Narcissism and narcissistic personalities.

Like a lot people, you’ve most likely have encountered a few people who are narcissistic individuals. You know the type – the person who is typically described as vain and self-absorbed. They come across as someone that thinks they are extremely important and expect everyone else to be aware of how important they are to the point of obnoxiousness.

Though many people can be selfish and every so often be a little vain, some individuals take it to extreme levels. When these traits and other traits similar to it are a persons defining characteristics they often cause a damaging effect on themselves and anyone who is a part of their life – these traits usually signal a mental health condition known as Narcissistic Personality Disorder or for short Narcissism. 

As with all disorders, the degree of severity can vary quite a lot. They can’t admit being wrong and are hypersensitive to anything that resembles criticism. They want to control how other people see them and can presented in any number of ways. “Narcissists come in all shapes, sizes, and degrees,” says Dr. Samuel Lopes DeVictoria, “He/she may look, by appearance, intimidating and scary to the average person. He could also play the “nice guy/person” whom everyone likes. 

1. Lies and Exaggerations

Narcissists are likely to create lies and exaggerations which is usually about themselves and even about others, and have the tendency of putting others down to make themselves seem better by comparison. Though narcissists often try to make themselves seem superior and “special” by either bragging (directly or indirectly), taking credit for things they shouldn't be taking credit for, and other forms of self-aggrandizing behavior, narcissists tend to focus on making others feel inferior through criticism, and intimidation. Narcissists are are often proficient at distorting facts, character assassinations, and intimidation to boost their self-worth and maintain an image.

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2. Rarely Admit Flaws and Are Highly Aggressive When Criticized

Many narcissists can react poorly when called up on their negative behavior. When challenged, the narcissist is likely to do one of a few things; fight,have a temper tantrum, make excuses, flat out denial, shift the blame elsewhere or just use passive aggression like the silent treatment or resentment. The Narcissist can resort to deflection by using criticisms against their to counter any that was made originally to them to either intimidate or oppress their victim. Some Narcissists view relationships as competitive rather than collaborative team based relationship where one has to be in control or on top of the other.

3. False Image Projection

Narcissists tend to project false images of themselves to the world, in order to hide their shortcomings and insecurities.They give themselves his “trophy complex" where they use people, objects, accomplishments to further feed into their exaggerated personas and self image, similar to self completion theory. Many narcissists like to view themselves as someone who is all-powerful and strong, with their opinion being the one that matters most regardless of who they actually are or what the situation is. In essence, narcissists want others to worship them, these external facades become pivotal parts of their false identity, replacing the real and more vulnerable self.

4. Manipulation and control

Narcissists have a tendency to make decisions for others bend to their own agenda. Narcissists may use people who are acquaintances or even people who are close to cover up any flaws and shortcomings. Narcissists are not above of using guilt, blame, and victim-hood as tactics to manipulate their victimsNarcissists conduct psychological manipulation toward individuals micromanaging and controlling relationships, including their victims how they should think, feel, and behave and they can often become critical, intimidating, and/or hostile toward those who displease them. 

While the narcissist manipulate to compensate for a desperate sense of deficiency (a lacking of self worth of who they really are), this psychological type have an inability or an unwillingness to actually relate to people  as human beings. They have a need to become “special” and “superior” by being less themselves and de-humanizing others.

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Interpreting and Reading Body Language

What can be one of the greatest barriers some people have is the inability to detect physical social cues in conversations. Extroverts are usually more prone to develop this skill naturally through years of high exposure to new social interactions, while other more introverted personalities would need more guidance in this area. 

Sometimes we over-complicate things because we’re oblivious to what for others appears to be so simple they aren’t even conscious of their ability to read these signals. On the other hand we are far more conscious of the words we use, how we control and arrange our words in a particular way to portray our thoughts and emotions in a given moment. 

The idea of body language is to simply have a better understanding of social interactions between yourself and others and to understand your surroundings and what is going on in the minds of the ones around you to the best of our ability.


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It definitely is worth your time to learn about body language, first of all because it's a fascinating topic and by learning body language you can instantly improve your interactions by having a better read on a person or a groups state of mind. Also by taking a new view on social interactions with more of a critical eye on why things the way they are can really change the way you see others and yourself. 



And when I speak about control or a critical eye, the way I see it, it's not about tricks or manipulations (although there are many), but about training your intuition to have a better read on an interaction so you can steer it to a better and more positive direction.

If you want to learn more about body language...

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Book Review: The Lucifer Effect How Good People Turn Evil.

The Lucifer Effect, a New York Best Selling book written by research psychologist Professor Philip Zimbardo  highlights an uncomfortable but honest observation regarding human nature: That even the most seemingly ordinary, up-right and good person can become a perpetrator of evil. When we're trying to understand behavior that is destructive, irrational and malicious we often direct our focus primarily onto innate characteristics or personality traits which would have lead to such behavior, while ignoring any circumstantial factors which would have shaped such behaviors. Similar to the Fundamental Attribution Error which you can read more about here.

What Zimbardo hypothesized is that it is possible for external situations and systems to become key influences of  change in behavior and that they can often override a persons morals and values and be a corruptive force in extreme circumstances. The analogy of Lucifer within this book was that he was God’s favorite angel, but due to Lucifers fall from grace when he challenged God’s omnipotent authority, Lucifer was transformed into the forever recognized symbol of evil, Satan. This is the idea of people turning from good to evil.

In The Lucifer Effect, the Stanford Prison Experiment in 1971 is the ideal starting point for Zimbardo as he recalls from first person accounts on how the events of the experiment unfolded. He describes how he and the other researchers set up a simulated prison in the basement of one of Stanford University's academic buildings and then selected 24 students to participate and play the roles of both prisoners and guards. The students he said were chosen from a larger group of 70 volunteers and were chosen specifically because they had no criminal background, had no psychological issues or medical conditions. The student volunteers agreed to participate during a one to two-week period in exchange for $15 a day.

Lasting only a premature six days due to the experiment having to be stopped early Zimbardo describes in gripping detail how the students began to sink deeper and deeper into their roles and how they as guards became abusive, and the prisoners begin to show more signs of extreme stress and anxiety as their time in the experiment went on. While the prisoners and guards were free to interact in any way they pleased, the interactions became hostile and malicious. The guards began to behave in ways that were aggressive and abusive toward the prisoners while the prisoners became passive, depressed and show signs of anxiety.

He writes that even the researchers themselves began to lose grip of the situation and lose sight of their objective whilst potentially leaving the students open to psychological damage. Zimbardo, who acted as the prison warden, repetitively overlooked the hostile behavior of the jail guards until graduate student Christina Maslach voiced her concerns as to the conditions in the simulated prison and the morality of continuing the experiment. Zimbardo aptly draws out every bit of emotion and drama involved in the experiment in 1971, which keeps the  reader in awe every step of the way. The Lucifer Effect is brilliantly written, intriguing, and keeps you emotionally engaged throughout reading it. In reference to the end of the experiment Zimbardo beautifully quotes in his book "Only a few people were able to resist the situational temptations to yield to power and dominance while maintaining some semblance of morality and decency; obviously, I was not among that noble class,"

The book doesn't stop there.

In the remainder of The Lucifer Effect, Zimbardo goes to show how important the concept of the Stanford Prison Experiment is and extrapolates that to some of the more horrifying real world events in recent times, such as the abuse at the hands of agents of the US at Abu Ghraib, the genocide in Rwanda and the rape of Nanking. He discusses how the insidious and corrosive effect of power often leads to the creation of a corrupt system corrupting the people involved.

The prison study of Abu Ghraib in Iraq is used as an example. Zimbardo became thoroughly involved in the aftermath of Abu Ghraib when he was asked to be an expert witness for Sergeant Ivan Frederick, one of the accused who inevitably stood trial for alleged prisoner abuses. Through his research into what transpired at the Abu Ghraib prison, Zimbardo was able to gain insight into what it was like for the soldiers who spent long weeks working shifts within a military prison, and although the accused was eventually sentenced to eight years hard time in another military prison, Zimbardo was able to document the failures in leadership that led to many of the abuses and states that the military system itself was the leading proponent and should be to blame for the conditions in which such atrocities could take place.

In conclusion, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Much of the book has much of a darker sombre feel to it compared to other books due to the descriptions of how ordinary good people can perform evil acts. The final chapters of The Lucifer Effect offers us a lighter tone reminding us that some people are able to resist situational influence and can have an unbending resolve against peer pressure and systemic evil. Zimbardo gives examples of such unique individuals which include Christina Maslach, the graduate student who spoke up to Zimbardo to end the Stanford Prison Experiment, and Private Joe Darby, the soldier who blew the whistle on the atrocities that took place at the Abu Ghraib prison.

If you want to learn more about The Lucifer Effect and read other book reviews about it...

Check it out here on Amazon.

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10 Quick And Interesting Facts About Body Language

As you may know body language is more complex than it seems at first glance. This is because reading body language has so many nuances and subtleties you have to account for such as context, culture, mood, level of comfort, baseline behavior etc. The list can go on. For example a country and its culture can have a wide range of facial expressions, body movements, and hand gestures that can signal particular emotions and feelings but go from one country to another and those same gestures and expressions can get lost in translation.

Take a look at these 10 quick and interesting facts about body language and see if you learn something new. Because body language is often nuanced and subtle with wide variations of expression you'll always learn something new. There are also experts who professionally study and research in reading body language, and even they can’t always read and interpret body language correctly. It just goes to show how complex human beings can be! We hope you enjoy this list of interesting body language facts.

1. Amazingly woman have a wider range of peripheral vision which allows her to look at a man’s body from head to toe without even getting noticed. A male’s peripheral vision on the other hand is not as good. This is why a man would typically move his gaze up and down a woman’s body which is very obvious and can wind up with the man getting caught.

2. Britain, similar to a lot of Northern Europe and the Far East, is labelled as a “non-contact” culture where there is little physical contact in their daily interactions. The Middle East, Latin America, and Southern Europe are considered “high contact cultures” where physical touch is a part of everyday socializing.

3. Covering the eyes or "eye blocking" such as prolonged blinking, lowering the eyes for a longer than usual period are all powerful signals that portray confusion, disbelief or disagreement.

4. Custom officers often notice that passengers who point their feet toward the exit while talking to the officer to make their custom’s declaration are more likely to be hiding something they should have declared in the first place.

5. Research shows that whatever we’re feeling first shows up in our body before entering our conscious minds microseconds later.



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6. Kissing and romantic touch releases Oxytocin in the brain. It is a hormone that strengthens the emotional bond between the two people.

7. Similar to how a dog will expose its throat to show submission or surrender, humans use their palms to show that they are harmless and not threatening.

8. It has been noted that in stores thieves will try to hide their physical presence by restricting their motions by hindering their head exposure by raising the shoulders and at times lowering the head. Otherwise most people walk around the store with their arms quite free and active and their posture upright.

9. Squinting is a motion that can be very brief, just fraction of a second, but it can often signal negative thoughts or emotions. We tend to squint when we are angry or when we hear sounds, or music or even voices we don’t like.

10. Even when a person is standing still, a person’s body is always telling a story.

For more free and interesting tips on body language, click to get our free Body Language Guide here

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The Pygmalion Effect - The Psychology of Having High Expectations

First named by the psychologist Robert Rosenthal; The Pygmalion Effect is where the someone who is in a position of leadership has expectations of someone to perform a task well and can encourage them to actually meet those high expectations and display higher levels of performance compared to if there wasn't any expectations at all. Conceptually it is similar to having Confirmation Bias where expected behaviors are shaped creating an expected outcome.

An example of the The Pygmalion Effect is in an office setting where Supervisor A is considerably favorable to one of his office workers and has high expectations him to do well in any task that is given to him. This office worker in response thrives under his supervisors leadership and does his utmost to live up to his high expectations. It motivated him to work harder and to do his best. 

Then then another supervisor comes along, Supervisor B. Things changed when Supervisor B replaced Supervisor A. Supervisor B did not think so highly of this favorable office worker. In fact, it would be safe to say he didn't think very highly of him whatsoever. Eventually Supervisor B's low expectations became a reality. The office worker made mistakes and didn't seem to have the same pride in his work he did when Supervisor A was in charge, his mind went blank whenever he was asked questions, his confidence evaporated along with his motivation. His performance suffered in Supervisor B's presence.

What seemed to have happened was the office workers good performance was encouraged by Supervisor A's high expectations and because he worked well Supervisor A would praise him on his good work which would spur this office worker to keep perform well again. And this would cycle over again and again. The opposite would happen with Supervisor B would have little to no expectations of the office workers performance causing him to behave accordingly, having a similar cycle.



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Psychologist Robert Rosenthal performed a study which proved that if teachers were led to expect a higher level of performance from students, then these students performance would improve accordingly.

 A selection of students in a California school in the 1960s were given a disguised IQ test. The teachers were told at the start of the study that some of their students could be expected to be "intellectual bloomers" that year, performing better than expected compared to the other classmates. The bloomers' names were revealed only to the teachers. At the end of the study, all students were again tested with the same IQ-test used at the start of the study. 

True enough the experimental group the "intellectual bloomers" performed higher than the other students keeping in mind that they were chosen at random. The conclusion of the study was that the teachers may have without realizing that they had given the supposed academic bloomers more personal interactions, more positive feedback, approval, and other positive gestures, such as nods and smiling as a result of having higher expectations. On the other hand, teachers would may have paid less attention to low-expectancy students, seat them farther away from teachers in the classroom, and offer less reading and learning contributing to a poorer learning experience. 

The power of the Pygmalion effect, can be used for better or for worse in the classroom, in the workplace, in the military, and elsewhere.

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Sibling Relationship Psychology

Out of all the relationships throughout our lives whether it's a friendship, parent/child relationship or a romantic relationship one of the most unique and powerful bonds we may have is the relationships with our siblings. Our siblings are usually the ones that we share our life journey's with from a young age all the way across to our adult years and during that journey you experience the ups and downs, family woes, jealousy and hostility towards each other, competitiveness, joint responsibilities and most of all the joys of being part of a family unit.

Jeffrey Kluger a science writer and author of the book The Sibling Effect: What the Bonds Among Brothers and Sisters Reveal about Us speaks in this video about not only the common characteristics and behaviours of individual siblings in a given family but he also talks about how parental influences effect how siblings develop and interact to gain attention by cultivating their individual roles within the family household. A particularly interesting segment of the talk is where he speaks about parents and sibling favouritism, he briefly speaks about how opposite gender resemblance is a common factor when parents have a favourite child whether the parents know this or not; for instance the hard headed father may favour the no nonsense daughter because he see's a little of himself within her or the soft speaking mother may favour the quietly spoken son because of their similarities. Kluger describes it as a sense of reproductive narcissism from the parent to their favourite. This is a very profound talk from a very good speaker who cites some of the studies based on the topic of sibling bonds, it  generally is a topic which would likely relate to most people, a great talk and very interesting overall.

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Understanding introverts

Normally misunderstood, introverts generally are lower energy and conservative than their extravert counterparts, but because western society often favours the extravert for their gregarious nature and their outwardly focused approach to life and the people within it introverts often get looked over and even worse misunderstood. As written previously in this post regarding introverts sometimes being introverted can be misconstrued as shy, reserved, even unsociable but in actual fact it is just a lower energy way of interacting with their given environment and they are energised by lower energy activities such as reading, socializing with a smaller group of close friends and long walks.

Susan Cain, the author of Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking speaks in this video below in depth about introversion and their inner strengths and characteristics as well as how some environmental factors such as businesses, classrooms and even group think have their part to play when utilising an introvert personality. She also talks about her own personal experiences on being an introvert and how it affects her, a truly illuminating video from a speaker who clearly has had a lot of experience and done a good level of research on this subject.  

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Self completion theory

When a person attempts to define themselves whether it is a physician, footballer, mathematician, rock climber etc. they engage in behaviours which relate to the identity they are trying to cultivate and when any of these behaviours receive some sort of negative feedback they feel an incompleteness in regards to their identity  motivating them to redeem themselves by trying harder on any subsequent task related to the self identity which previously received negative feedback so they can feel that sense of completeness again.

This is because people have an innate drive to build and maintain their own self image, and when a significant part of their self image is threatened they have are driven to seek external validation or recognition of some kind to prove to themselves and to others that they are who they think they are or at least trying to portray so that significant part of their self image remains intact. For example, if a chef receives criticism for their food from a colleague they may engage in activities which compensate for their perceived failure and improve their self image such as buying more expensive cooking equipment or they may engage in behaviours which attempt to make them feel better about their recent failure such as cooking a dish they are known to be good at, even the use of verbal statements which reinforce their self image as a good chef such as ''I have made many successful dishes in the past'' helps to make them feel complete in regards to their bruised identity. What has just been described is self completion theory.


Examples of self completion theory

Performance
When someone is in a field, profession or social group that they regard as integral to their identity how they perform in regards to where they are in experience and how they perceive others to expect them to perform generally gives them a sense of duty to maintain that level of competence consistently, but negative feedback towards their work can cause them to work harder on any tasks after the negative feedback has been received so they can regain and maintain their sense of credibility.

Verbal statements
A person who's sense of identity is threatened may have the desire to verbalise their credibility to feel validated. For instance if someone questioned a mechanic's ability to fix a car properly that same mechanic may later feel the need to verbalise how much experience that he or she has with cars or they may even state who has praised them on their work in the past. Another example is if someone's ability to be helpful is threatened they may later become more verbalised on how much they are helpful in general and may also talk about who they have helped people previously.


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Materialism
Another way a person may find a way to validate themselves when their sense of identity is threatened or seemingly uncertain is through material positions. Similar to the last two points is when someone is questioned on an element of their identity such as how masculine they are, the person in question may acquire possessions which are typically associated with being masculine such as a watch, car, gym equipment etc. or they may be questioned on their career as musician where to compensate they may buy books, cd's, video's all which are related to music thus strengthening their sense of identity. 


Status symbols
Self completion theory suggests that when an individual feels insecure but well established regarding their status or profession they may make an effort to display symbols signalling their status. This may be because they do not feel that they are respected or at least recognized for who are so they feel the need to display these symbols to change other peoples perceptions and how they act towards them which will make them feel more respected as a result reinforcing the concept of their own status.


Research
Social psychologists Joachim C. Brunstein and Peter M. Golwilltzer conducted an experiment in 1996 regarding how perceived failures in committed identity related goals effected subsequent performance and behaviour where they had a group of students that were learning and committed to being physicians as their profession/identity which were involved in an experiment where they were split into two groups according to two conditions: the identity relevant condition and the non-relevant condition. The experiment had two phases. The first phase was a social competence task which the students were asked to complete a series of multiple choice questions. The students were each asked to read a brief outline of social problems followed by four suggested solutions where they had to choose one solution to move on to the next question. In the identity relevant condition the participants were asked a series of problems related to which physicians typically encounter in their line of work and in the non-relevant condition the participants were asked a series of problems which people come across from day to day. Feedback was manipulated in this task to either no feedback at all or a series of predominantly negative feedback so that the researchers can measure their performance in the second phase based on the feedback initially received.

The second phase was a mental concentration test where the participants in the non-relevant test condition were told upon completing the test that it was to measure and compare the concentration between various age groups while the participants in the profession relevant test condition were told that concentration on a given task was an important characteristic in becoming a qualified physician. 

The results were that the participants that were in the identity relevant condition that received negative feedback on the first phase performed better in the second phase than the participants who completed the same test in the non-relevant condition who also received negative feedback, the participants who received no feedback at all in the identity relevant test condition and the participants in the non-relevant condition who also received no feedback. The participants in the identity relevant condition which were exposed to failure reported higher levels of motivation and felt more involved than the other participants which suggests that they felt highly motivated to compensate for their failure in their identity related task making them work harder on the second phase of the experiment to prove that they are competent physicians.

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The Dark Triad. The personality of evil.

First introduced by Psychologists Delroy L. Paulhus and Kevin M. Williams the dark triad is a set of overlapping personality traits which host a group of undesirable behaviours. These three personality traits are narcissism, machiavellism and psychopathy. Some may say that these traits are can bring out the worst in human behaviour. People who score high on the dark triad personality scale can be manipulative, have a high sense of worth, with a superficial charm while lacking a considerable sense of empathy for others.

These are the three personality traits and their respective descriptions which make up the dark triad. 

Narcissism
- High sense of entitlement
- Seek status and prestige
- An aura of cockiness
- Can be highly self centred
- Engage in a lot of short term hook ups
- Easily aggressive in the face of criticism
- Loves praise

Psychopathy
- Has a superficial charm
- Have an inflated view of their own abilities
- Lack of empathy for others emotions
- High levels of deception, manipulativeness and craftiness
- Lack of remorse or guilt
- Highly impulsive
- Generally has a bad temper

Machiavellism
- Manipulates others to get their own way
- Very cunning and calculative
- Very intelligent
- Highly observant
- Very aware of situations and surroundings


People who possess the dark triad personality traits are manipulative in nature and are well aware of what they can and cannot get away with, this maybe because they are either high in intelligence or they have had a lot of experience in social interactions so as a result they know which kinds of people they are dealing with and know what buttons to push without bringing too much attention to themselves. Their social mindfulness means that they are usually well aware of how they come across to people and have a good handle on their appearance, this goes hand in hand with their narcissism; their up keep to how they appear not only involves how people perceive them but how they look physically such as their fashion, posture, physique etc. Because of their narcissistic tendencies it would be hard to form close friendships with them as they would be more concerned with maintaining and improving an image rather than keeping a close friendship.  
Keeping in mind that they are manipulative and care significantly about their image, what may give them an edge coupled with the characteristics previously mentioned is their lack of social fearlessness. This means that they are more likely to do what they would want to do without fear of being judged by others as long as it doesn't interfere with their perceived status. Surprisingly being emotionally cold in the face of potential social judgement can be seen as a good characteristic to have because you are more likely to take up opportunities you wouldn't otherwise take if you were feeling self conscious or have the feeling the you are being judged. On the other hand this emotionally coldness can be a hindrance on an interpersonal level as a dark triads lack of thought for other peoples thoughts or feelings mean that they may lack a filter for their words and actions which at some point or another may offend or upset someone. Again this can make it difficult to keep long term relationships as most people will find this trait emotionally draining and would not like to have someone this insensitive around them.

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The dark triad can come in different forms, they be someone who is an emotional bully, talking down to others while seeking status and prestige; this can be a corporate boss or an ambitious corporate employee where their line of work involves using people as a vehicle to reach their aims; their general mentality is that the ends justifies the means regardless of who gets hurt. The person with a dark triad personality can also be one who is calculating, impulsive and doesn't think about the consequences of their actions nor cares about them; this can be someone who is promiscuous, has a lot of sexual partners and finds a way to engage with someone sexually even if they are in a relationship, or someone who takes joy in taking risks at the expense of others such as a conman or fraudster. The list can go on.

Of course most people on some level can and do display any one trait or all of the three traits which make up the dark triad as these characteristics are helpful in certain situations such as attracting a potential mate, bad boys are especially good at this because they are typical dark triads in nature. Their narcissism means they look after how they look, combined with their machiavellism means that they are in control and know what the are doing while the psychopathy (not in the serial killer sense) part of them means that they are impulsive and exciting without caring too much about any particular outcome which is also very attractive. Using some of these traits in your personal life without being excessive with them can be helpful rather than a hindrance, keeping in mind that moderation is key.  

Have you asked your self ''am I a dark triad?'' or ''do I display some of these characteristics?'' Take this dark triad test to see how much of the traits discussed you exhibit. You may find the results interesting.

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Scarcity: Having less making you want more.

We as people have the innate tendency to value things more that are seen as a limited resource whether it is something is that you cant have or something that you already own but its availability has begun to decrease. Robert Caldini best known for his ideas's of influence in his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion states that the idea that something is less available can enhance its desirability through fear that you are losing out on a potential opportunity; and this can cause you to act hastily when you normally wouldn't. Scarcity is used in a variety of situations such as advertising, dating, economics, sales etc. There are some common principles in regards to the use of scarcity which are transferable and commonly used in different contexts on addition to the ones previously mentioned.


There are three ways as to how availability can be threatened...


A deadline.
An effective way to make an opportunity scarce is to give it a deadline, this is because like most people you do not act unless you have to; for example if someone says '' I have a car to give you to you for free, you can pick it up when ever you want'' then it is going to be indefinitely available and then there's no rush to get it immediately because it'll be there tomorrow... and the day after that, and the day after that, and so on. But give it a deadline such as ''I have a car to give to you for free but only until Wednesday when I'll then decide to sell it'' then you will be compelled to act fast in case of missing an opportunity and reaching the point of no return.


Banning and restriction.
The cliche phrase of ''you want what you can't have'' holds true because the rule of scarcity suggests we value things that are unavailable, if someone banned or restricted something from you it gives the object greater value in your eyes and makes you want to have it that little bit more. Books such as The Clockwork Orange, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Fallen Angels have all been banned at one time in or another in America which ironically resulted in the increase of sales, where as if there was no ban or restriction to these books then it would be highly unlikely that people would have taken as much  of an interest in them as they did anyway.


Limited quantity.
A limited quantity of an item can make people act with more urgency much like a deadline discussed earlier, think about what advertising always tells us ''Act now while supplies last!'', ''Limited supplies left!'', ''Only few are available!'', these phrases are designed to make people act quicker to catch the deal before it is gone forever. This principle can also make objects seemingly attractive, for instance diamonds; they are seen as a rare stone and because of this they are very expensive which makes them more scarce to most people as not everybody can afford them. The funny thing is diamonds are not actually rare (though they were in the past), because of higher interests the supplies of diamonds are limited to increase their value thus increasing their desirability.   

Robert Caldini states that scarcity is based off a similar phenomenon called reactance theory, which was first coined by psychologist Jack Brehm. Reactance theory effects one main component in driving human behaviour; our need to keep our freedoms. To elaborate; when our freedom to perform a certain behaviour is threatened or restricted, we have more desire to perform that behaviour. So when our free choice is limited/threatened by the restriction of something that we had access to before, we are motivated to regain control and possess the item more than we previously wanted to so we can maintain that free choice.

Much like when someone says to you ''I want to tell you something'' at that point your interested and offer to listen but your nonchalant about it, then not long after that they suddenly say ''actually don't worry about it, maybe I shouldn't tell you'' .... your interest has suddenly now peaked and your now hassling this person to tell you what they were going to tell you in the first place, you have pretty much changed your attitude simply because of the restriction of information you assumed you was getting anyway. That is how effective reactance theory can be.

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How psychology and influence is used to open doors.

In psychology and influence its always good to understand that when you are attempting to persuade some to make an action or decision it is usually better to start small. This is because putting all your cards on the table and directly asking for a large concession upfront is usually met with resistance, and while this bold move can sometimes work depending on who your dealing with most of the time it doesn't and can place you in a more difficult position which makes your job a lot harder than it needs to be. There are two types of sequential requests which are very useful in most but if not all situations and contexts depending on which one you are using, and they are researched by Professor Robert Caldini and mentioned in his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. The two sequential requests of this topic are the foot in the door technique and the door in the face technique.

Foot in the door technique
A very simple technique and easy to use because to put it simply people have need to be consistent and feel internally obliged to do so. To start with you ask a person to perform a small request which they are likely to say yes to then the next request will be bigger and related to the last request which they again will likely say yes to and you carry this pattern until you have guided them to a predetermined goal. Sometimes you may have to ask for two requests to get to the goal in mind, sometimes you may have to ask for more depending on the person and how big the predetermined goal is. You will have to judge accordingly. For example, your goal maybe to get someone to help you with your work, you first ask them to check if you've spelt a word in your piece of work correctly (a small request), then you ask them to check if there are any other spelling mistakes (a bigger request), then you ask them if they are good with work/research (which they should say yes to), then lastly you ask them to help with your work which by the time you get to asking this their need to be consistent has already kicked in and they will likely say yes.


In the mid 1960's psychologists Jonathan Freedman and Scott Frasier conducted an experiment where a researcher posed as a volunteer worker going door to door in a Californian neighbourhood asking the resident home owners if they could have a public billboard sign installed in their front lawn reading DRIVE CAREFULLY. Understandably a majority of these people said no (83 percent) because it was such a large request upfront. Another set of residents were asked the same request but two weeks prior to this they were asked if they could display a small 3 inch sign saying BE A SAFE DRIVER. The results were that because they committed to displaying the smaller sign the likelihood of them displaying the billboard dramatically increased. A full 76 percent of the people agreed to displaying the large bill board after displaying the much smaller sign.

Door in the face technique
Very similar to the foot in the door technique though not as effect but very useful nonetheless. Again you make a request but this time you make it a large request and when the person says no you make a smaller request which the person being asked is most likely going to say yes because the second request will seem more reasonable in comparison to the first request and sometimes (depending on the person) the feeling of guilt has a part to play also. Have a predetermined goal helps so you don't get a smaller concession than planned for example if you need 50 pence (or cents if your American) you may ask an acquaintance ''do you have 80 pence?'' they say no, then you ask ''okay do you have 50 pence instead?'' the person says yes and viola you have your 50 pence. Very simple.

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Robert Caldini and his researchers in 1975 carried out an experiment involving two groups of students where the first group were asked a difficult request to volunteer to council some juvenile delinquents for two hours a week for two years, naturally the students said no to this so the researchers followed up with an easier request of asking them to chaperone them to the zoo for one day only while the second group were only asked to take the juvenile delinquents to the zoo. The results were 50 percent of the students in the first group agreed with the small request after the large request was made compared to the 17 percent in the second group who were asked the small request only which suggests that the students were more likely to comply with the small request if a larger one was asked to begin with.

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Deindividuation and ''losing yourself'' in the moment.

Deindividuation, a term first used by social psychologists Leon Festinger, Albert Pepitone and Theodore Newcomb in 1952 where a person may feel they can act impulsively without social repercussions and commit actions that they wouldn't normally do, this is particular in groups or crowds. When a person is deindividuated their sense of identity is reduced which temporarily affects their ethical and moral codes which makes them more suggestible to situational influence; you are basically just ''letting yourself go''. Deindividuation can explain a range of irrational and bold behaviours such as riots, criminal activities taking place at night or dark alley ways, gang related crime and much more.


Factors that contribute towards deindividuation. 



Anonymity
Regarding deindividuation anonymity provides cloak away from social disapproval when committing an act which doesn't the follow social norms. In a classic study conducted by Philip Zimbardo in 1969 which is very similar to Stanley Milgrims electrical shock experiment where a group of participants were to give electrical shocks to another set of participants. The first group wore a lab coat and a mask to conceal their identity and create a sense of anonymity while the second group wore casual clothing with a name tag. It was concluded that the participants who wore the lab coats and mask were more likely to administer an electrical shock to their ''victims'' and for longer than the participants who were in casual clothing. A recent study in 2003 conducted by psychology professor Andrew Silke who found that in Northern Ireland 203 out of 500 violent attacks occurring July 1994 and December 1996 were committed by individuals who wore disguises. This goes to show that anonymity increases the likelihood of antisocial behaviour and may even encourage uninhibited actions that they would not otherwise do because they feel less like they are being watched ''socially'' if their identity is concealed .

Diffused self awareness in a group
Similar to anonymity; a diffused sense of self awareness in a group creates a situation where an individual is less likely to focus on their own actions and more likely to take part in behaviours that deviate from social norms. Psychologist Edward Diener in 1976 conducted a study on the psychology of self awareness which included 3 groups (1) the self aware group (2) the non self aware group (3) and the deindividuated group, each group participated in an activity which were designed to create either of the three levels of conditions. Using these activities Diener measured the subjects disinhibitions. In the self aware group the participants spoke quietly and acted nervously and did not form any group unity of such as they were forced to ask questions about each others backgrounds and interests. The second group which was the non self aware group were friendly to each other but did not form any group unity, this group completed puzzles and other non-deindividuating activities. The deindividuated group performed group activities which encouraged group unity such as singing together.

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The results showed that the subjects in the deindividuated group felt more unity, liked the group more and unlike the other groups they acted more spontaneously, were less self aware, felt a loss of identity and lastly felt uninhibited. Diener concluded that these deindividuated group activities and behaviours would keep their attention focused anywhere but themselves, this prevention of self awareness in the deindividuated state disables self regulation meaning that the individual is unable to engage in cognitive functions used to guide their behaviour such as the concept of the self, making them more vulnerable to influence by external factors.
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Social Arousal
It has also been found that arousal promotes deindividuation, arousal can be emotional such as anger, joy, excitement and also the feeling of fear, while arousal can also be physical where the body has an adrenal rush in preparation for engaging in sport, exercise, a fight or something similar which involves a large amount of physical energy.

In Washington there was a study investigating group presence and arousal in deindividuation lead by Edward Diener. This study was conducted on Halloween involving 841 trick or treaters and 23 selected homes which were set up so the children can be watched taking candy from the bowl without the observers being seen themselves. In one group of homes the children were physically aroused by playing a game of simon says while another group were aroused through taped ghost like noises, also some of the homes experimental conditions were groups of children vs one child at a time. The young participants were instructed to take one candy at a time. The results indicated that the children that were in groups were more anti-social than those that were alone, while both arousal conditions had a stealing effect. Children that were physically aroused by playing simon says were significantly more anti-social than the children listening to taped ghost like noises. To summarize, groups that exhibit high arousal can have an energizing effect on each person, which in turn makes them more excited and disindividuated reducing self awareness also having less concern with their how others perceive them making them more likely to commit to bold behaviour hence the good old ''mob mentality''.

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Being an extrovert: The good and the bad.

A term first introduced by psychologist Carl Jung, extraversion is a personality trait where a person directs their energy outwards by seeking stimulus from either being social and outgoing, taking risk taking activities and generally seeking excitement from the outside environment. These traits are contrary to being an introvert. The modern western world often praises extrovert characteristics which is usually perceived as being well adjusted and often socially intelligent; to quote Susan Cain the author of the book Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking ...

 ''We live in a culture of personality, where extraversion is ideal, a far departure from the past that was the culture of character which prized honour and discipline.''

Naturally being an extrovert comes with a lot more emotionally rich experiences leading to possibly a more varied lifestyle than introverts; usually keeping an eye open to meet new people and networking opportunities extroverts generally have more doors opened for them due to the sheer amount of socializing they do and prefer being around the company of other people and being included in novelty or risky taking situations.

Extrovert characteristics
These are the general characteristics of  someone with an extravert personality may possess, though this may not be an absolute description for every extrovert but it will give you a good outline of their overall demeanour.

- Outspoken
- Thrives in the company of other people
- Constantly seeks new experiences
- Easily bored
- Drawn to crowds
- Generally quite animated
- Assertive
- Responsive to external stimulus 
- Opinionated

Pro's of being an extrovert
There are definitely some positives in regards to having an extrovert personality trait. Extroverts are very outgoing and are usually motivated to attend social gatherings and mingle with new people exposing themselves to a variety of social interactions, this may explain why extroverts usually have a story to tell because of this frequent exposure to new interactions and situations. On a similar note because of the quantity of interactions extroverts get involved in they learn their social skills at a faster rate than an introvert would. Their constant craving for social interactions and proactiveness in this regards means that they can make friends easily, are easy to get to know as they often let their thoughts and feelings be known and love to be engaged in conversation to a wide variety of people whether it is one on one or a group discussion. Extroverts aren't known to shy away from the spotlight they can handle social pressure quite well while some may even welcome it, this comes with their love of being the focus of attention; a reason why you may find a large amount of extroverts in the entertainment industry. They usually are very upbeat people with high self esteem, with the ability to make many friends they can flourish in circumstances where there are groups and even crowds of people. Lastly their lust for excitement can translate into their lifestyle or hobbies they choose, they can be career choices such as being in the media, being a fire-fighter, deep sea diver etc., or risk taking ventures like skydiving, tornado chasing or maybe an extreme sport like rock climbing or snowboarding. These kind of hobbies or career choices keeps their day emotionally rich and keeps them highly engaged mentally also.

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Con's of being an extrovert
Believe it or not being extroverted does have some down falls despite the positives discussed earlier. Though extroverts do have the ability to meet and greet with a lot of people; often a lot of the people an extrovert meets will just be acquaintances and nothing more and that means a lot of shallow relationships, this is because there often isn't enough time to delve in and develop a meaningful relationship with each and every person they meet. From time to time they also may have to learn to break off from undesirable relationships because due to the sheer amount of people they may meet they will eventually come across people they feel they do not mingle well with or worse not get along with at all. The need to be constantly engaged with another person can be a hindrance to the extrovert  as they can find it quite difficult to be alone or in solitude for too long, even something as simple as reading a book in a quiet room can be quite a task to some extroverts, they find that either they get incredibly bored very easily or their mind starts to wonder due to their short attention span and need for an external stimulus. People can see extroverts as attention seekers and even a little shallow. Though most people enjoy the company of an extrovert person because of their upbeat nature, with enough time they can feel a sense hollowness in  their relationship between them and the extrovert because they feel they haven't really gotten to know them past their social persona.


As stated in the last post no one is completely extroverted or introverted and are usually a balance between the two and may swing one way or the other depending on a variety of factors.

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