According the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, depression and anxiety are major causes for illness and death. Maybe you're feeling a bit down this time of year. If so, you are not alone. A nationwide survey indicated that 6 to 8 percent of Minnesotans reported being depressed. Cold winters and long nights do not help matters. Those who study human behavior confirm the idea that if we do not take action, we will tend to stay "down in the dumps." Getting down occasionally is a normal human experience. Staying down is not.

In abnormal cases of depression, the individual wants to feel this way and tends to hold others responsible for it. He believes other people owe him special attention and sympathy. He does not know what has caused him to feel this way and fears that something worse may happen. This individual, with full support of family and friends, should get help right away.

In a more typical case of the "doldrums," we acknowledge that it is not good to be like this, and we do not want it to continue. We feel guilty about being depressed and are willing to admit that it is our own fault. We are not alone in this. Even people in the Bible suffered in this way. One person that stands out to me is the prophet Elijah who appears to be experiencing a temporary state of depression in I Kings Chapter 19. In that passage, three responses to depression come to my mind.

First, do a self-inventory and try to identify the possible causes for our depression. In Elijah's case, he wanted his life to be over because he did not believe he was better than his ancestors (I Kings 19:4). This was pride on his part. Other causes for depression might be selfish anger, refusal to carry out our responsibilities, or running from our problems. Honestly acknowledging our own sinful behavior is the first step to getting right with God.

Next, allow your feelings to motivate you to see what really matters. In I Kings 19:1-7, God sent an angel to encourage Elijah to look at the big picture. God used this down time in Elijah's life to guide the thoughts of his wayward prophet toward the task at hand an upcoming journey that he needed to prepare for. God provided food and water to refresh him. Thus strengthened with physical nourishment, Elijah could respond to God's wisdom and encouragement.

Finally, choose to get back up and do what God wants you to do. In I Kings 19:8, Elijah "arose, and ate and drank, and went..." The depressed feelings were real, but thankfully, only temporary. When Elijah stopped making excuses for himself and started listening to God, his life dramatically improved. Elijah had failed to distinguish between what he wanted and what God wanted.

Getting what we want seldom makes us happy. Obeying what God wants is the right response. God wants us to make it our goal to be pleasing to him and useful to others. Being depressed and self-focused is never pleasing to God. Our designer did not create us to live that way. However, when we get our eyes off ourselves and focus on what's important, as Elijah did, God will restore us and get us back on track.

The Rev. Joe Whiting makes his home in Two Harbors with his wife, two sons, and a standard poodle. On Faith is a weekly column in the News-Chronicle written by area religious leaders.

Continued here:
On Faith: Back on track - Lake County News Chronicle

Worried that all the volcanoes in the world will be set off by some nefarious supervillain? Concerned that we might be nearing a time of nuclear apocalypse? Well, if you are fretting to the extreme, then a brand new study currently sitting on the pre-print server arXiv has some additional information for you specifically, how would everyone react knowing its coming?

This, as you can imagine, is not an easy psychological phenomenon to study. Scientists cant really get ethical permission to fund a study where they convince a few human subjects that the planet is about to be destroyed.

Instead, theyve turned to ArcheAge, a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) thathas an open world, no concrete objectives, and a ludicrous degree of choice. Build an empire, raise an army, have your own private rave, become a trader, assassinate a few people, infiltrate an alliance as a spy, or create your own house, that sort of thing.

Given this much freedom, you would think that the countdown to nothingness would encourage dangerous hedonism and extreme violence but in fact, the players actually became more peaceful.

Lead by the University at Buffalo, the team created a server on the game that allowed any number of players to join and play the game as usual, but with two caveats. The first is that the players were aware that their data would be deleted after around 11 weeks. Secondly, all their actions in the game would be monitored by the researchers.

We believe that the end of the [game] is a relatively good approximation of an end times scenario, and thus the present work is not only useful for the understanding of players behavior but can also begin to shed light on human behavior in general under such conditions, the authors write in their study.

ArcheAge's launch trailer. GameSpot via YouTube

Normally, theres a strong degree of competition in MMORPGs to level-up individual characters more significantly and become more powerful than other players. Although cooperation features, there is generally a focus on self-improvement.

Knowing that the virtual world was going to end, however, appeared to have a huge effect on players behaviors. Players left quests uncompleted, and although leveling up did occur, far less seemed to focus on it so aggressively. Generally speaking, they banded together a lot more.

See more here:
Video Game Study Suggests Humans Get More Peaceful As The World Ends - IFLScience (blog)

Personality assessment and behavioral analysis company announces the release of new updates to its user platform.

Boardman, OH (PRWEB) March 16, 2017

PeopleKeys, the international personality and behavior experts, just announced new improvements to their user platform, PK3. As part of a continued dedication to improving customer experience, these changes will reflect PeopleKeys' new design and functionality upgrades. By putting users first, PeopleKeys allows users to have more options to control their user experience.These new updates will be available on March 20th. The redesign of the PK3 dashboard is part of their recent initiative to update all of their products and services to reflect a more contemporary aesthetic and improve user experience. Known for their highly customizable personality assessment and Behavioral Analysis products, PeopleKeys has extended this dedication to user-guided experiences by upgrading its user platform. This upgraded platform will incorporate even more Administrator-controlled functions. These functions will be thoroughly introduced and explained in instructional videos and downloadable documents, making them even easier to use.

PeopleKeys PK3 Administrators and Account Holders will be able to:

1- Enjoy a new dashboard layout with everything you need to know, all in one place 2- Send Assessments 3- Transfer Assessments 4- Take advantage of the new Recent Activity' window showing you pending tasks, membership requests, upgrades and reports all in one place 5- Invite someone to become an Admin directly

These new features and upgrades will improve the user's experience and allow them to take control of the organization of their account. It puts new account features firmly in the hands of the Administrator without having to consult with PeopleKeys' customer service, and a second round of updates and upgrades is already in the works.

How-to videos will soon be released showing Account Administrators how to utilize these exciting new features.

With these new changes to their PK3 Platform, PeopleKeys illustrates their continued dedication to going beyond their customer's expectations.

Want to hear more? Have any questions? Contact PeopleKeys at sales(at)peoplekeys(dot)com or customerservice(at)peoplekeys(dot)com. 330-599-5580 for more information

More about PeopleKeys:

For almost four decades, PeopleKeys has been the thought leader in cutting edge Behavioral Analysis and personality assessment resources. Throughout their expansion both domestically and internationally, PeopleKeys has sought to improve people's understanding of human behavior. Their knowledge of applied behavioral analysis has helped people to reduce stress, improve their relationships, increase workplace productivity, raise morale, and enhance interpersonal communication skills. With their DISC theory based reports, tools, resources, webinars and assessments, PeopleKeys seeks to help everyone unlock their people potential. They have products designed specifically for individuals, ministries, students, businesses, teams, coaches and more; and with over 33 languages available, they are uniquely suited to help everyone improve the human part of their lives.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/03/prweb14155382.htm

Go here to read the rest:
Personality Experts Offer New User-Friendly Updates to Popular Platform - Benzinga

Luis Sentis will lead a session, A Developers Primer for Coding Human Behavior in Bots, at SXSW on Sunday, March 12, 2017.

Human-centered robotics hold a special place in the robotics field because they both mimic human sensing and cognitive behavior, and are designed to assist humans for safety and productivity. To explore human-centered robotics is to explore human beings and how we sense the world, analyze complex and often conflicting information, and act upon our findings, modifying perception, understanding, and action as new information is available.

Such machines could be of great practical benefit to humans on long space flights to Mars, for instance, or as human proxies in hazardous environments such as a chemical spill or even ordinary circumstances like education or elder care.

Obviously, creating human-centered robots poses many challenges in conception, design, and the hardware and software that support them. My own work in this burgeoning field focuses on designing high-performance series elastic actuators for robotic movements, embedded control systems, motion planning for dynamic locomotion, and real-time optimal control for human-centered robots.

Once we have a platform for human-centered robotics, and once we can create the hardware and software and the logic to drive them, we can turn to its real-world applications, which are many.

Most readers probably have only a passing acquaintance with human-centered robotics, so allow me to use this brief blog to introduce a few ideas about this topic and its challenges.

Humanoid and Human-Centered

Since perhaps the 1950s, television and the movies have often portrayed humanoid robotsrobots that take roughly human formentertaining us with how closely they mimic humans or by how far they fall short. Sometimes, in a dramatic plot turn, a humanoid robot becomes malevolent or uncontrollable by humans.

I prefer the term human-centered robot, because it most closely describes my field of endeavor: How to create a robot that is focused on assisting a human being; sometimes guided by a human, but also learning on its own what action or behavior would be most helpful to that human.

In my view, we do not yet have sufficient evidence to say that humanoid robots are most effective when interacting with humans. They may well be, but we do not have definitive data on the question.

However, it appears anecdotally true that humanoid robots fire the human imagination and that has its benefits. In addition to their portrayal in popular media, I have found that humanoid robots draw the most, well, human interest. Soon after creating one we named Dreamer in 2013, in the Human Centered Robotics Lab (HCRL) at the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, we generally received more attention from curious students, engineers, investors andwouldnt you know itmovie producers. (Dreamer eventually had a bit part in Transformers 4 in 2014.) If humanoid robots help draw attention and interest to human-centered robotics, so be it.

Applications and Productivity

The more important aspect of this field is how to create human-centered robotics that sense their surroundings and either respond to human directions or intuit what actions would best serve their human counterpart.

Ive mentioned the possible robotic applications of space travel, perhaps as a companion to astronauts on a space walk, as a human proxy in hazardous environments or as a caregiver to an elderly person. In each case, the notion of productivity is different.

If you think of productivity for robotics generally in a manufacturing setting, it can be measured in terms of hours of work performed and profits earned. But in a long space journey to Mars, productivity will be measured instead in terms of the astronauts enhanced safety and ability to accomplish difficult tasks. In a hazmat spill, productivity might be measured in terms of human lives saved. In elder care, how well did a robot perform in changing bandages or applying ointment to a sore, preserving the persons health?

Robot Knows Best

Another quest in human-centered robotics is to create the ability of a robot to not just predict human behavior, but to perform what I call intervention. Whatever its level of complexity, can we build a robot with logic that assesses a situation for optimal actions, whether directed by a human or not? This translates to a robots ability to say to itself, Well, the human is operating the system in such a way. We could do better if computationally I have a hypothesis about what would be best for the human and intervene with that particular behavior.

This ability requires pairing social cognitive theories with mathematics. And I have found that advances are possible for what I call self-efficacy, which is basically the self-confidence to achieve a certain behavior.

At this point, self-efficacy can be achieved in very simple scenarios. One potential application is to use a human-centered robot to motivate students to solve problems by sensing and reacting to students level of engagement, then producing an interaction that motivates the student and enhances learning. I hope to demonstrate this and give attendees a chance to code such behavior in a human-centered robot at SXSW.

Touch and Whole Body Sensing

One major way in which humans interact is through touch. We place a hand on a shoulder or grasp someones forearm to gain their attention. Robotsparticularly humanoid ones with mobilityare likely to be large and quick, so touch becomes an important element in the safety of their human counterparts. We do not want a robot that runs into an astronaut on a space walk or pins someone to a wall. Thus, we are developing what I call whole body sensing. Though some in this field are pursuing something known as sensory skin, at the HCRL we have taken a more economical approach to minimize the amount of electronics needed.

We use a distributed sensor array on the robots surface, but they number in the dozens, not the thousands employed in sensory skin. Instead, we combine different sensing modalities internal to the robot, such as accelerometers, which aid stabilization, and vibration sensors that enable the machine to triangulate information on whats happening in the immediate environment. This enables the robot to respond to human touch, but within the context of other information it is receiving from its environment. We call this whole-body contact awareness, a combination of internal and external sensing and awareness.

Spin-offs

I hope this mere glimpse into the world of human-centered robotics piques your curiosity. It may serve to attract those who wish to work in the field. But the general public should also understand that advances in this field will eventually make their way into human-centered robotics in our homes, our businesses, manufacturing, agriculture, smart cities, the Internet of Things, you name it. Well have systems somedaywe already do, with limited abilitiesto sense human behaviors and intervene to produce optimal conditions based on an understanding of whats best for the people involved in a particular situation.

Today, we have smart thermostats that learn our preferences for heating and cooling our homes. Tomorrow, we may have human-centered robotic systems that optimize our cities.

Luis Sentis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin. He also leads UT Austins Human Centered Robotics Laboratory and is co-founder of Apptronik Systems Inc., a contractor for NASA's Johnson Space Center.

Originally posted here:
The Future of Human-Centered Robotics - Electronic Design

A mouse watches a video of another mouse scratching and becomes itchy. This means contagious scratching isn't based on smells or being familiar with the itchy mouse.

Humans and other social animals suffer from something called contagious itching. It's when you see somebody else scratching and suddenly need to scratch yourself, too. Now, a group of scientists led by Zhou-Feng Chen at the Center for the Study of Itch at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered that mice have the same problem. In the process, the scientists may have identified what causes some contagious behaviors.

Once Chen and his colleagues had established that mice have contagious itching just like other mammals, they wanted to know more. How did such behavior arise in the neurocircuitry of mouse brains? One possibility was that it was a kind of empathetic reaction to mice they knew well or that it was a response to smelling or touching an itchy mouse. But they found that mice could catch itches from strange miceand even from mice they saw on video (see video above). So clearly all they needed was to see another itchy mouse to get itchy themselves.

Chen and his team then dove straight into the neurobiology of the mice. Brain scans of the scratching mice revealed activity in a region called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, whose neurons emitted a chemical called gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP). By switching GRP on and off in mouse brains, the researchers discovered that it governed only contagious scratching. Mice with blocked GRP still got itchy, but they didn't start scratching when they saw other scratching mice.

The researchers used optogenetics, or light stimulation, to trigger activity in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, where social scratching is processed. At first the mouse in this video seems nonplussed, then it starts scratching frantically.

Then the researchers wondered if they could induce contagious scratching even when there were no other mice nearby to catch it from. So they injected GRP directly into their subjects' brains and also used brain implants that stimulated electrical signaling in the suprachiasmatic nucleus. Both types of treatment caused the mice to engage in frantic scratching, as if they had just seen one of their fellow rodents scratching themselves. In a paper for Science, Chen and his colleagues suggest that this means contagious scratching is a kind of involuntary response, hardwired into the brain.

University of Sussex neuroscientist Anil Seth, who was not involved in the research, told The Guardian that "very deep and evolutionary ancient mechanisms might be involved."

What kind of evolutionary pressures would create such a fundamental process in the brain? "It's possible that when a lot of mice are scratching, maybe it warns other mice that this is a place that has a lot of insects, and you'd better start scratching before it is too late," Chen told Live Science.

He and his colleagues write that their work also "may have implications for our understanding of neural circuits that control socially contagious behaviors." In other words, it's possible that there are other socially contagious activities in animals that could be induced by brain implants.

It's hard to deny that this sounds like the first step toward some kind of Matrix-like dystopia, where brain implants fool us into thinking we're eating tasty steaks. But that's unlikely. Human behavior is far more complex than what we see in mice. Still, this research has revealed something fascinating about how mammal brains work. With a little neurochemical intervention, scientists can induce social reflexes in mice who are entirely alone.

Science, 2017. DOI: 10.1126/science.aak9748

Listing image by Science

Link:
Creepy mouse experiment helps scientists understand contagious behavior - Ars Technica

Opinion | Column

the picture of health

When you think about the phrase medical research the image that probably enters your mind is a white-coated scientist, carefully pipetting chemicals, culturing cells or observing something under a microscope. For centuries, research in the basic scienceschemistry, physics and biologyproduced medicines most substantive advances. However, a shifting landscape of disease suggests that medicine will have to adopt discoveries from a broader array of disciplines, such as psychology and economics, if it is to effectively address the challenges of the future.

Translational research is the process of transitioning discoveries from bench to bedsideleveraging fundamental scientific discoveries into applicable treatments for patients. Take for example the development of cancer therapies. A fundamental understanding of cell division led to the discovery of agents that halt that process. These agents were then developed into medications that target rapidly dividing cancer cells. Similarly, research about human behavior and decision-making can be leveraged to create interventions to treat diseases driven by choices.

In industrialized nations, the landscape of disease is rapidly shifting. Due to medical advances in the treatment of infectious disease and traumatic injury, American mortality is increasingly driven by chronic, and often preventable, disease. In 1900, 23.1 percent of all deaths were attributed to pneumonia, influenza and tuberculosis and just 3.7 percent of deaths were attributed to cancer. However, in 2005, influenza and pneumonia accounted for just 2.6 percent of deaths while cancer contributed 22.8 percent. The discoveries of chemists, biologists and physicists have radically improved the survival of cancer patients. However, research from the behavioral sciences can help craft interventions that lower the risk of developing the disease at all.

Inducing behavioral change could have a major effect on health outcomes. In 2010, it was estimated that 42.7 percent of the cancers in Britain could be attributed to lifestyle factors, such as obesity, smoking and exercise. Psychological studies shed light on the most effective ways to elicit a lifestyle change. For example, motivational interviewing is a technique used to prompt and support patients in making change. This technique seeks to address ambivalence to change by eliciting patients own motivation. Using this approach to prompt behavioral changerather than confronting or persuading patientsresults in statistically significant improvements in health. Studies have shown that motivational interviewing results in increased weight loss and exercise, decreased viral load among HIV positive patients, and lower blood pressure and cholesterol values.

Another non-traditional discipline that is particularly suited to crafting health interventions is behavioral economics, which combines the fundamentals of economic theory with insights from psychology. Behavioral economics challenges the assumption that humans behave as fully informed and rational actors and instead understands decision-making as a process with predictable biases. For example, psychological and economic studies have shown that humans overvalue immediate rewards and undervalue delayed rewards. In health terms, this means that the immediate joy of a donut is overvalued against the amorphous increased risk of cardiovascular disease in the future. Similarly, the hassle of taking a medication every day may seem more onerous than the potential progression of future disease. Since these biases are predictable, interventions can be be designed to anticipate and counteract the bias, or use bias to predispose us to healthy, rather than unhealthy behavior.

Investigators at the University of Pennsylvania used findings from behavioral economics to create an intervention to increase adherence to warfarin, an anticoagulant that must be taken consistently to be effective. In the study, a machine recorded each time a dose of the medication was taken and gave the patient with an entry in a lottery with small prizes. The incentive increased adherence to medication, better than a simple reminder message. Given the fact that discontinuation of warfarin has major health risks, and patients who discontinue warfarin typically incur an additional $5,000 in annual healthcare expenditures, this intervention could have significant clinical implications.

Information from psychology about human decision makingand human errorcan also be used to help physicians and surgeons provide better care for patients. Industries such as aviation, manufacturing, and nuclear power, have long incorporated research about human error into their systems design. Their systems anticipate and respond to human mistakes, allowing for correction before an error becomes critical. These systems leave nothing to chance or fallible human memory. While medicine has been slower to adopt this mentality, reports suggesting as many as 98,000 die annually as the result of medical errors have spurred action. Simple, evidence-based interventions that anticipate human error can have a major impactimplementing a infection prevention checklist dropped rate of infections in Michigan ICUs by 66 percent.

While translational research has traditionally focused on the hard sciences, human behavior is an increasingly important factor driving morbidity and mortality. In order to address these important challenges, we must widen the focus of translational research to include research that specifically addresses decision-making and behavior. Interventions based on this research can help elicit behavioral change in patients and help protect patients from the inevitable fallibility of medical providers. Just as fundamental discoveries in the hard sciences lead to life saving advances, so too can the discoveries of behavioral sciences.

Lauren Groskaufmanis is a graduate student in the school of medicine. Her column, the picture of health, runs on alternate Fridays.

The Chronicle is your source for Duke news, sports, culture and dialogue.

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New translations - Duke Chronicle

Januarys Womens March was one of the biggest global movements of recent years. An estimated 5 million people marched in 17 different countries to show their support for basic human rights - freedom, equality, justice and personal security - which are increasingly under threat across different areas of peoples lives.

It hasnt stopped there - the movement is maintaining its momentum: With 1.3 million hashtags posted to date and growing every day, the conversation is very much alive with its roadmap of 10 Actions in 100 Days, including the call for a day of action (A Day Without a Woman) to supportInternational Womens Day on 8th March. The effectiveness of such a mass follow-up will be revealed in the coming months as actions continue. Nevertheless, the impact of the movement to date provides many useful lessons for organizations or brands looking to engage people at scale.

It is incredible to think that this all started from just a single concerned person on Facebook (a retired grandmother in Hawaii). Some of the success of the movement clearly sprung from the way the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign galvanized the public and raised awareness of multiple threats to human rights issues threats that continue into the new administration. However, there are other fundamental factors that have driven the movements success. It understands that change is driven by action and that action (human behavior) is influenced by 2 questions:

1. How motivated am I to do this?

2. How easy is it for me to do this?

Both questions have an influence on our behavior at a personal, social and structural level. The Womens March movement has successfully influenced and encouraged its communitys behavior at all three levels. As brands increasingly become involved in or create campaigns focused on social issues, there is much that they can learn from the huge reach and depth of engagement generated by this particular movement.

1. Movements are the organizational expression of a shared personal belief

Brands need to be clear about the core human value used to inspire individuals to take action. Despite the complex mix of issues - including gender, race, economics, age, health and representation - what the leaders of the movement did well was to define the core issue that they were fighting at the most fundamental human level. This was about social (or human) rights - an issue that matters to many (hopefully all) people. At the heart of this is a fight against the exclusion and divisions which pose an ever-increasing threat to our world, and the livelihoods of minorities in particular. From the title of the initial action - a March for All - to the lengths that the leaders of the movement went to make it clear that this was a movement for all (black women, LGBT women, disabled women, girls as the next generation and men and boys), it was clear that this community was living up to its core beliefs and values. The movement grew its potential scale during this time by incorporating and welcoming many different groups. By taking care to clarify the specific goals and actions of the movement, they were able to structure their fight in a way that delivered scale (inclusion of many) but with chunk-sized deliverables. Rather than boiling an ocean, they were tackling lake-sized challenges.

This is an approach that others have successfully adopted, most notably Ben & Jerrys, whose broad fight for social justice addresses the different pillars of the environment, people and communities, economic and peace. Furthermore, individual campaigns have tackled specific fights such as climate change, marriage equality and political lobbying. Social justice is a very clear and strong ideal and identity for people to buy into. It allows communities to get involved in supporting a wide range of causes that are relevant to their core shared belief.

Both of these examples demonstrate that if you build your movement on large-scale, fundamental human values, many people will be personally motivated to build scale for impact.

2. Make it easy for individuals to contribute in significant ways

Low cost of entry = high level of commitment. Joining a social fight in a significant way can seem a pretty daunting task to most people. To make a real commitment (beyond small tokenism) suggests real effort both literally and emotionally. So, getting the balance right is not easy. We want to encourage actions with sufficient weight to signal a strength of feeling and support that are able to have an impact on those we want to sit up and take notice, without these actions being so onerous or tough that they are never performed. It is best to make it easy for those people whose behavior we want to influence. The actions that the Womens March required came with lots of support, advice and tools to make it easier to put them into practice. These ease-of-use elements included simple templates to create content, existing posts that could simply be reposted, instructions for how to organize transport to marches, etc.

Whilst the actions were often simple to execute, they were all significant in their impact as they were clear and public expressions of peoples support for the movement and anger at the issues. Whether participants created posts on social media or joined the physical marches, they publicly committed to the cause. These tangible and visible actions were performances that, when delivered by 5 million people, were a clear sign of strength of feeling and commitment.

The movement made it easy for people to participate on a personal level, and to realize that they could do it. The low cost of entry made it easy for as many people as possible to join the fight.

3. The most solid and authentic foundations for a movement are found at a local level

Look for opportunities to build from existing community-based groups and leverage their existing social ties. The Womens March movement was not created by a big launch and top-down approach. Instead, it was built bottom-up, around real people and their existing grassroots communities. This gave the movement a huge amount of authenticity but also provided a large amount of the social motivation and influence that drove so much of the action. As people, we place significant value on our social ties. Our desire to be part of the group - and to be seen to contribute positively to that group by supporting its values and the people within it - means that peer pressure can be even more powerful than personal motivation. We do not want to let others down; if they are showing commitment, we feel that we must do so as well. In this contentious political time, many have expressed their points of view solely via social media. As members of their social group began to step forward and make commitments to a point of action by joining the march, the rest of that group felt compelled by social pressure to do so as well. There was often a very powerful social network multiplier at work.

This is a key lesson for building movements at scale. If you want to influence individuals, the most powerful way to do so may be to influence their social networks. It creates a situation where at a social level, many people feel compelled to say I want to do this.

4. We are creatures of habit, so make it fit around peoples lives and social structure

Build your brand movement and activities around existing social infrastructure and habits. Using local groups and movements as the foundation for the organization made it easy (and natural) for the Womens March to generate actions. The movement was built around existing relationships and the associated social infrastructure, which created a friendly, open and positive vibe. Members could largely continue operating within existing local groups, now simply connected to a bigger network of activists who shared common values and concerns at the broader level. Recruiting new people to the movement was conducted through known local networks and figureheads. Strong existing social bonds and relationships were maintained, creating a real sense of warmth and familiarity to this movement that made it feel easy and comfortable for people to join and participate.

Using peoples existing social ties and habits these makes it easy for people to realize they can contribute to the cause within the bounds of their existing, natural behaviours.

5. Reward people for the right behaviors

The carrot and stick approach may seem somewhat old fashioned but it still works in todays world. Rewards plus fun can be a strong combination: Applying a layer of gamification, especially linked to social networks and apps, can be a great way to drive the desired behaviors and actions. Interestingly, to date, it hasnt been a big feature of the Womens March movement but that may simply be a reflection of the strength of feelings already at work the strength of the personal and social motivations makes incentives unnecessary. But if the momentum slows, it could be a useful additional element to add to the other strategies. There may come a time when the movement needs to give its community more reasons to want to participate in the next series of actions.

6. Facebook is for more than sharing funny animal videos

At a structural level, the movement made it easy for the community to connect, organize and take action by leveraging the scale and power of digital social networks. Facebook (including Facebook Events) and Twitter were the primary tools, supported by an app that, as well as providing a portal to each network, included all of the basic information on the movement (the goals, details on the actions, a timetable of events, partners, how to donate, etc.). In the modern world of movements, digital social technology has transformed the ability of people to organize and act at scale. As this example shows, one grandmother in Hawaii supported by a Facebook-based infrastructure can create a lot of impact!

The fundamental variables to a successful movement can be summed up in a very simple equation: More people x more actions = more impact. This seems like a logical equation, but it is in fact about applying human logic to find the optimal solution. Designing your movement in such a way that you maximize the motivation to participate and minimize the barriers to entry will increase the likelihood of success. By deploying human sense, the Womens March created a movement that people wanted to be part of and could easily support through meaningful actions.

So, to maximize engagement at scale for your social purpose initiatives, consider the following checklist to give your campaign enough human relevance to motivate and inspire action from the people at the heart of your movement:

If you, too, are inspired, as we are, by the Womens March Movement, download our latest e-book, Beyond the Powergirl. Our contribution to the cause of gender equality, it helps brands and organizations to imagine the many positive female identities, qualities and values that can be unlocked in a future where women feel free to express and share their full capacities in society. Play our Tribal Game to discover your own future female identity.

Read more from the original source:
A New Era for Movement Brands: 6 Lessons from the Women's March - Sustainable Brands

Makers of autonomous vehicles are running into a major roadblock in their efforts to bring self-driving cars to market humans.

Sure, humans arent really supposed to be involved much in the process if the car drives itself. But there are different levels of autonomous vehicles. Some weve already seen, like cars with cruise control and those that can stay in one lane on their own.

And the next level of autonomous vehicle is one that can do just about everything, but would still need a human driver to take control in the case of an emergency. And thats where the problem comes in. If the car drives itself the whole rest of the time, then a human driver isnt likely to pay a whole lot of attention. So in an emergency situation, theyre unlikely to react quickly and effectively enough. In fact, drivers in tests continuously fell asleep while riding in these autonomous vehicles.

So some companies are instead looking to skip this step altogether. They want to only bring autonomous cars to market when they can do absolutely everything. So humans can simply sit back and relax the whole ride without having to even make an emergency stop.

Its probably going to be awhile before we actually see any of these vehicles on the road. And even then, its going to require consumers to make a pretty big leap of faith since they wont have had similar vehicles to warm up to the idea.

But companies are putting safety first. And since they cant really control natural human behavior, it probably makes sense for them to avoid putting people in those difficult situations.

Self-driving Car Photo via Shutterstock

See more here:
Human Behavior Represents a Roadblock for Autonomous Vehicles (Watch) - Small Business Trends

SINCE it is so easy to find a car or bike available for sharing on Shanghais streets, I often wonder about doing some soul-searching about this new trend.

The emerging sharing economy over the past one or two years has managed to survive sabotage, hoarding, losses and all kinds of accidental damage. It has also stirred debate about human nature and not all of it is optimistic.

I dont think we have quite arrived at the level of civility that enables sharing, said my friend Vincent, who takes a hardened, hopeless stance against my optimism.

He comes from Chongqing, a pilot city for car sharing in southwestern China, and said it feels all too familiar seeing the colorful two-seater cars that zoom around his hometown suddenly appearing in Shanghai for hourly rental. To him, it feels like the calm before the storm.

I remember the headlines about how some hot-tempered Chongqing local just abandoned a car-for-share at a parking lots exit to protest a dispute over parking fees. Vincent has his own more personal anecdotes about the perils of car-sharing. He said he once rented a car with a takeaway Chongqing hotpot spilled all over the seat by the previous driver. The smell and the stains were hard to wash away.

I have definitely seen worse, I said, trying to hold back a laugh.

In a photo widely circulated online, a thin needle is shown sticking up from the seat of a bike-for-share. The thought of what could possibly motivate someone to do that made me cringe. There have also been photos online about the scan codes to unlock shared vehicles being smeared beyond recognition, bikes-for-share piled up like garbage or even dismembered for resale with just a stump left.

Its not hard to guess who might be behind all this vandalism. Careless users, childish pranksters, street thugs, calculating thieves. The list of possible culprits sows deep seeds of disappointment in the selfishness of humans, and it certainly doesnt help the image of a sharing economy.

Last week, a local bike-for-share company in Fujian Province went broke after nearly 80 percent of its bikes went missing 19 days after its service was launched.

The drawbacks arent crushing the high hopes of companies that view the sharing economy as a beneficial investment. Across the country, many companies in the business are expanding their footprints.

In Shanghai alone, there are two major operators offering car-share and about 10 bike-for-share services. All use vehicles with distinctive styling or paint to lift their profiles. Whenever I see these colorful wheels roll by, I start to worry that industry latecomers may be at loss to come up with even more innovative ideas to stamp their signatures on the streets.

How many of those companies do you think will still be operating next year? I once asked my friend Andrew, who works in the venture capital industry a prime investor in the sharing business.

I find it ironic that an industry that prides itself on making money by exploiting human greed can invest in a business model that relies on human honesty and trust.

I dont think its about overcoming our selfishness, Andrew told me. When most people come to find themselves beneficiaries of the sharing economy by saving money and enjoying convenience, they play by the rules and even take exception toward those who violate them. It has nothing to do with altruism. It just becomes a new life order you dont want to be disrupted.

His words evoked memories of Scandinavia, where I was once an exchange student. Its a peaceful part of the world where bike-sharing was warmly embraced by the public early on. Upon arrival, I was surprised to find that locals would leave their private bikes unlocked by the roadside. Several other Chinese exchange students and I hatched a plan to pinch one of the bikes and then return it a few days later, just to show the owner the risk of unguarded trust. But later on, the mere mention of this idea embarrassed us because it would ruin something beautiful and precious that we found no longer distant, and grew attached to.

In China, it is not easy to bring every person who violates sharing rules to heel and make them pay for their actions.

Some sharing company encourages users to be knights on wheels by reporting the misbehavior of others in exchange for credit points that can lead to discounts. Law enforcement and the judicial system are also taking action by identifying rule breakers and fining them or taking them into custody.

But there are times we involuntarily betray the trust that we can be responsible members of the society because we are so lack of certain practice that the ultimate boundaries have yet to be firmly established.

Because of the explosive growth of bikes-for-share businesses, some downtown areas of Shanghai have reached their capacity for parking cycles. A district recently seized 4,000 bikes-for-share, stirring a controversy over how much the sharing economy should be allowed to eat up public resources.

The spirit of sharing can even take on a life of its own. A code manual has been compiled and circulated on WeChat, showing how people can get free rides at a bike-for-share service that uses combination locks. For every half an hour, one can save 1 yuan at most.

Is that really worth all the trouble? I sneaked into one of those WeChat groups, out of curiosity. I wondered whether these people are really so poor that they are willing to cede their sense of common decency.

My question was answered by another question. Do you really think those sharing companies care about making money from our payments? The cynics seemed to think that the safety deposits charged in advance of hiring a shared bike are being used clandestinely to invest in other businesses rather than being held in deposit for refund.

I hate to tell them this, but the grey zone of safety deposits that inspires their conspiracy theory is now coming under supervision by banks.

Sharing companies dont stand to make a lot of money for the time being, given their low-pricing strategy, low-quality maintenance and aggressive deployment. Their profit prospects will no doubt clarify doubts about the sharing business being just another example of market-invented hype.

No company wants to run a business like a charity, even if its credentials are eco-friendly. It is against their self-interested nature.

If only a hidden agenda can satisfy some peoples imaginations about businessmen being shrewd and dishonest, I do have some theories. Think about the maps that can be completed with GPS-equipped bikes for narrow back lanes and think of the expandable scope for desirable new home locations as more shared bikes and cars are available from Metro stations. Surely these offshoots will generate more business opportunities. Just as priceless are the lessons they teach us about what kind of people we can choose to be.

Mia is an independent market observer.

Originally posted here:
Human behavior drives trend of shared transport | Shanghai Daily - Shanghai Daily (subscription)

You did it. You were given that coveted seat in the C suite. There is no doubt that the impressive title and hefty six figure salary along with the big bonus and variable compensation package is great. However, the innate power that comes with an executive position has begun to intoxicate you, and the inflated perception of your own importance is your drug.

Although youve been around the block many times in your career journey leading up to this moment, its important to take heed before you write your own one way ticket to self-destruction. If you think it cant happen to you, think again. Not convinced? Let me share some insights for you to consider.

There are two types of leaders those who maintain their effectiveness over time and those who dont. In fact, those who dont can find themselves falling from grace as their egocentric behavior transforms them from a glory child into a destructive force. Great leaders who have true staying power understand the importance of checking their ego at the door. Other leaders are so caught up in their love affair (with themselves), they dont seem to notice that people feel uncomfortable with their stories of lavish vacations that cost more than their employees homes, or constant name dropping to showcase they hob knob with exclusive company.

Weve all seen multiple examples throughout history of people who lose their sense of reality when they are in a position of authority. Unfortunately, this is the dark side of human behavior and its been studied and written about by industrial psychologists such as in the famed Stanford Prison Experiment of 1971. This happens when people lose perspective and begin to believe they are far more important than others.

In the work world, individuals with runaway egos may have trouble admitting mistakes, or asking for help. The relationships they have with others is one-way, and they dominate most conversations talking about themselves. Their emotional intelligence is low; with little self-awareness or emotional capacity to genuinely think of others or exhibit empathy. While they may be able to go through the motions of demonstrating care for others, it is only done when it serves them well for self-promotion or advancement. When they get what they want out of the contrived interaction, they sharply change their tone in all subsequent communication leaving the person feeling used and confused.

If you think any of this might describe you, chances are you wont admit it to others. Thats ok. However, I invite you to use this article as an opportunity to reflect privately upon your intentions and the ultimate impact of your behavior on what drives you; to remain in a position of high authority.

There is little doubt that your self-serving behavior will garner quick wins early on in your new position, as youre able to push ahead aggressively with tangible results such as cost cutting measures or drastic process improvements. However, as you wrack up more interactions over time, your alpha demeanor will begin to leave others feeling annoyed, discouraged and untrusting of your true intentions. Eventually, this will turn into members of your team feeling like they have to watch their own backs because of the many times theyve heard you spew sharp tongued attacks about others, only to see you turn on the charm as you continued to use them until they were no longer needed. Individual agendas will begin to become the norm as this untrusting tone spreads. Your employees will begin to slack on completing their best work as their mistrust of you grows.

The most dangerous outcome of an out of control ego, is the path of self-destruction down which it can lead you and your organization. Chances are, in the beginning of your career, you became successful because of the relationships you built with others. However, youve allowed your success to change your perception of reality by inflating your own importance and believing in your own perfection. When this happens, you stop listening to others, asking for input and appropriately considering the human impact of your decisions. History has shown us how dangerous this can be.

Challenge yourself to rise above your ego and instead of constantly trying to dazzle others with your infinite wisdom, be a leader who will stand the test of time by bringing out the best in others. People will remember how you make them feel. Thats what sticks.

Elizabeth P. Cipolla SPHR, SHRM-SCP is a leadership communications professional specializing in the areas of leadership training, creative recruitment strategies, employment branding, professional development and executive coaching for more than 15 years. Her leadership experience comes from various industries including marketing, mass media, apparel, education, manufacturing, aerospace, nonprofit agencies and insurance. To contact Elizabeth, email her at elizabeth@catapultsuccess.com.

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Don't Let Your Ego Take You On A One Way Trip - Jamestown Post Journal