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    Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World
    Unavailable
    Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World
    Unavailable
    Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World
    Ebook211 pages2 hours

    Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World

    By Alex Pentland

    3.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    How understanding the signaling within social networks can change the way we make decisions, work with others, and manage organizations.

    How can you know when someone is bluffing? Paying attention? Genuinely interested? The answer, writes Alex Pentland in Honest Signals, is that subtle patterns in how we interact with other people reveal our attitudes toward them. These unconscious social signals are not just a back channel or a complement to our conscious language; they form a separate communication network. Biologically based “honest signaling,” evolved from ancient primate signaling mechanisms, offers an unmatched window into our intentions, goals, and values. If we understand this ancient channel of communication, Pentland claims, we can accurately predict the outcomes of situations ranging from job interviews to first dates.

    Pentland, an MIT professor, has used a specially designed digital sensor worn like an ID badge—a “sociometer”—to monitor and analyze the back-and-forth patterns of signaling among groups of people. He and his researchers found that this second channel of communication, revolving not around words but around social relations, profoundly influences major decisions in our lives—even though we are largely unaware of it. Pentland presents the scientific background necessary for understanding this form of communication, applies it to examples of group behavior in real organizations, and shows how by “reading” our social networks we can become more successful at pitching an idea, getting a job, or closing a deal. Using this “network intelligence” theory of social signaling, Pentland describes how we can harness the intelligence of our social network to become better managers, workers, and communicators.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe MIT Press
    Release dateSep 24, 2010
    ISBN9780262261043
    Unavailable
    Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World

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    Reviews for Honest Signals

    3.5/5

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    • 4/5
      This is a summary of 10+ years of the author's research on bodily signals that we give off as we interact with one another. The two main ideas are that 1) such signals are 'honest' (cannot be effectively faked or suppressed) and 2) they are highly predictive of the outcome of our interactions. What I liked about the book is the interesting conjecture that such signals may be our species-specific adaptation of quorum sensing mechanisms visible in other social animals (e.g. bees). What I didn't like is that I found the definition of the dependent variable (what is being predicted based on the signals observed) much too vague. On balance, an interesting book with a novel and far reaching perspective with some rather direct practical applications for those whose job it is to be persuasive.