We often think that vulnerability sharing and uncovering the hidden (or not-so-hidden) traumas of our lives are what make us closer to each other. Getting into the dark stuff and the sad stories of the past or of the present is the right way to bond. So we often treat relationships as places to vent...
If I told you that the same mechanisms in language that signal deception in interrogation in official business documents and business talk have the capacity to signal competence and authority, would it be a surprise? Because it’s not really a true contradiction. Different situations demand different approaches. In business, it all comes down to convincing...
Usually, we think of grammar as just the invisible seams in a sentence. It’s just the list of some arbitrary rules that keep nouns and verbs functioning so we can convey meaning. But what if grammar actually has a social side, a side that alters how we judge human character? What if we are to...
The world of myths about AI is similar to Scheherazade’s stories; if written down, the book of those would likely also be enough for 1001 nights, offering almost 3 years of captivating, yet fictitious, tales. The myth that infuriates me the most is the one about linguistic analysis and deception detection done by… a generic...
When I analyse people’s statements and try to understand who they are, I pay close attention to how they talk about other people. What someone says about others often reveals more than the relationship itself. It also reveals where their attention naturally goes and what they consider important. The same observation applies in ordinary conversation....
I recently finished Dan Ariely’s recent book, called Misbelief. According to the description, it talks about why we fall into believing in conspiracy theories. But to me, it’s a book about some elements of critical thinking to use in our daily lives. Interestingly, only a few days before reading it, I had a chat about...
We all know the thriller books and the Hollywood productions about FBI profilers. The intuition they use is unbelievable. But it’s also “given”. They were born with a special talent to see into a killer’s mind. They just get hit by a vision and… instantly know what the killer felt like during the act. Only...
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