Penland, Alex - HONEST SIGNALS

Question 1

What is a second channel of communication of persons that revolves not around words?

Answer 1

It revolves around social relations: The social channel.

It profoundly influences major decisions in our lives even though we are largely unaware of it.

Question 2

What does this new and emerging science, called network science try to understand?

Answer 2

It tries to understand people in the context of their social networks rather than viewing them as isolated individuals.

Question 3

Why does this ancient communication channel exist? What does
it do?

Answer 3

Data from biology show that honest signals evolved to co-ordinate behavior between competing groups of individuals.

For instance, honest signals form a communication channel that
helps to create family groups and hunting teams.

The social circuits formed by the back-and-forth pattern of signaling between people shapes much of our behavior, as our ancient reflexes for unconscious, social coordination work to fuse us together into a co-ordinated (but often contentious) whole.

In a family, a work group, or even an entire organization, the
pattern of signaling within the social network strongly influences
the behavior of both the individuals and the group as a whole.

Healthy signaling patterns result in good decision making, while
bad patterns result in disaster.

Question 4

WHAT ARE HONEST HUMAN SIGNALS?

Answer 4

Honest signals are processed unconsciously, or that are otherwise uncontrollable, before we can count them as honest.

Question 5

Give four mane examples of honest signals.

Answer 5

■ Influence

■ Mimicry

■ Activity

■ Consistency

Question 6

Describe Influence.

Answer 6

The amount of influence each person has on another
in a social interaction.

Influence is measured by the extent to which one person causes the other person’s pattern of speaking to match their own pattern.

Question 7

Describe Mimicry.

Answer 7

The reflexive copying of one person by another during
a conversation, resulting in an unconscious back-and-forth trading
of smiles, interjections, and head nodding during a conversation.

Question 8

Describe Activity.

Answer 8

Increased activity levels normally indicate interest and
excitement, as seen in the connection between the activity level and excitement in children, or when male orangutans shake branches in order to impress potential mates.

Question 9

Describe Consistency.

Answer 9

When there are many different thoughts or emotions going on in your mind at the same time, your speech and even your movements become jerky, unevenly accented and paced.

The consistency of emphasis and timing is a signal of mental focus, while greater variability may signal an openness to influence from others.

Question 10

What are the core four social roles?

Answer 10

exploring

listening

teaming

leading.

Question 11

Describe the exploring role.

Answer 11

The exploring role is characterized by a high activity

level (interest) along with variable emphasis and rhythm (an openness to influence).

Question 12

Describe the active listening role.

Answer 12

The active listening role is characterized by a display that combines suppressed interest or excitement, along with an openness to influence, achieved by signaling behavior that includes a suppressed level of activity and variable emphasis.

Question 13

Describe the teaming role.

Answer 13

The teaming role is characterized by the display of a combination of attention, empathic understanding, and focused thought and purpose.

Therefore, this style of behavior includes high influence, ample mimicry, and consistent emphasis and rhythm.

Question 14

Describe the leading role.

Answer 14

The leading role includes signals that convey a combination of interest, attention, and great focus in thought and purpose.

Consequently, the leading display includes high activity levels, high levels of influence, and a consistency of emphasis and rhythm.

Note:
The leading role is similar to the teaming one, but with higher
levels of activity and lower levels of empathetic mimicry. In our
sociometer data, leading is a natural extension of teaming. It is what happens when you are focused on an interaction, know what you want, and think you can push the others to give it to you.

Question 15

What are the key components of this networking hardware?

Answer 15

Mirror neurons, which provide a reading of other people’s actions directly to various parts of our brain.

Question 16

What do the mirror neurons allow?

Answer 16

They allow us to unconsciously synchronize gestures and match vocal pitch, automatically respond to laughter and smiles, dance and sing together, and more generally coordinate our actions with those of other people.

Question 17

What does he sociometer shows us?

Answer 17

What the sociometer shows us is that our goals, plans, relationships, and intentions are reliably recognizable from simple, unconscious social signals.

Finding a mate, getting a job, and making money are some of the most significant tasks in human life, and the unconscious social signaling was accurately predicted what they were going to choose and how the interactions were going to turn out.

Question 18

What are the Group Roles?

Answer 18

Attacker

Protagonist

Supporter

Neutral

Question 19

Explain the Attacker.

Answer 19

Deflates the status of others, expresses disapproval, and attacks the group or the problem.

Question 20

Explain the Protagonist.

Answer 20

Takes the floor, drives the conversation, assumes a personal perspective, and asserts authority.

Question 21

Explain the Supporter.

Answer 21

Shows a cooperative attitude demonstrating understanding, attention, and acceptance as well as providing technical and relational support

Question 22

Explain the Neutral Role.

Answer 22

Passively accepts the idea of others, serving as an audience in group discussion.

Question 23

What are the Tash Roles?

Answer 23

Orienteer

Giver

Seeker

Follower

Question 24

Describe the Orienteer.

Answer 24

Orients the group by introducing the agenda, defining goals and procedures, keeping the group focused and on track, and summarizing the most important arguments and the group
decisions.

Question 25

Describe the Giver.

Answer 25

Provides factual information and answers to questions, states beliefs and attitudes about an idea, and expresses personal values and factual information.

Question 26

Describe the Seeker.

Answer 26

Requests suggestions and information as well as clarifications to promote effective group decisions.

Question 27

Describe the Follower.

Answer 27

Listens without actively participating in the interaction.

Question 28

What is a sociometer?

Answer 28

Is a device that is measuring another channel of communication that works without spoken language: our social sense.

Like how much variability was in the speech of the presenter? How active were they physically? How many back-and-forth gestures such as smiles and head nods occurred between the presenter and the listeners?