Human Behavior

Have you ever been talking with someone and had your thoughts or feelings drastically changed within just a few minutes? Maybe you walked away wondering what happened. How did a short conversation have such a powerful effect on you? Maybe you've been on the other side and influenced someone else's thoughts or opinions in a massive way. If so, you've had a glimpse into the realm of real influence. You can learn a few basic techniques online or in other books, but you'll only be getting half of the story (at best).

Columbia Business School professor Sandra Matz reveals in fascinating detail how big data offers insights into the most intimate aspects of our psyches and how these insights empower an external influence over the choices we make. This can be creepy, manipulative, and downright harmful, with scandals like that of British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica being merely the tip of the iceberg. Yet big data also holds enormous potential to help us live healthier, happier lives.

A two-book box set containing The Shopping Addiction, 2nd Edition and Living with OCD, 2nd Edition!

Written by Daniel Nettle - author of the popular book Happiness - this brief volume takes the listener on an exhilarating tour of what modern science can tell us about human personality. Revealing that our personalities stem from our biological makeup, Nettle looks at the latest findings from genetics and brain science, and considers the evolutionary origins and consequences of different personalities. The heart of the book sheds light on the "big five": Extraversion, Neuroticism, Conscientious, Agreeableness, and Openness.

For centuries, economics was dominated by the idea that we are rational individuals who optimize our own “utility”. Then, in the 1970s, psychologists demonstrated that the reality is a lot messier. We don’t really know what our utility is, and we care about people other than ourselves. We are susceptible to external nudges. And far from being perfectly rational, we are prone to “cognitive biases” with complex effects on decision-making, such as forgetting to prepare for retirement.

Understanding people and their intentions towards us is a valuable skill to have and has been used for thousands of years, primarily as a means of protection against physical harm but increasingly today for other things like avoiding narcissists or improving our career and business opportunities. If you’ve ever wanted to learn this and believe that it could help you in a variety of social settings then now is the time to start.

Living with OCD: Obsessive compulsive disorder is quite a common thing that plagues a lot of people today. It is not an isolated case. You or your loved ones may have it as well. Knowing what you are up against can help you get better equipped for fighting this debilitating battle against your thoughts and actions.

A leading behavioral economist shows how businesses can improve consumer thinking and decision-making on screens. The typical American office worker now spends the majority of his or her waking hours staring at a screen. In the 21st century, every business is a digital business, which is why it's so critical to understand how we think and behave online. Acclaimed behavioral economist Shlomo Benartzi reveals a toolkit of interventions for the digital age. Using provocative case-studies and engaging exercises, Benartzi shows how businesses can update their nudges to help consumers make better decisions on screens.

At the heart of being human is the desire to belong. It can make us unspeakably vulnerable to the manipulations of others. Cult leaders prey on this desire, but so do many unscrupulous operators hiding in plain sight. Sarah Steel, the creator of the popular 'Let's Talk About Sects' podcast, has researched the cults you've heard of—and dozens you haven't. What strikes her most are not the differences between bizarre cult behaviour and 'normal' behaviour but the depressing similarities. Her work reveals that we are all susceptible to the power of cult dynamics.

The corporate masks we wear hide many a secret. The most potent are not the secret financial numbers or confidential strategy documents hidden away in locked drawers or in safes but the simple ones—good filter coffee generosity and thirty minutes of me-time. This book offers a selection of fascinating and useful secrets that can help you be far more successful at your workplace. As a bonus they can make you happier as well. Harish Bhat wields his pen with his signature insight to delight inspire provoke and change the way you see offices forever.

Birds are highly intelligent animals, yet their intelligence is dramatically different from our own and has been little understood. As we learn more about the secrets of bird life, we are unlocking fascinating insights into memory, relationships, game theory, and the nature of intelligence itself. The Thing with Feathers explores the astonishing homing abilities of pigeons, the good deeds of fairy-wrens, the influential flocking abilities of starlings, the deft artistry of bowerbirds, the extraordinary memories of nutcrackers, and other mysteries.

Dive right in to learn the techniques you need to manipulate, deceive, and control situations or people around you.

Dark psychology has been used since the dawn of early man. Deception and persuasion play into survival of the fittest. In essence, as long as humans have had thoughts in their heads, they’ve been thinking about how to outsmart and outwit other humans. It is only in the last century and a half that dark psychology has been studied in a modern sense, with the rise of criminology and forensic psychology as recognized sciences. Many pieces of the dark psychology puzzle were put into place well before then.

Find out what makes narcissists, psychopaths, and sociopaths tick and whether society's portrayal of these disorders is accurate. Learn how to let go of unworthy relationships and regain self-confidence, self-worth, and self-respect!

Have you ever wondered how to get into another person's mind? Is it possible to control the minds of others like in fantasy movies and comics? Would you like to be able to persuade the minds of others? It is possible that someone has asked this question at some point in their life and has given up on it. The truth is that it does not matter how impossible this is but if it is possible to get into the minds of other people. At any time, people allow us to see the actions they perform, and it is here that we can detect their behavior patterns and thus enter their minds.

What if leaders stripped away all preconceptions about how business operates, allowing the organization to go back to its core and build itself back up to become something new—something so responsive, so innovative and resilient, it becomes virtually non-displaceable in the market? The Regenerative Business sets the stage for what is now only dreamt of by most of today's forward-thinking leaders and paves the path to make it possible.

Conventional product development focuses on the solution. Empathy is a mindset that focuses on people, helping you to understand their thinking patterns and perspectives. Practical Empathy will show you how to gather and compare these patterns to make better decisions, improve your strategy, and collaborate successfully.

Sheena Iyengar asks the difficult questions about how and why we choose: Is the desire for choice innate or bound by culture? Why do we sometimes choose against our best interests? How much control do we really have over what we choose? Sheena Iyengar's award-winning research reveals that the answers are surprising and profound.

Professor Jim Davies's fascinating and highly accessible book, Riveted, reveals the evolutionary underpinnings of why we find things compelling. Drawing on work from philosophy, anthropology, religious studies, psychology, economics, computer science, and biology, Davies offers a comprehensive explanation to show that in spite of the differences between the many things that we find compelling, they have similar effects on our minds and brains.

Do you believe people's brainwashing occurs only in films? Do you believe using the subconscious mind is something that only crazy people would attempt to do? The reality is that we are imperfect as human beings. We have shortcomings. And if you study these weaknesses and get to understand them, you will have enormous authority in your hands. When you master the correct methods of manipulation, the real ones, you can fully affect the thinking of other people and make them do what you want.