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Sunday, January 29, 2012

17 lesser known ways to be persuasive


You want to be persuasive.  The power to influence people to get what you want is sometimes all it takes to be successful. These are some tactics, discovered through psychological research, that you have probably not yet heard about, but have the potential to increase your persuasive abilities.
I’m not going to cover reciprocity, scarcity or social proof and all those widely known persuasion principles. You already know all about those (in case you don’t, stop everything and read this book by Cialdini).

1. Be confident, talk fast

The best way to persuade audiences that are not inclined to agree with you, is to talk fast. Fast pace is distracting and people find it difficult to pick out the argument’s flaws. When talking to an audience who is likely to agree (preaching to the choir), slow down and give the audience time to agree some more.
Want to boost persuasive power? Talk with confidence.
Don Moore from Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Behavioral Decision Research has published research showing that confidence even trumps past accuracy in earning the trust of others.
We prefer advice from a confident source, even to the point that we are willing to forgive a poor track record. Moore argues that in competitive situations, this can drive those offering advice to increasingly exaggerate how sure they are.
People naturally associate confidence with expertise. Know your product, know the facts about its benefits and believe in what it does – true confidence becomes from knowing and believing what you’re saying. It’s essential that we communicate our confidence to others in order to persuade them.

2. Swearing can help influence an audience

Light swearing, that is. (Go overboard and lose all credibility.)
Researchers divided 88 participants into three groups to watch one of three slightly different speeches. The only difference between the speeches was that one contained a mild curse word at the start:
…lowering of tuition is not only a great idea, but damn it, also the most reasonable one for all parties involved.
The second speech contained the ‘damn it’ at the end and the third had neither. When participants’ attitudes were measured, they were most influenced by the speeches with the mild obscenity included, either at the beginning or the end.
The word ‘damn’ increased the audience’s perception of the speaker’s intensity, which increased persuasion. The audience’s perceived credibility of the speaker did not change.
So that’s the secret of Gary Vaynerchuk and Dave McClure. I thought they’re just cool guys, but turns out its the swearing that got me.

3. Get people to agree with you first

If you want people to buy into your message, start with something they can agree with.
In a research study by Jing Xu and Robert Wyerestablished, there were lingering effects of messages people agree with. In one of the tests, participants listen to a speech by John McCain or one by Barack Obama and then watch a TV ad for Toyota.
Republicans tended to be more swayed by the ad after watching the speech by John McCain, while Democrats showed the opposite effect, finding the ad more persuasive after the Obama speech.
So when you try to sell something, make statements or represent a world view your customers can agree with first – even if they have nothing to do with what you’re selling.

4. Balanced arguments are more persuasive

If what you are doing inspires (or can inspire) criticism, resist the instinct to paper over weaknesses. We fear undermining our point of view by talking about weaknesses, but actually it would help our case.
Psyblog writes:
Over the years psychologists have compared one-sided and two-sided arguments to see which are the most persuasive in different contexts. Daniel O’Keefe at the University of Illinois collected together the results of 107 different studies on sidedness and persuasion conducted over 50 years which, between them, recruited 20,111 participants (O’Keefe, 1999, Communication Yearbook, 22, pp. 209-249).
The results of this meta-analysis provide persuasive reading. What he found across different types of persuasive messages and with varied audiences, was that two-sided arguments are more persuasive than their one-sided equivalents.
People are not idiots and they can think. If you don’t mention the other side of the coin in your arguments, people are less likely to believe you.
Perhaps it might be a good idea to mention the shortcomings of your product or service on your website.

5. People believe you more if they sit in the evidence

A research study by Ye Li, Eric Johnson, and Lisa Zaval looked into the belief into global warming and its relation to the current local weather.
Participants in the US and Australia rated the strength of their belief in global warming. They also rated whether they thought the temperature that day was warmer, colder, or about normal for that time of year. When people felt the day was warmer than usual, they also expressed a higher belief in global warming than when they felt the day was cooler than usual.
In the related study they asked the same stuff, but also asked for a donation to a non-profit combating climate change. The participants in this study donated over four times as much money when the day was much warmer than usual than when the day was much cooler than usual.
If you want people to buy your message, ask for the sale in the situation that supports your claims. Online, use imagery or other visual material to build the stage for your story.

6. Upsell a product that cost 60% less

Once somebody gets to a point that they’ll buy something from you, they have given you their trust and have convinced themselves it’s okay to give you money. In that moment you are able to sell them more.
When somebody buys a shirt, you upsell should be a tie and not the whole suit.
The time-tested 60×60 rule says that your customers will buy an upsell 60 percent of the time for up to 60% of the original purchase price. Any upsell you offer must be congruent with the original purchase.
If you don’t use up-selling in your business yet, it’s a quick way to boost profits (“would you like fries with that?”).

7. Frame it in the positive

Emphasising the positive can be more persuasive than pointing out the negative.
An analysis added up the results of 29 different studies, which had been carried out on 6,378 people in total. The finding was that there was a slight persuasive advantage for messages that were framed positively.
This study had to do with the way people relate to disease prevention, such as encouraging people to use sunscreen, and promoting healthy eating habits, but it might have a wider appeal. The researchers hypothesized the reason to be that we don’t like to be bullied into changing our behaviour.
Try framing your marketing message in the positive (“Gain additional hour every day” vs “Stop wasting time”) and see if it makes a difference.

8. The paradox of choice

The more choice you offer, the less people will take you up on it – says this study.
Researchers set up a jam-tasting stall in a posh supermarket in California. Sometimes they offered six varieties of jam, at other times 24. Jam tasters were then offered a voucher to buy jam at a discount.
While more choice attracted more customers to look, very few of them actually bought jam. The display that offered less choice made many more sales — in fact, only 3 per cent of jam tasters at the 24-flavour stand used their discount voucher, versus 30 per cent at the six-flavour stand.
If you have a ton of products, invest in building better filters that help people make the choice. Read the excellent book or watch the great TED talk on the topic.

9. If something happens often enough, you will eventually be persuaded

Repetition of things has a distinct effect on us. Advertisements repeated replay themselves when we see the product. The songs that radios play over and over again eventually grow on us.
Repetition of a word or visual pattern not only causes it to be remembered (which is persuasive in itself), it also leads people to accept what is being repeated as being true.
ChangingMinds writes this about Hugh Rank’s persuasion research (Teaching about public persuasion, 1976):
Our brains are excellent pattern-matchers and reward us for using this very helpful skill. Repetition creates a pattern, which consequently and naturally grabs our attention.
Repetition creates familiarity, but does familiarity breed contempt? Although it can happen, the reality is that familiarity leads to liking in far more case than it does to contempt. When we are in a supermarket, we are far more likely to buy familiar brands, even if we have never tried the product before. 
Think about the last time you bought a pair of shoes. Did you pick them then put them down several times before trying them on. Did you come back to try them again? If so, you are in good company. Many people have to repeat things several times before they get convinced. Three times is a common number.
Use repetition of key benefits or value proposition in your sales copy and ad campaigns many times. Effective advertising and political campaigns do that (“Geico can save you 15% or more …”). Use friendly repetition to create familiarity and hence liking.
Another research reveals even if only one member of a group repeats their opinion, it is more likely to be seen by others as representative of the whole group.

10. Men are more responsive to email than face-to-face talk

Guadagno & Cialdini research (2002) showed that men seem more responsive to email because it bypasses their competitive tendencies. Women, however, may respond better in face-to-face encounters because they are more ‘relationship-minded’
This research is suggesting that email could provide a way of side-stepping men’s competitive tendencies. But, this only applies to distant relationships. The closer the relationship between men, the better face to face works.
When you want to persuade a man you don’t know too well, start with an email.

11. Limiting the quantity you can buy makes you buy more

From Brian Wansink’s excellent book Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think:
A while back, I teamed up with two professor friends of mine—Steve Hoch and Bob Kent—to see if anchoring influences how much food we buy in grocery stores. We believed that grocery shoppers who saw numerical signs such as “Limit 12 Per Person” would buy much more than those who saw signs such as “No Limit Per Person.”
To nail down the psychology behind this, we repeated this study in different forms, using different numbers, different promotions (like “2 for $2” versus “1 for $1”), and in different supermarkets and convenience stores. By the time we finished, we knew that almost any sign with a number promotion leads us to buy 30 to 100 percent more than we normally would.
So put numbered limitations or anchors on the quantity your customer can buy from you.

12. Story beats data

A Carnegie Mellon University study in 2007 by Deborah Small, GeorgeLowenstein and Paul Slovic compared the effects of story vs data.
Test subjects where asked to collect donations for a dire situation in Africa. The data pitch contained statistics about food shortages in Malawi, lack of rain in Zambia, and the dislocation of millions in Angola.
The second version talked about a particular girl in Zambia, Rokia, who was starving. People were shown her photo and asked to donate to help her directly.
On average, students who received the fact-based appeal from Save the Children donated $1.14. Students who read the story about Rokia donated an average of $2.38, more than twice as much.
In a third experiment, students were told Rokia’s story but also included statistics about persistent drought, shortfalls in crop production, and millions of Africans who were going hungry. While students who had read Rokia’s story alone donated an average of $2.38, those who read the story plus the data donated an average of $1.43.
The plight of Africa, the fight with poverty is too overwhelming and people feel their contribution is just a drop in a bucket, hence feel less inclined to help.
“If I look at the mass I will never act,” said Mother Teresa. “If I look at the one, I will.”

13. Marketing to men? Use photos of women

A field experiment in the consumer credit market found that pictures of women as as effective as low interest rate.
A South African lender sent letters offering incumbent clients large, short-term loans at randomly chosen interest rates. The letters also contained independently randomized psychological “features”. As expected, the interest rate significantly affected loan take-up. Inconsistent with standard economics, some of the psychological features also significantly affected take-up.
For the male customers, replacing the photo of a male with a photo of female on the offer letter statistically significantly increases takeup; the effect is about as much as dropping the interest rate 4.5 percentage points… For female customers, we find no statistically significant patterns.
Overall, these results suggest a very powerful effect on male customers of seeing a female photo on the offer letter. Standard errors however do not allow us to isolate one specific mechanism for this effect. The effect on male customers may be due to either the positive impact of a female photo or the negative impact of a male photo.
The experiment featured a rather dramatic range in interest rates – 3.25% to 11.75%. The effect of a photo of a woman on a loan offer was equivalent 4.5% difference in the loan interest rate.
Next time add a photo of a woman to your offer and see your conversions go up.
The above study did not feature sexy women. But would a sexy women wearing bikinis help?
Research shows that arousal makes men stupid, as they become bad at making decisions. It gives them tunnel vision. The effect seems to be a short-term -one that would be most effective at the point of purchase, for impulse purchases.
The ideal selling situation would be to have the bikini-clad babe selling to the men in person. I guess you could do that also online for products meant only for men.
Studies have shown that sexy ads don’t really make men remember the product. We’re so lasered in on the sexy stuff, we don’t care what brand of product it is.

14. Want to convince leaders? Make them feel less powerful

Don’t bother trying to persuade your boss of a new idea while he’s feeling the power of his position, research suggests he’s not listening to you.
“Powerful people have confidence in what they are thinking. Whether their thoughts are positive or negative toward an idea, that position is going to be hard to change,” said Richard Petty, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at Ohio State University.
The best way to get leaders to consider new ideas is to put them in a situation where they don’t feel as powerful, the research suggests.
“Our research shows that power makes people more confident in their beliefs, but power is only one thing that affects confidence,” Petty said. “Try to bring up something that the boss doesn’t know, something that makes him less certain and that tempers his confidence.”
“You want to sow all your arguments when the boss is not thinking of his power, and after you make a good case, then remind your boss of his power. Then he will be more confident in his own evaluation of what you say. As long as you make good arguments, he will be more likely to be persuaded,” Petty said.
So in a nutshell:
  • make the leaders feel less powerful and confident by talking about stuff they don’t know and if possible, talk outside of his office (neutral territory),
  • after the pitch, remind them who’s the boss, so they could take action on your request.

15. The Sullivan Nod

Invented by restaurant consultant, Jim Sullivan, the Sullivan nod involves reciting a list of options but just inclining your head slightly when you reach the choice you’d like the buyer to make. The nod has to be subtle, but perceptible and works best in lists of no more than five items. According to Jim Sullivan, it’s successful up to 60 percent of the time.
Whenever servers suggest a beverage, have them smile and slowly nod their heads up and own as they make the suggestion. Body language is powerful, and research shows that over 60% of the time, the guest will nod right back and take your suggestion!
I bet you could use that online in sales videos. When talking about plans or packages, do the nod on the one you want them to buy.

16. Clarity trumps persuasion

Dr. Flint McGlaughlin of Marketing Experiments likes to say this: “Clarity trumps persuasion”. Remember this.
Persuasion tricks work when done subtly and skillfully. Overdo it and you lose the sale. When you’re writing sales copy or doing presentations, the best way to persuade people is to use clarity. Give people enough information to make up their mind without being cheesy or using hype.

17. 87% of people believe everything if there’s a percentage in it






Catching a liar

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Other-Focused Lies are directed at another person and are usually told with the good intention of the deceiver.

Self-Fouced Lies may be directed at any person, but are told for the purpose of benefitting or protecting the person telling the lie.
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Broadly speaking there are 3 response phases after a lie is told.

Phase One: Emotional Response: When a lie is told the liar will feel some form of emotion depending on how serious the lie is. Some people are great at lying because they can detatch from lies and feel no emotion. But most people will feel emotion. These emotions can be fear,guilt, stress or on occasion excitment.

Phase Two: Sympathetic Nervious Response: The impact of guilt,fear or stress on the liar will cause 'decent clues' things like fidgeting,finger tapping, talking too quickly, avoiding eye contact, rapid eye movement, dry mouth ect.

Phase Three: Cognitive Response: When the liar realises the Sympathetic Nervous Resonse and tries to make a counter-measusre. Things like gripping hands to stop finger tapping or making more eye contact because they broke eye contact when lying.

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Recent studies show that 55% of communucating is non-verbal, while 38% is is vocal (how things are said) and 7% is purely verbal.

The same study suggested that we are not designed to catch lies or detect them. A group of neuro-scientists suggested that we aren't built to detect lies because in our primal stages of development we lived in very close quartes (tribes), and cheating and acts like that were not common because you just wouldnt be able to get away with it and if you did you would be outcast or killed.
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MAGIC

This module was built so you could go through the steps and so there was an easy way to remember how to detect lies.

Motivation: does the person have a motivation to lie.

Ask Control Questions, to establish a baseline: When you initally turn on your 'lieradar', observe the verbal and non-verbal responses to Control Questions - ones the person will answer truthfully. This will give you a behavioural baseline. ( same thing is used when you get polygraphed, thats why they ask your name and stuff, to determine your normal heart rate)

Guilt Questions : To identify a liar you need to first provide the opportunityto lie. For this to occur, you must ask a Guilt Question or two - subtly! This is best done in a normal conversation as it denies the opportunity for the person to hide deciet clues from you.

Indicators: Are there lying indicators that stand out to you, fromthe baseline behaviour you observed when asking the Control Questions.

Check again. If you wanna be sure and not look like an idiot repeat those steps and if you get the same response as before (presuming they're lying) then you know they are lying.

Posttraumatic stress disorder

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma. This event may involve the threat of death to oneself or to someone else, or to one's own or someone else's physical, sexual, or psychological integrity, overwhelming the individual's ability to cope. As an effect of psychological trauma, PTSD is less frequent and more enduring than the more commonly seen acute stress response. Diagnostic symptoms for PTSD include re-experiencing the original trauma(s) through flashbacks or nightmares, avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, and increased arousal—such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, anger, and hypervigilance. Formal diagnostic criteria (both DSM-IV-TR and ICD-10) require that the symptoms last more than one month and cause significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Classification

Posttraumatic stress disorder is classified as an anxiety disorder, characterized by aversive anxiety-related experiences, behaviors, and physiological responses that develop after exposure to a psychologically traumatic event (sometimes months after). Its features persist for longer than 30 days, which distinguishes it from the briefer acute stress disorder. These persisting posttraumatic stress symptoms cause significant disruptions of one or more important areas of life function. It has three sub-forms: acute, chronic, and delayed-onset.

Causes

Psychological trauma

PTSD is believed to be caused by experiencing any of a wide range of events which produces intense negative feelings of "fear, helplessness or horror" in the observer or participant. Sources of such feelings may include (but are not limited to):
Children or adults may develop PTSD symptoms by experiencing bullying or mobbing. Approximately 25% of children exposed to family violence can experience PTSD. Preliminary research suggests that child abuse may interact with mutations in a stress-related gene to increase the risk of PTSD in adults.
Multiple studies show that parental PTSD and other posttraumatic disturbances in parental psychological functioning can, despite a traumatized parent's best efforts, interfere with their response to their child as well as their child's response to trauma. Parents with violence-related PTSD may, for example, inadvertently expose their children to developmentally inappropriate violent media due to their need to manage their own emotional dysregulation. Clinical findings indicate that a failure to provide adequate treatment to children after they suffer a traumatic experience, depending on their vulnerability and the severity of the trauma, will ultimately lead to PTSD symptoms in adulthood.

Evolutionary psychology

Evolutionary psychology views different types of fears and reactions caused by fears as adaptations that may have been useful in the ancestral environment in order to avoid or cope with various threats. Mammals generally display several defensive behaviors roughly dependent on how close the threat is: avoidance, vigilant immobility, withdrawal, aggressive defense, appeasement, and finally complete frozen immobility (the last possibly to confuse a predator's attack reflex or to simulate a dead and contaminated body). PTSD may correspond to and be caused by overactivation of such fear circuits. Thus, PTSD avoidance behaviors may correspond to mammal avoidance of and withdrawal from threats. Heightened memory of past threats may increase avoidance of similar situations in the future as well as be a prerequisite for analyzing the past threat and develop better defensive behaviors if the threat should reoccur. PTSD hyperarousal may correspond to vigilant immobility and aggressive defense. Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (and phenomena such as the Stockholm syndrome) may in part correspond to the appeasement stage and possibly the frozen immobility stage.
There may be evolutionary explanations for differences in resilience to traumatic events. Thus, PTSD is rare following traumatic fire which may be explained by events such as forest fires long being part of the evolutionary history of mammals. On the other hand, PTSD is much more common following modern warfare, which may be explained by modern warfare being a new development and very unlike the quick inter-group raids that are argued to have characterized the paleolithic.

Neuroendocrinology

PTSD symptoms may result when a traumatic event causes an over-reactive adrenaline response, which creates deep neurological patterns in the brain. These patterns can persist long after the event that triggered the fear, making an individual hyper-responsive to future fearful situations.
PTSD displays biochemical changes in the brain and body that differ from other psychiatric disorders such as major depression. Individuals diagnosed with PTSD respond more strongly to a dexamethasone suppression test than individuals diagnosed with clinical depression.
In addition, most people with PTSD also show a low secretion of cortisol and high secretion of catecholamines in urine, with a norepinephrine/cortisol ratio consequently higher than comparable non-diagnosed individuals. This is in contrast to the normative fight-or-flight response, in which both catecholamine and cortisol levels are elevated after exposure to a stressor.
Brain catecholamine levels are high, and corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) concentrations are high. Together, these findings suggest abnormality in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis.
Given the strong cortisol suppression to dexamethasone in PTSD, HPA axis abnormalities are likely predicated on strong negative feedback inhibition of cortisol, itself likely due to an increased sensitivity of glucocorticoid receptors. Some researchers have associated the response to stress in PTSD with long-term exposure to high levels of norepinephrine and low levels of cortisol, a pattern associated with improved learning in animals.
Translating this reaction to human conditions gives a pathophysiological explanation for PTSD by a maladaptive learning pathway to fear response through a hypersensitive, hyperreactive, and hyperresponsive HPA axis.
Low cortisol levels may predispose individuals to PTSD: Following war trauma, Swedish soldiers serving in Bosnia and Herzegovina with low pre-service salivary cortisol levels had a higher risk of reacting with PTSD symptoms, following war trauma, than soldiers with normal pre-service levels. Because cortisol is normally important in restoring homeostasis after the stress response, it is thought that trauma survivors with low cortisol experience a poorly contained—that is, longer and more distressing—response, setting the stage for PTSD.
However, there is considerable controversy within the medical community regarding the neurobiology of PTSD. A review of existing studies on this subject showed no clear relationship between cortisol levels and PTSD. Only a slight majority have found a decrease in cortisol levels while others have found no effect or even an increase.

Neuroanatomy



Regions of the brain associated with stress and posttraumatic stress disorder
Three areas of the brain whose function may be altered in PTSD have been identified: the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus. Much of this research has utilised PTSD victims from the Vietnam War. For example, a prospective study using the Vietnam Head Injury Study showed that damage to the prefrontal cortex may actually be protective against later development of PTSD. In a study by Gurvits et al., combat veterans of the Vietnam War with PTSD showed a 20% reduction in the volume of their hippocampus compared with veterans who suffered no such symptoms. This finding could not be replicated in chronic PTSD patients traumatized at an air show plane crash in 1988 (Ramstein, Germany).
In human studies, the amygdala has been shown to be strongly involved in the formation of emotional memories, especially fear-related memories. Neuroimaging studies in humans have revealed both morphological and functional aspects of PTSD.
The amygdalocentric model of PTSD proposes that it is associated with hyperarousal of the amygdala and insufficient top-down control by the medial prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus particularly during extinction. This is consistent with an interpretation of PTSD as a syndrome of deficient extinction ability. A study at the European Neuroscience Institute-Goettingen (Germany) found that fear extinction-induced IGF2/IGFBP7 signalling promotes the survival of 17–19-day-old newborn hippocampal neurons. This suggests that therapeutic strategies that enhance IGF2 signalling and adult neurogenesis might be suitable to treat diseases linked to excessive fear memory such as PTSD. Further animal and clinical research into the amygdala and fear conditioning may suggest additional treatments for the condition.

Genetics

There is evidence that susceptibility to PTSD is hereditary. For twin pairs exposed to combat in Vietnam, having a monozygotic (identical) twin with PTSD was associated with an increased risk of the co-twin having PTSD compared to twins that were dizygotic (non-identical twins).
Recently, it has been found that several single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in FK506 binding protein 5 (FKBP5) interact with childhood trauma to predict severity of adult PTSD. These findings suggest that individuals with these SNPs who are abused as children are more susceptible to PTSD as adults.
This is particularly interesting given that FKBP5 SNPs have previously been associated with peritraumatic dissociation (that is, dissociation at the time of the trauma), which has itself been shown to be predictive of PTSD. Furthermore, FKBP5 may be less expressed in those with current PTSD. Another recent study found a single SNP in a putative estrogen response element on ADCYAP1R1 (encodes pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide type I receptor or PAC1) to predict PTSD diagnosis and symptoms in females. Incidentally, this SNP is also associated with fear discrimination. The study suggests that perturbations in the PACAP-PAC1 pathway are involved in abnormal stress responses underlying PTSD.

Risk factors

Although most people (50–90%) encounter trauma over a lifetime, only about 8% develop full PTSD. Vulnerability to PTSD presumably stems from an interaction of biological diathesis, early childhood developmental experiences, and trauma severity.
Predictor models have consistently found that childhood trauma, chronic adversity, and familial stressors increase risk for PTSD as well as risk for biological markers of risk for PTSD after a traumatic event in adulthood. This effect of childhood trauma, which is not well understood, may be a marker for both traumatic experiences and attachment problems. Proximity to, duration of, and severity of the trauma also make an impact, and interpersonal traumas cause more problems than impersonal ones.

Military experience

Schnurr, Lunney, and Sengupta identified risk factors for the development of PTSD in Vietnam veterans. Among those are:
  • Hispanic ethnicity, coming from an unstable family, being punished severely during childhood, childhood asocial behavior, and depression as pre-military factors
  • War-zone exposure, peritraumatic dissociation, depression as military factors
  • Recent stressful life events, post-Vietnam trauma, and depression as post-military factors
They also identified certain protective factors, such as:
  • Japanese-American ethnicity, high school degree or college education, older age at entry to war, higher socioeconomic status, and a more positive paternal relationship as pre-military protective factors
  • Social support at homecoming and current social support as post-military factors. Other research also indicates the protective effects of social support in averting PTSD or facilitating recovery if it develops.
There may also be an attitudinal component; for example, a soldier who believes that they will not sustain injuries may be more likely to develop symptoms of PTSD than one who anticipates the possibility, should either be wounded. Likewise, the later incidence of suicide among those injured in home fires above those injured in fires in the workplace suggests this possibility.

Foster care

In the Casey Family Northwest Alumni Study, conducted in conjunction with researchers from the Harvard Medical School in Oregon and Washington state, the rate of PTSD in adults who were in foster care for one year between the ages of 14–18 was found to be higher than that of combat veterans. Up to 25 percent of those in the study meet the diagnostic criteria for PTSD as compared to 12–13 percent of Iraq war veterans and 15 percent of Vietnam War veterans, and a rate of 4 percent in the general population. The recovery rate for foster home alumni was 28.2% as opposed to 47% in the general population.
Dubner and Motta (1999) found that 60% of children in foster care who had experienced sexual abuse had PTSD, and 42% of those who had been physically abused met the PTSD criteria. PTSD was also found in 18% of the children who were not abused. These children may have developed PTSD due to witnessing violence in the home, or as a result of real or perceived parental abandonment.

Diagnosis

Criteria

The diagnostic criteria for PTSD, stipulated in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (Text Revision) (DSM-IV-TR), may be summarized as:

A: Exposure to a traumatic event

This must have involved both (a) loss of "physical integrity", or risk of serious injury or death, to self or others, and (b) a response to the event that involved intense fear, horror, or helplessness (or in children, the response must involve disorganized or agitated behavior). (The DSM-IV-TR criterion differs substantially from the previous DSM-III-R stressor criterion, which specified the traumatic event should be of a type that would cause "significant symptoms of distress in almost anyone," and that the event was "outside the range of usual human experience.")

B: Persistent re-experiencing

One or more of these must be present in the victim: flashback memories, recurring distressing dreams, subjective re-experiencing of the traumatic event(s), or intense negative psychological or physiological response to any objective or subjective reminder of the traumatic event(s).

C: Persistent avoidance and emotional numbing

This involves a sufficient level of:
  • avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, such as certain thoughts or feelings, or talking about the event(s);
  • avoidance of behaviors, places, or people that might lead to distressing memories;
  • inability to recall major parts of the trauma(s), or decreased involvement in significant life activities;
  • decreased capacity (down to complete inability) to feel certain feelings;
  • an expectation that one's future will be somehow constrained in ways not normal to other people.

D: Persistent symptoms of increased arousal not present before

These are all physiological response issues, such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, or problems with anger, concentration, or hypervigilance.

E: Duration of symptoms for more than 1 month

If all other criteria are present, but 30 days have not elapsed, the individual is diagnosed with Acute stress disorder.

 F: Significant impairment
The symptoms reported must lead to "clinically significant distress or impairment" of major domains of life activity, such as social relations, occupational activities, or other "important areas of functioning".

Lying defense

OPPOSITE FIRING



OPPOSITE FIRING TECHNIQUE TO CATCH A LIAR

Ok guys if you are asking me how do I know that I will just answer that my best friend(she) is studying a lot about psychology,especially at women.And I just had a lots of experiences,good and bad,now I will try to help you to understand how liars weapon can be used against him.This will help you to catch someone while lying…These tricks are widely used even during police questioning,so make sure to use it wisely.
Opposite firing technique is a technique which implies using grouply most common features of liars,sorted by gender,against them to catch them into their own net of lies,set them a trap and,if possible,make them to confess the truth.(credits to my best friend for this definition,do not ask me for her name,cause I will not answer)
Now I will specify you some tricks which can help you to catch someone while he/she is trying to lie to you:

MALE LIARS

Ok lets say that you are trying to catch male liar,this tips may help you:
- talk calmly and patiently,if he is trying to interrupt you just continue to talk and make sure to stay calm,with strong focus on your questions
- tell him to look your eyes if he really haven’t done that
- tell him to answer only your questions,not to go around and avoid truth
- if you see that he is nervous in any way,like shaking hands,yawning,distracting attention,scratching…just ask him:”Why are you so nervous when you did nothing?I just don’t get it…”
- pretend that you are not so intelligent as you are,make sure to never show him that you are superior with your intelligence,and never even mention that you know these kinda techniques
- if you spot that he is talking very fast and offensive,just tell him that there is no need to be aggressive and restless,tell him to slow down so you can understand what is he talking :hehe:
- get close to him,hug him,just say there is no need to be afraid,you “trust him he has nothing to do with it”…and in one moment just touch his neck or heart and you will notice that if heartbeat and sweeting level are higher,you will be more reasons to be suspicious
- if he agrees with you,just tell him:”How can you agree with something you haven’t done?”
- if he is answering with your question by question,just say:”I don’t want questions,I want answers.”,and make sure to stay calm,he will fall into your trap
- if he is repeating that you have to believe him,just say:”I don’t understand why are you repeating that word so many times…”,cause in most cases this can be great defensive mechanism
- make sure to follow everything he says,if you have possibility write on a piece of paper or do maximal focusing and remember his words,believe me only if he is a pro liar he will not make any of these mistakes
- the most important is to piss him off with your calmness,males are mostly hard to handle calm persons
- try to ask him same question multiple times,in period of 3-5 minutes,there is a great possibility that he will forget what he said if he is not a pro
- if he wants an explanation,the best answer would probably be:”I asked first,so that means you go first.If you explain me,I will explain you.”
- Never let him lead the conversation,he won’t be able to yell whole time,just be extremely patient and talk normally,try not to raise your voice and especially do not look nervous or argue
- If you notice smile on his face while looking him in the eyes,this could be a sign that something is suspicious,but not necessarily has to mean that he is lying
- If he is on a close distance,make sure to walk around the room or walk back,try to confuse him,for example tell:”Oh,how this room wonderful is!”,or anything that has nothing to do with subject,this will draw his attention
- Tell him to explain you EXACTLY what happened in specific order and how,with as many details as he remember…only if he is professional he will be able to do that
- Ask him some provocative questions,for example:”Why are you scratching your balls?”,”Why are you so nervous?”,”Why are you looking all over the room,you are talking to me,not to the walls?”; and many,many other questions that you will be able to think up…I believe in you,you are smart,I ain’t doubt your intelligence!

FEMALE LIARS

Ok now some suggestions to catch female liar:
- you will need to cut her every time,but never be aggressive…for example if she is saying that you are too aggressive,just say:”I am not aggressive,I am just trying to talk to you…Now can you please tell me what happened?”
Cutting is a mechanism which will not allow you to confront with a liar and feel pitty and sorry for him.It is based on giving answers,asking questions or telling sentences which will disallow any influence on your personality caused by a liar.For example,she may try to avoid conversations,talk around,saying you nice words…pretend that you really ain’t give a fuck what is she saying…and this can be great example of cutting.
- if she is giving you compliments,just say:”We are not here to talk about my look and features.We are talking about…”
- don’t symphatize with her cause she has perfect ass,perfect look,cause she is extraordinary pretty,cause you would f*ck her…forget about that,this can also be their weapon
- if she is touching you,just pretend that you like the touch(in most cases you won’t have to pretend) and then just hug her and make sure to touch her neck or feel heart beat,if it is faster than normal or she is shaking,she is suspicious,than gently unhug her and continue asking,she will think that she influented you,but she didn’t :hehe:,cause you are smarter
- if she is refusing to talk to you,you will have to simulate that you feel sorry for her,that you are sorry for being so rough and so on…you will have to show compassion and similar stuff,but believe me if she refuses to talk,than it is hard,and I cannot guarantee that this will work



SPOTTING A LIAR


COMMON KNOWLEDGE: It has been said over the years that there are some certain things that help you find out if someone is lying or not. Pupil dialates, heartbeats raise, voice frequency is lowered, etc. The truth is that you can't base on these facts. Why?

Simply because you can't notice any diffenence on an individual. It is not possible to see if one's pupil dialates or not and accusing him of lying cause you just can't, sight does not have the ability to do it. Nevertheless, if you try testing these facts you will either end up making a fool of yourself or mistaken. However, there are more sophisticated ways to spot a liar wich I am going to mention.

MALE/FEMALE: In this guide, I thought that it would be better if I posted different instruction for each sex, since there is a difference between a male and a female liar. Male liars tend to be more anxious when it comes to lying, while females are calmer and handle the situation with a better attitude. We will lok further on it.

~MALE LIAR~



LIAR'S DEFENSES: First of all, the number one defense of a male liar is that he won't let you talk. He is too afraid of your possible uncovering the truth that he will keep distracting you. Another technique is that he holds a close distance with you. He tries to look more friendly and avoids to look at your eyes (that doesn't me that he never looks at them, don't get confused). Also, he may fold his hands to protect himself, but he only does that when you're talking. He doesn't move from his position and most of the time, if he's still calm, he concetrates on something. Other techniques have been mentioned, such as yawning, scratching his head or something similar to show that the subject you are currently talking about is not worrying him as he is sure for what he says. However, these techs are used by not so experienced liars and they almost always get caught.

LIAR'S ATTACKS: Offense for a male liar is his favorite approach. Men, by nature, have a characteristic that women don't; they are much more offensive. So, a male liar has developed a series of attacks that intimidate the slave or scare him/her away. First, he talks much faster than he usually does. It has been proved that talking to a person with a higher pace than normal her/his heartbeats raise and he gets more anxious. Thus, liars do that to scare the slave and also, in some cases, to show their certainty. In addition, a liar always yells. Raising his voice will help him boost his determination and retain himself in a level that can fight you and win. However he tries not to yell at you. What I mean is that he doesn't want you to feel opposed to him, he wants you to move along with him. So, he tries to look friendly and usually smiles. At some points he will even agree with you which is definitely not a good sign. The majority of people are too stubborn to agree with someone they argue with. When that happens, be a little more careful. Moreover, he tries to put a lot of pressure on you. He does that by asking you a lot of questions and being ironic with your answer. He will never try to hurt you, he won't even threat you. All he wants is to believe him and he knows that if he tries to do it he will instantly lose the game. So, he makes you vulnerable, he tires you with his repetative questions, his voice, his words, to that point that you believe him just to end this. He confuses you so much that your brain can't work properly or doesn't work at all, so, to avoid making a fool of yourself or because you think you don't have anything else to say you agree with him. I believe that's all, except some minor details.

COUNTER TECHNIQUES: Let's say the person who tries to deceive you uses some of the above techniques. There are a few things you can do to deflect these moves and use them for your own good. Depending on the situation, you can raise a mental barrier against his attacks. Below there's a list of things you can do on each ofthese possibilities:



* He puts pressure on you:

1. If he talks faster than he usually does, tell him to slow down. Even if he's not doing it on purpose, he will lose his train of thought and it won't be easy to come up with a lie to cover his other lie. So, when you do that, make sure to ask to be more specific, to explain you the situation and either one of these things follow: Either he can't come up with something to cover him and he talks nonsence or he busts himself by uncovering the truth. Thus, there's a realy high chance to counter his attack and win.

2. He might try to press you with a lot of questioning. If he does that, answer to him with questions. Don't be specific -you don't have to be anyway- and he will be pissed off in no time. And when he is pissed off, his mind can't function correctly so he has to get confused. As you may have noticed, the main idea of these counter techniques is to confuse the liar. If you achieve that then you should be able to uncover him. However, don't get complacent with the questions cause you might end up confusing yourself. Just be very patient and things will work out.

3. There is a chance that he will try to ask you to explain things to him. It's not that he doesn't understand what you're saying, he just wants to annoy you. If that happens (although most of the time it doesn't) there's not realy a counter tech you can use. This is more like a tip for you. Whatever it is he wants it to be explained just explain to him. When he sees that his move isn't working he'll drop it and try other ways to press you.



* He intimidates you:

1. The first move that the liar thinks intimidates you the most is raising the tone of his voice. Men have been proved to be the most egocentric species on the planet (I don't think that anyone of you denies this). Thus, if one's voice is the only one that can be heard he thinks that he is some kind of a leader to the conversation. Anyways, if he tries to yell you can either yell more or tell him to quiet down. I suggest the latter cause it shows that you're the calm one and that you have no concerns about the argument. In addition, if you tell him to quiet down he himslef will feel that he's overreacting and then, the fact that he's lying will be easier to spot. Nevertheless, if he yells more after your interference, you should consider the possibility that he might be telling the truth. So, be more cautious on that part.

2. Staring somebody's eyes is always intimidating. Even if you are not scared, subconciously you feel threatened. If he tries to stare at your eyes (since we said that it's unlikely to do that for that long, except if he's an experienced liar) you should stare at his eyes too. Try to reflect this fear that he tries to pass on and you will achieve that either if he looks away or he laughs. This may sound weird but laughing is most commonly what betrays liars. If he laughs, I can guarantee that he is lying. Shit, I'll even chop my dick off and throw it on a volcano if he isn't. It's that simple; he laughs, he's lying.

3. If he's holding a close distance with you, you can always walk back, in a way that he doesn't understand why you're doing it. For example, you can pretend that you have a shoelace to tie, a book to lift, etc. You will think of something. However, what I do and I absolutely recommend it is to tell a joke. Not any joke though, you can't say: "Which animal can jump higher than a house? All, houses can't jump". You can try things like "Are you gonna kiss me?" or "I can smell your breakfast". Yeah, I know, the house joke was lame.



* He confuses you:

1. I can assure you this is not an attack a liar will rely on. He may try that if he's desperate but he will most likely fail. This method is about being very general. He will refuse to be more specific and he will talk just to confuse you. However, this is a suicide technique cause you can easily find ou that he's lying. One little mistake and he's done. So, using confusion as his main attack is not something you will encounter.




WHAT BLOWS HIS COVER:

Below there's a list in which there are several things that you have to remember if you want to spot a liar without getting in the whole Attacking/Counter-Attacking process. These tips will help you turn your suspicions into a decision and they are very important. So, the best thing you can do is memorize them.

NOTE: This list is only for inexperienced liars, experienced liars will not make these mistakes.


1. Missing his words.

2. Shaking his voice.

3. Constantly moving

4. Avoiding looking at your eyes AT ALL.

5. Keeping a long distance from you (it makes him feel safer).

6. Studdering

7. Making nervous moves.

-e.g.- My father once had to lie to one of his patient's sons and I can't tell you how nervous he was. He pulled the safety belt so fast that it actually stuck. Thank God the guy was too stupid to understand he was lying.

8. Scratching. Scratching his head, hand, chest, stomache, etc, is definitely a sign. Except of scartching his balls.





~FEMALE LIAR~


LIAR'S DEFENSES: Women use different techniques to defend themselves. This is due to their nature, they tend to be more soft and sensitive. Thus, they try to look defensless (which is kind of ironic) and make you believe that you're putting a lot of pressure on them. Doing that makes you feel guilty and you sympathize with the liar. When you do that, it's almost certain that you're going to be deceived, so be careful not to hit their defenses.

Another common defense female liars use is "dead silence". They just stop talking to you. There's a procedure after that in which, if you're not careful, you're gonna get screwed:

[1] Liar stops talking to you.
[2] You keep asking her questions. Again she's not talking.
[3] You get irritated but you put that "I'm so pissed right now" smile on your face.
[4] You're realy angry and you start yelling. She keeps ignoring you.
[5] You're starting to understand that the only way to get her to talk to you is be softer and sympathize with her. So, you do it.


Those in red are the dangerous parts, be extremely cautious. I recommend you put your ego aside and just stop talking too.

NOTE: This method is only used when female liars are convinced that you have kind of understood that she's lying.

LIAR'S ATTACKS: The attacking technique most commonly used by female liars is alluring. By using their feminine nature they manipulate you to believe everything they say. Now, I'm not implying that they just talk and you agree to everything they say. Certain SE skills are required to use this advantage, otherwise they're just going to fail real hard.

What female liars do is use their attractiveness to make you nervous. This doesn't necessarily include looks, even their attitude can be alluring. Let's say your belief is a stronghold which will try to block any attack. Now, male liars will just attempt to break the door. However, female liars are more sneaky, they will explore the stronghold in circles until the find a little whole where they can penetrate to your stronghold. Once in, the only thing left to do is cut the rope that holds the door. After that it's all over.

COUNTER TECHNIQUES: I have mentioned what female liars do to attack your psychological stronghold. Now, there are a few things you can do to counter-attack them and keep yourself clear for any further attacks. Be very cautious though, cause this is more like a psychological war, you must be prepared to lose.


* She tries to allure you:

Don't take any shit. She will mostly try to copliment you, commend on your clothes, eyes, hands etc before she starts talking to you. However, it's very difficult for her to do it without you questioning whether shes kissing ass or not. So, my tip is take everything as asskissing. Don't offend her, just hold an ironic stance against her. Show that you're not falling for anything and, every now and then, tell her to get to the point. She will see that you're not playing game and she'll try to find a new way to convince you. However, it's gonna be very difficult for her since you reflected her main attack.

You should better work on that CT cause you have the highest chances to beat the liar and keep yourself clean.


* She tries to look helpless:

When she does that, your reaction trully depends on your character. If you're not that soft, you can always tell her to stop. Showing that you don't care how pitiful she is will make her stop trying. However, you may be the soft character and, subconciously, sympathize with her. For your own good, DO NOT FALL INTO THAT TRAP. Always remember that she's doing it on purpose, she wants to make you vulnerable. That's a rule you should never break.


WHAT BLOWS HER COVER:

Below there's a list in which there are several things that you have to remember if you want to spot a liar without getting in the whole Attacking/Counter-Attacking process. These tips will help you turn your suspicions into a decision and they are very important. So, the best thing you can do is memorize them.

NOTE: This list is only for inexperienced liars, experienced liars will not make these mistakes.


1. Staring at your eyes.

2. Constantly smiling.

3. Touching your hand or chest.

4. Putting her hair behid her ears. It shows she's nervous with the situation and can't cope with lying.

5. Moving her body without moving her position.

6. Missing her words.

7. Shaking her voice.

8. Studdering.



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That's all for now, feel free to add anything you feel it needs to be added.