the phrase "limited time only")? This one is also of interest to the relatively new field of behavioral economics.

• Cialdini mentions a study that found that children reach for toys 3x faster when obstructed by a barrier, compared to when they can easily reach them.
• The Romeo and Juliet effect uses the principle of scarcity to explain why teenagers fall in love with each other despite parental obstruction. The answer is simple: from Romeo's perspective, Juliet becomes scarce and more difficult to obtain. For that reason, he wants her more.
• The basic principle is that people are more scared of "losing something" than "gaining something." If you think you are about to miss out on an opportunity, especially if competition is involved, you want it much more.