The Human Behavior Podcast
278 episodes - English - Latest episode: 7 days ago - ★★★★★ - 28 ratingsDo you ever wonder why people act the way that they do? Join human behavior experts Brian Marren and Greg Williams as they discuss all things human behavior related. Their goal is to increase your Advanced Critical Thinking ability through a better understanding of HBPR&A (Human Behavior Pattern Recognition & Analysis.) What is HBPR&A? It's a scientific (and fun) way to understand and articulate human behavior cues so that you can predict likely outcomes and it works regardless of your race, religion, political ideology or culture!
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Episodes
Memory Is Fiction
April 16, 2024 04:00 - 1 hour - 43 MBToday we are talking about the capabilities and limitations of our Memory and how it can be affected by a number of different external and internal influences. During the episode we explain how and why our brain creates false memories, how memory-emotion links are formed, the difference between memory and recall, and we explain how to create accurate memories and correct memory distortions so you can use your own experiences for predictive analysis. Thank you so much for tuning in, we ho...
O.B.E.
April 09, 2024 04:00 - 1 hour - 42.7 MBToday we are talking about something that affects our perception and our cognitive performance, even before we realize it’s an issue! It’s something we call “O.B.E.” which stands for Overcome By Emotion or Overwhelmed By Events. During the episode we define in great detail what we mean by these terms and how they affect our ability to sense make and problem solve but the reason we are talking about OBE is because it comes on much faster than we think and is often the biggest contributing f...
Killing Complacency
April 02, 2024 04:00 - 1 hour - 42.2 MBHello everyone and welcome to this week’s episode of the Human Behavior Podcast. For this episode we are defining a term that you’ve likely heard before called Complacency. We’ve all heard the saying that “complacency kills” or had someone tell us not to get complacent but I don’t ever hear anyone defining what complacency actually is! So, for this episode, we are defining complacency using four powerful cognitive processes that affect all humans which are Adaptation, Change Blindness, Cha...
Culture Doesn't Matter
March 19, 2024 04:00 - 1 hour - 46.8 MBToday we are talking about culture and why it matters less than what people think, especially when it comes to reading human behavior. Understanding culture is laboriously slow, heavily nuanced, and in today’s world of mass communication and global connectivity humans have the ability to choose what culture they belong to. The human behavior principles that we discuss rely on human behavior characteristics which demonstrate intent. Culture can create idiosyncratic displays, rites, and ritu...
Connecting The Dots
March 13, 2024 05:00 - 1 hour - 44.7 MBHello everyone and welcome to this week’s episode of the Human Behavior Podcast. Today’s episode is sort of the next step after last week’s episode where we discussed how important it is to focus on the background action or the context or “scene” that you are observing because the seemingly mundane environmental signals are actually the foundation for observing human behavior. So for this episode we are talking about anomaly detection, putting together the breadcrumbs, “connecting the dots...
Non-Standard Observations
March 05, 2024 05:00 - 58 minutes - 40.1 MBHello everyone and welcome to this installment of the Human Behavior Podcast. Today we are talking about the most important element of understanding, or “reading,” human behavior, which is the background action, the context, the setting of the scene that provides the relevance for what you see. Think about this for a second…Every time you drive, bike, or walk – you pass by signs, signals, plaques, icons, or graffiti without every fully realizing the significance of those observations or per...
About The Show
March 01, 2024 05:00 - 1 minute - 1 MBSupport the show Website: https://thehumanbehaviorpodcast.buzzsprout.com/share Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheHumanBehaviorPodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehumanbehaviorpodcast/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ArcadiaCognerati More about Greg and Brian: https://arcadiacognerati.com/arcadia-cognerati-leadership-team/
Trust Your Gut
February 20, 2024 05:00 - 1 hour - 51.3 MBThis week we are talking about intuition and what it really means to “trust your gut.” Just like our previous episodes we are going to start out by reading an article that Greg wrote where he highlights several examples of people who DIDN’T “trust their gut” and it lead to some pretty catastrophic situations. For this episode we are talking about intuition from two perspectives. The first being the “gut feeling” that you’ve likely experienced when something feels “off.” The other aspect of...
Rage and Randomness
February 14, 2024 18:00 - 1 hour - 44.4 MBHello everyone and thanks for tuning in this week and I apologize for not getting the episode out on time but since we record the podcast when we are on the road there can be a delay in when I get access to the recording files which can cause a slight delay uploading the episode. So although todays episode is a day late it is by no means a dollar short! This week we are talking about two major topics that often intersect with one another in real life settings. Those two topics we are coveri...
Sense Make vs Scents Make
February 06, 2024 05:00 - 53 minutes - 36.8 MBHello everyone and thanks for tuning back in, this week we are super excited to bring you the very first episode of the human behavior podcast! For those of you have been listening to the Left Of Greg podcast we think you’re going to really enjoy the new format as well as the additional content on Patreon. At Arcadia Cognerati we train people how to conduct predictive analysis and “read” a situation, event, or person more accurately because if you can do that, you can make more informed dec...
We Fear Change
January 30, 2024 05:00 - 50 minutes - 35 MBToday we are talking about how and why humans naturally fear change, even when it will ultimately benefit us. We explain how even though change is a fundamental part of our lives, our intuition can be counterproductive when it comes to things like adaptation and evolution because we will always seek out familiarity. We are having this discussion because we have some major changes coming up and we wanted to explain to all of you what our reasons were for making the changes and what you can e...
Humans Are Constantly On Transmit
January 23, 2024 05:00 - 1 hour - 44.8 MBToday we are giving a detailed explanation of what we mean when we say that “all humans are constantly on transmit.” You may have heard us make that reference on previous episodes so we decided to explain the psychological and sociological imperatives that contribute to the innate human need to be seen and heard. In order to explain WHY all humans are on transmit we go all the way back to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and then we give some recent examples of how hard it is for people to NOT ...
Film and Behavior
January 16, 2024 05:00 - 1 hour - 48.1 MBToday we are expanding on some of the same themes we discussed in our last episode but rather than talking about music, we are talking about movies and TV shows and how you can use your favorite shows to better understand human behavior in general. During the episode we give a number of examples of how movies and tv shows have to follow a certain algorithm in order for us to suspend disbelief and we point out how certain storylines will continue to repeat over and over just like they do in ...
Music and Behavior
January 02, 2024 05:00 - 1 hour - 43.4 MBToday we are talking about how music is inextricably linked to human behavior even at a very primal level. During the episode we talk about many of the parallels between music and human behavior and we explain why music has played such a powerful role in the human experience. We cover a number of topics and songs during the episode, and we explain how music affects your limbic system and how you can use music to create meaningful memory emotion links. Please don’t forget to follow us on so...
Pranked or Provoked?
December 26, 2023 05:00 - 57 minutes - 39.5 MBToday we are talking about some of the different type of prank videos that you often see on social media including a recent one in Virginia where a youtuber was shot by someone who he was trying to prank. Although these types of prank shows are very popular and have been around for a long time, things don’t always go as planned. During the show we explain the different autonomic reactions that can occur during these situations, and we get into the nuances of each example and how they elicit...
Novelty vs Normalcy
December 19, 2023 05:00 - 1 hour - 42.5 MBOn today’s episode we are explaining how we distinguish between something that is “normal” versus something that is “novel” when it comes to making observations about human behavior. We often see people attribute more value or significance to observations that really don’t matter which can lead to serious errors in sense making. This often occurs because they are using their own internal baseline to establish the context of their observations, rather than using the environment and the extern...
A Horse Named Twister
December 05, 2023 05:00 - 1 hour - 43 MBToday we are discussing the importance of naming conventions, taxonomy, the lexicon you use, and the priming effect that words can have on others. Since language is extremely adaptive and the meanings behind words can change over time, unintended consequences will arise from the words you use. The name you give to something will illicit responses and influence how a person processes what you are saying which means the outcome of your message may not match its original intent. In today’s epi...
Heuristics and Mental Models
November 21, 2023 05:00 - 1 hour - 47.5 MBToday we are talking about one of the human behavior domains that we teach in our training courses called Heuristics. Now there are a number of different types of heuristics as well as various mental models that people like to use or discuss so we wanted to talk about how we use heuristics in the most functional manner possible. During the discussion we define some of the terms we use in different episodes including what we mean by “file folders” and we give several different examples of ho...
Your iPhone and the 4th Amendment
November 14, 2023 05:00 - 1 hour - 47.2 MBToday we are talking about a poker game that spun wildly out of control and turned into a robbery and shooting, and that was just the start of this case! The reason we are discussing this case is because during the investigation the defendants iPhone was searched and during that search the investigator found evidence of another crime that he was subsequently charged with. The defendants lawyer tried to argue that the search warrant that was used was too broad and therefore the evidence shou...
Executive Protection with Ivan Ivanovich
November 07, 2023 05:00 - 1 hour - 48.7 MBToday we are talking to Ivan Ivanovich, a global leader in the Executive Protection industry who has started, and ran, several highly successful multinational security companies. He has an impressive background and extensive experience operating in some of the most complex security environments in the world. We first met Ivan two years ago when we spoke at the Executive Protection Summit in Mexico City and we have been huge supporters of him ever since. He recently came out with a book abo...
The Problem With Personality Tests
October 31, 2023 04:00 - 55 minutes - 38.1 MBToday we are discussing our thoughts on the use of personality tests, especially when it comes to the hiring process and the general use of them in the workplace. During the episode we talk about the limitations and flaws of personality testing, how they oversimplify complex human behavior, and how they lack reliability. We also discuss the importance of contextual factors and individual differences, and how these tests should be used cautiously and not as a sole determinant for hiring or f...
People Want Their Say, Not Their Way
October 24, 2023 04:00 - 57 minutes - 39.5 MBToday we are responding to some of the questions we received regarding our statement that “most people want their say, not their way.” During the episode we explain what we mean by this statement, why it is significant, and we give a number of examples of how to identify the difference between these types of people. We also talk about the difference between someone who is “acting up” versus “acting out” and why it is an important distinction. Please don’t forget to follow us on social m...
Public Event Security
October 17, 2023 04:00 - 1 hour - 44 MBToday we have a special guest on the show by the name of Charlie Harr. Charlie is the Operations Coordinator for the annual Marine Corps Marathon that is coming up on October 29th in Arlington, Virginia and he is tasked with coordinating security for the event as well as implementing the Anti-Terrorism Force Protection measures. Charlie is a long-time listener of the show and has attended our in-person training in the past and since Greg and I are helping out with some of the training for t...
Demonstrations of Intent
October 10, 2023 04:00 - 58 minutes - 40.4 MBToday we are going a little deeper into one of our first principles that we talked about on a previous podcast. Some of you reached out with some questions regarding what we meant by “demonstrations of intent are more important than motive” so we decided to explain what we mean by demonstrations of intent. During the episode we talk about how all humans will consciously or unconsciously telegraph their actions and if you can learn to identify those indicators sooner you can predict what th...
What is Situational Awareness?
October 03, 2023 04:00 - 1 hour - 45.7 MBToday we are defining something that a lot of people talk about called “Situational Awareness.” We start off by giving some historical context to the term and we explain the standard definition of what situational awareness is, as well as what it isn’t. During the episode we talk about how the main elements of situational awareness (which is perception, recognition, and understanding) is missing a key component that will help you conduct predictive analysis. That component is ANTICIPATION...
Dr. John G Peters
September 26, 2023 04:00 - 1 hour - 60.5 MBToday we are joined by author, trainer, and former police officer Dr. John Peters. John is a highly experienced practitioner and expert witness with over 40 years of training and operational experience. We asked John to come on the show to not only talk about his experience in training but also tell some stories about when he first met Greg back in the 80’s. During the episode John talks about how policies and procedures have changed over his career but that there are still things that are ...
First Principles of Human Behavior
September 19, 2023 04:00 - 1 hour - 46.8 MBToday we are talking about the basic principles that create the foundation for HOW we articulate human behavior. Normally this is something we reserve for our in-person training courses and they are typically discussed in a very deliberate manner but we thought it would be good to share this with all of you. The 4 main principle beliefs that we talk about today are: -People are the same all over the world -People “teach” you how to treat them -Most people want their say not their way -De...
Jason Piccolo
September 12, 2023 04:00 - 1 hour - 46.9 MBToday we are joined by special guest Dr. Jason Piccolo. Jason is a former Army Captain and career federal agent who became a whistleblower during the Obama administration. During the episode Jason discussed his career trajectory, from enlisting in the military to working in law enforcement, and ultimately exposing disturbing data related to immigration and human trafficking while working for the Department of Homeland Security. If you want to learn more about Jason please see the links in...
Psychological Entropy
September 05, 2023 04:00 - 56 minutes - 38.9 MBToday we are talking about some recent tragedies that all involve the same type of crime where a person murdered their own family members and then killed themselves. We are discussing these cases in order to shed some light on how we can get better at identifying pre-event indicators of violence in all humans. One of the ways we can do this is by shifting our perspective and trying to see a problem or situation from the perspective of the person who is experiencing that problem or situatio...
"Seeing People" with Chip Huth
August 29, 2023 04:00 - 1 hour - 50.5 MBToday we are joined by Chip Huth, a highly respected figure in the law enforcement community who has over 30 years of operational experience. During his career Chip led an internationally recognized tactical team where he planned, coordinated, and executed over 2500 high risk tactical operations. We brought Chip on the show to talk about the transformational changes he brought to his agency through a process created by the Arbinger Institute that focuses on developing an Outward Mindset. Du...
#220: Complexity with Dr. John Black
August 22, 2023 04:00 - 1 hour - 57.2 MBToday we are joined by an incredibly insightful and highly experienced subject matter expert by the name of Dr. John Black to talk about complexity and decision-making. Dr. Black has an impressive career that includes several decades in both law enforcement and military special operations, and he is a subject matter expert in a number of areas including training, decision-making, data visualization, information processing and he is a nationally recognized expert witness on police use of forc...
219: Anger, Aggression, and Violence
August 08, 2023 04:00 - 54 minutes - 37.7 MBToday we are talking about the differences between anger, aggression, and violence and why it’s important to distinguish the difference between them. During the episode we get into a few examples of what we mean by anger and aggression, and we explain how recognizing the difference between them will help you determine whether a person is going to escalate a situation to the level of violence or if they are simply “having their say.” Please don’t forget to follow us on social media, you can ...
#218: But I'm Not A Cop
August 01, 2023 04:00 - 1 hour - 47.9 MBToday we are joined by special guest Scott Kirshner who has decades of experience in the criminal justice field with experiences ranging from Parole administrator to correction officer. Scott is an accomplished trainer with extensive experience in officer safety and violence mitigation strategies, he’s the CEO of Dedicated Threat Solutions and we brought him on the show to talk about a statement that he has heard a lot throughout his career as a trainer where someone will say “but I’m not a ...
#217: Access & Boundaries
July 25, 2023 04:00 - 57 minutes - 39.3 MBToday we are talking about Access and Boundaries which are two important concepts that are inextricably linked to one another. All criminals, terrorists, insurgents, or even people just trying to sell you something need to have access to you whether they intend to victimize you or get you to buy something. So if we look at different types of crimes through the lens of ACCESS, it makes it easier to understand HOW people commit illegal acts versus looking at all of the potential reasons WHY ...
#216: The Hero Quotient
July 18, 2023 04:00 - 59 minutes - 40.7 MBToday we are talking about some of the basic rules of cognition that affect our ability to sense and make and problem solve which can cause us to make bad decisions. We recently delivered a webinar where we talked about cognitive training and how to build a “cognitive gym” and we decided to share the information that we talked about in that webinar on today’s podcast. During the episode we go over three basic rules of cognition that affect everyone, even highly trained people, and we answ...
#215: Priming: Laurel or Yanny?
July 11, 2023 04:00 - 56 minutes - 39.1 MBToday we are talking about the psychological concept of “priming” and how it plays a significant role in your behavior. We start the episode by explaining some of the different types of priming and how they affect your perception and memory recall. Then we give some real-world examples of how you can use the concept of priming to your advantage, especially when it comes to knowledge and skill transfer. Towards the end of the episode, we explain some of the examples of priming that we u...
#214: Duty To Intervene
June 20, 2023 04:00 - 54 minutes - 37.4 MBToday we are talking about a term called “duty to intervene.” Although this concept is typically discussed in a law enforcement setting it applies at a much larger scale than most people realize and applies in every social setting that you are in. Rather than doing the typical “Monday Morning Quarterback” commentary that you see after a story or video hits the news, we chose to focus on the sociological and psychological reasons why humans are prone to “color outside the lines.” We also giv...
#213: What is a threat?
June 13, 2023 04:00 - 1 hour - 44.7 MBToday we are talking about a recent supreme court case involving a man who was convicted of stalking and making true threats against a woman. Our discussion for today revolves around the question “what defines a true threat?” For this discussion we bring up a number of legal and behavior related issues including perception, Mens Rea, the subjectiveness of our experiences, intent, mental health, the 1st amendment and most importantly… is something considered a threat based on the intent of t...
#212: So There!
June 06, 2023 04:00 - 1 hour - 41.8 MBToday we are talking about manifestos, social leakage, injustice collectors, and how you can determine someone’s intent before, during, and after they commit acts of violence. During the episode we give several examples of people who went on a killing spree for very different reasons to illustrate how the current analysis of these events don’t always provide a clear understanding of what really happened. Rather than talking about the ideological reasons behind someone’s motive for killing...
#211: Is 4 Better Than 400?
May 30, 2023 08:00 - 1 hour - 44.7 MBToday we are talking about diminishing returns in the context of how we respond to novel situations in our environment. For the discussion we used a few recent law enforcement examples to highlight the fact that simply sending more people or spending more money not only doesn’t solve the problem but can actually make the situation worse. During the episode we bring up a few scientific principles from the software development and computer industry to explain how there are basic mathematical ...
#210: It's All Greek To Me
May 23, 2023 08:00 - 1 hour - 42 MBToday we are talking about the importance of language and the innate human desire to rename things that already exist. During the episode we define terms like situational awareness, situation understanding, attention, cognitive load and we explain what they mean in the context of human behavior, predictive analysis, and decision-making. We give a number of examples that highlight how your brain processes danger or opportunity in any environment, and we also discuss how to get better at cond...
#209: But can we use it in training?
May 16, 2023 08:00 - 1 hour - 42.6 MBToday we are talking about what is commonly referred to as Stress Inoculation training. We start the discussion with an explanation of where this term came from and then we get into the different problems that arise when you take something from a clinical setting to a training environment. During the episode we talk about the essential elements that are necessary to conduct effective cognitive training and we also mention some of the things that are either unnecessary or can lead to negat...
#208: What Really Happened
May 09, 2023 09:00 - 1 hour - 42.4 MBToday we are talking about the recent shooting in Texas that left 5 family members dead after they asked their neighbor to stop firing his weapon because their baby was trying to sleep. We are discussing this case because it’s a great example of how society focuses on completely irrelevant details instead of focusing on the root causes of the incidents. During the episode we talk about the difference between anger and rage, the unpredictable nature of rage, and how all emotions have a band...
#207: Tour Protection with Todd Fox
May 02, 2023 09:00 - 1 hour - 58.7 MBThis week we are joined by a very special guest by the name of Todd Fox. Todd has an impressive career in the executive protection industry and has an extensive military, law enforcement, and martial arts background. We brought Todd on the show to share some of his experiences and to get a sneak peek behind the curtain of an international executive protection agent. During the episode, Todd was able to share a lot of the details about what it takes to conduct a successful security operati...
#206: Culture Is Merely Context
April 25, 2023 09:00 - 59 minutes - 40.7 MBThis week we are talking about the overuse of “culture” as a lens with which to view a person, place, group, or event. As we often say in our training courses, “culture is merely context” and although it may help to understand certain cultural differences, we don’t feel that it’s as important as people make it out to be. During the episode we define what we mean by culture, and we discuss the different ways people choose to be a part of or adopt cultural norms and beliefs. We also talk abou...
#205: Life On The X with Steve Drum
April 18, 2023 04:00 - 1 hour - 42 MBToday we are joined by our friend and former guest on the show, Steve Drum. We asked Steve to come back on the show to talk about his new book called “Life On The X: A Navy SEAL’s Guide to Meeting Any Challenge with Courage, Confidence, and Readiness.” During the episode Steve shares a few stories from his time in the SEAL Teams and being “on the x” but what he is really talking about is how all of us experience “life on the x” to some degree. We really enjoyed reading Steve’s book because ...
#204: Accelerated Learning with Dr. Lia DiBello
April 11, 2023 04:00 - 1 hour - 53 MBToday we are very excited to bring on the show a brilliant cognitive psychologist by the name of Dr. Lia DiBello. Dr. DiBello is the Chief Science Officer for ACSI Labs, she is a leading expert in the world of accelerated learning and a pioneer in the field of what she calls “strategic rehearsal.” If you are involved in training and education then you are going to love this episode because Lia does an amazing job of defining what it means to be a subject matter expert, and also helps to...
#203: Parking Lot Problems
April 04, 2023 09:00 - 59 minutes - 40.6 MBToday we are tying together some of the cases we discussed in the last two episodes by explaining how to plan, prepare, and avoid the catastrophic failures in response that we often see during major events. During the episode we use a parking lot as both a literal and metaphorical low-calorie, high-fidelity example of “training for the real event”. We explain how many of the problems that cause things to go wrong are completely avoidable with simple, cost effective training options that yo...
#202: April Is The Cruelest Month
March 28, 2023 08:00 - 1 hour - 46.4 MBToday’s episode is the second episode in a three-part series where we are explaining how historical events and stories sometimes get “hijacked by history” which results in people changing the significance of the past in order to suit the needs of the present. In this episode we are talking about how the process in which our memory works will cause us to string together different events in order to fit a pattern that may not actually be there. We are centering the discussion around the many...
#201: Beware The Ides of March
March 21, 2023 08:00 - 59 minutes - 40.6 MBThis episode is the first of a three-part series where we are explaining how historical events and stories sometimes get “hijacked by history,” which results in people changing the significance of the past in order to suit the needs of the present. In this first episode we dive into the history behind the phrase “Beware the Ides of March,” and we talk about how stories from the past affect our perception and our behavior in the present. We start by discussing the psychological and sociol...