Category Archives: Human Behavior

Human Behavior

Delhi HC directs IHBAS to expeditiously fill vacancies of doctors, faculty – Devdiscourse

The Institute of Human Behavior and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) on Wednesday submitted before the Delhi High Court, which was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking directions to fill the pending vacancies, that it has started the process of recruitment of doctors and faculties. A division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan, however, directed IHBAS to complete the process expeditiously and disposed of the PIL seeking directions to fill the pending vacancies of faculty and medical staff in order to tackle the rise in the Psychiatric and Psychological cases in the country more effectively.

The plea, filed by social activist advocate Amit Sahni, said that the shortage of doctors and medical staff at IHBAS is a matter of serious concern and the responsible respondents have completely failed to tackle the same since long. Advocate Devender Verma, appearing for the Delhi government, apprise the court that the IHBAS has on September 1 already issued a notification regarding the fulfillments of 45 posts of doctors and facilities.

The plea also sought directions to the respondents to redress the promotion related issues and other inconvenience faced by the doctors/faculty of IHBAS to curtail the increasing number of resignations of faculty numbers as it alleged that the respondents have also failed to redress the issue of non-promotion of the faculty posted at IHBAS and the doctors and healthcare professionals working at IHBAS have not been promoted for the last 10 years. Sahni, through the plea, also mentioned that IHBAS at present working with a faculty of 25 faculty against 103 faculty members and added that the shortage of faculty has arisen since several years and the issues of the doctors and faculty members.

It mentioned that India's coronavirus crisis has pushed millions into forced isolation and unemployment, due to which anxiety, depression and suicide are on the rise and that mental health could be the country's next crisis. "There is no health without mental health underlines the fact that mental health is an integral and essential component of health. Mental health, hitherto neglected, is now recognised as a critical requirement and is engaging the attention of policy-makers, professionals and communities in India and across the globe," the plea said. (ANI)

Advertisement

googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.pubads().display('/42115163/IP_devdiscourse.com_728x90_Resp_Both_BTF', [728,90],'div-gpt-ad-1583931674-61');});" + "ipt>

Go here to see the original:
Delhi HC directs IHBAS to expeditiously fill vacancies of doctors, faculty - Devdiscourse

Human Behavior

Yet Another Article about Information Technology and the Character of War – War on the Rocks

The Maginot Line was arguably the most sophisticated system of fortifications in history. Kilometers thick at points, it had observation posts, anti-tank ditches, fortresses with retractable turrets, flood zones, and thousands of bunkers. Contrary to the way it is often described in history books, it wasnt irrelevant. It blocked an invasion route through northern France, including and especially Alsace-Lorraine, which France had fought for at great cost. It simply wasnt as relevant, or relevant in the way its designers intended, after the character of war changed.

War has an unchanging nature. War is violent, interactive, and fundamentally political. Wars character, by contrast, changes, and reflects how technology, law, ethics, and many other factors influence combatants use of violence to create political outcomes. The character of war is a semi-regular topic of discussion among military theorists, and one that has an unfortunate tendency to descend into esoteric arguments that are fascinating to a small number of people. But debates over the character of war might be more important than they have been in decades. The evolving nature of information technology and its use by militaries may change the character of war. If and when this takes place, competence in and even mastery of some previous ways of war will become less relevant. Failure to lead the next change to the character of war could result in the U.S. militarys advantages in training, resources, and technology quickly diminishing or disappearing altogether.

Changes to the Character of War in History

The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars saw a shift from limited wars of maneuver by professional armies to decisive battles fought, in many cases, by massive armies driven by nationalism. One of the first indications of this shift took place at the Battle of Valmy. The Prussian army fought a mostly cautious battle, then withdrew rather than risk their expensive soldiers. The French army, by contrast, showed the first signs that they would replace the caution of 18th century warfare with the rapid movement, decisive battle, and willingness to absorb casualties that would come to define Revolutionary and Napoleonic warfare. Both sides claimed victory. While the Prussian leaders were not exactly wrong to do so, the changing character of war was already invalidating their perspective and creating defeat out of what seemed to be a victory.

What was foreshadowed at Valmy became reality during Napoleons campaigns. Both the size of armies and the casualties from battle increased quickly. Prior to the French Revolution, battles rarely involved more than 100,000 combatants. By Napoleons final defeat in 1815, the largest battles had more than 500,000 combatants and more than 100,000 casualties. Battle also became far more decisive. By 1805, Napoleons defeat of an Austrian and Russian army at Austerlitz caused the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and the end of the Third Coalition against France. A short time later, Prussias crushing losses at Jena and Auerstedt resulted in its subjugation for nearly seven years.

More than 130 years later, the Battle of France served as an abrupt notice of another change to the character of war. French forces rather famously prepared for a repeat of 1918s Western Front, complete with the Maginot Lines massive fortifications, centralized control, and armored support to infantry formations. By 1940, the French army was broadly considered the best in Europe and was prepared to defeat the German forces if they tried to reenact the Schlieffen Plan. Unfortunately for them, their preparations were no longer relevant. German forces employed concentrated and fast-moving armor, aircraft observation, and bombing. They proved able to coordinate operations over the radio to increase their speed and reach, outpacing their opponents both physically and mentally. The German forces swept those of the French aside not because the latter failed to fight well, but because they fought using tactics that had lost much of their relevance since the end of World War I.

Both of the cases above show that a failure to adapt to or even predict a change in the character of war can be catastrophic. Armies that once excelled become far less effective without losing any of their expertise. In both cases, competence in a new way of fighting became more important than expertise in the previous ways of war.

Information Technology and the Character of War

Napoleonic warfare found agrarian societies pitting their armies and, at its pinnacle, most of their resources against one another. Similarly, World War II showed the devastation that industrial nations could produce. The four possibilities below explore how information technology may affect the character of war.

Autonomy

Many conversations about information technology, especially AI, in national defense and national security focus on autonomy. Militaries may be able to digitize and automate key bottlenecks in operations, allowing them to make decisions and act at machine speeds and at greater scale. At slower speeds, staffs and commanders will need less time to process data and generate options, and will have more time to consider their choices. At faster speeds, algorithms will make decisions at a rate humans cannot comprehend. In these cases, a militarys ability to create software that responds effectively and to delegate authority to it appropriately will be as important as any other warfighting skill.

Systems with autonomous components may also change the relationship between humans and machines. Rather than have many humans in charge of one machine, one human may direct many machines, or a small number of humans may direct many machines that will in turn direct even more humans. This would allow militaries to have unprecedented ubiquity of sensors and weapon systems, and extremely fast targeting. While an increase in weapon lethality might shorten war, it might also make it difficult for adversaries with autonomous capabilities to employ tactics that require large formations to maneuver, which are typically a key component of decisive victories.

Autonomy, with all of its potential, is a worthwhile pursuit. Most of its possible benefits, however, are closely tied to the American militarys current advantages in logistics, intelligence collection, and precision strike. While autonomy may change the way in which wars are fought, the U.S. military should not stop with autonomy. It is likely that other applications of information technology will produce more qualitative changes, and an accompanying loss of relevance for militaries that do not change quickly enough.

Softwares Acceleration of Adaptation

Militaries ability to quickly adapt software may soon become a key component of their ability to compete. Modern militaries are reliant on software as much as hardware software helps collect intelligence, creates common operating pictures, and helps service members interact with one another. Software can also play a more active role by guiding weapons, or by actually being a weapon in the case of cyber attacks.

One consequence of softwares increasing importance is that tactical adaptation will include, and in some cases require, software changes. Weapon guidance systems will need to better track adversaries using new camouflage, control systems will need to respond slightly faster to outpace enemies, and electronic warfare platforms will need to better affect enemy systems. This will be especially true as systems with autonomous capabilities begin to play a larger role.

Engineers can develop and implement software updates far more quickly than new hardware is designed, manufactured, and distributed. This is especially true when engineers are enabled by AI. While hardware is constrained by physical limits, such as the speed of shipping, engineers can update or even create new programs as quickly as they can type and verify code. Imagine weapon adaptation taking place at the speed that Silicon Valley can produce software updates instead of in the time required to produce and ship new military hardware. Twenty years ago, a ship departing the United States for a combat zone arrived in theater with the same capabilities as it had when it departed. Soon, a ship that receives updates to its electronic warfare suite and the programs that control its autonomous and automatic systems will have different capabilities when it arrives in theater than when it departed the United States.

The acceleration of adaptation may change the character of warfare in two ways. The first is to increase the importance of learning. While organizational learning is important today, once it takes place at machine speeds, organizations that collect useful data and learn more quickly than their adversaries will be able to overcome significant disadvantages, and those that learn slowly will perform poorly. Phrased differently, militaries build combat power today by building mass and seizing advantageous terrain. As adaptation rates accelerate, militaries will also increase their relative combat power by establishing effective, software-enabled learning systems, collecting data and feeding it into those systems, and denying their adversaries the ability to collect relevant, legitimate data.

Second, rapid adaptation may reduce the role of continuity in warfare. Today, and in previous conflicts, there existed a high probability of continuity from one battle to the next. Adaptation at the rates described above would reduce continuity. If this takes place, militaries that do not develop the technology and processes to adapt at machine speeds will find themselves frequently surprised by their adversaries capabilities even adversaries they have previously fought.

Infrastructure as a Weapon System

The use of infrastructure as a weapon system may also change the character of war. Infrastructure will become increasingly vulnerable to abuse as it becomes more autonomous and more automated. Infrastructure becomes a weapon system when hostile actors deliberately use air and ground traffic systems, electrical grids, water systems, and communications infrastructure to coerce or compel. This differs from attacks on infrastructure, where hostile actors destroy infrastructure to coerce or compel. The use of infrastructure as a weapon system might be as irritating as creating traffic jams, rolling power outages, or interruptions in connectivity. It might also be as damaging as flooding communities, electrical grid fires, or crashing aircraft.

The widespread use of infrastructure as a weapon system would be a qualitative change to warfare. The employment of force for strategic effect is ultimately about forcing an adversarial political group to act in a manner that better aligns with ones interests by threatening or making vulnerable its political base. Traditionally, this has revolved around the direct use of force by one armed group against either another armed group or a civilian population. This has been equally true for forms of warfare that differ as much as the highly conventional battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars and the irregular warfare seen in Iraq and Afghanistan. The use of infrastructure as a weapon system is a new and direct way to attack a governments political base, often without going through its military first. This would bypass battle-centric methods of achieving strategic effects, reducing the importance of battle and therefore the importance of traditional military forces like brigade combat teams, ships, and aircraft.

Individualization of War and Politics

States may also be able to achieve strategic effects by micro-targeting individuals at scale to create a specific outcome by using both lethal and non-lethal effects. Targeting is certainly not new American counterinsurgents in Iraq used social network analysis to map terrorist groups members and relationships, then target key nodes for influence or removal.

Todays technological and social landscape, however, may supercharge individual targeting. Biometric identification combined with genetic databases, facial recognition technology, gait analysis, wireless network sensors such as RF-pose, online behavior, and the growing ubiquity of sensors are making it far easier to find, analyze, and target individuals than it was just a short time ago. As machine learning-enabled analysis becomes even more sophisticated, states may be able to disrupt military operations or even achieve strategic effects in conventional conflicts by individually targeting key political and military actors. This may be much more efficient and much more difficult to counter than operations that rely on destroying part of a military, or threatening an important state resource.

Sentiment attacks are likely to be even more enhanced. The digitization of economic and social interaction increasingly allows those with access to data to map and predict human behavior. Cambridge Analytica used a version of social network analysis powered by much larger databases and machine learning to launch sentiment attacks to shift the behavior of societies. In effect, states can bypass each others militaries and directly target each others populations at the individual level to make courses of action politically unpalatable. This differs qualitatively from historic uses of propaganda that tried to achieve the same effects. Previously, propaganda existed in public, creating the opportunity for public discourse about the relative merit of different ideas. Now, significant portions of a population can be targeted with propaganda individually tailored to their personality, all without their neighbors or even family members knowing.

Discovering the Character of Future Wars

It is difficult to know the character of future wars. After all, its tough to make predictions, especially about the future. Beyond the usual challenges of prophecy, the effects of a new type of technology are only fully revealed when two well-developed forces fight each other, creating emergent effects that cannot be predicted by viewing the forces in isolation. No-one knows the system behavior that will emerge when information age forces fight each other. This is the same condition that faced European militaries in 1914 they understood the effect increasing firepower had on colonial adversaries, but did not understand that firepower and massive armies, combined with western Europes terrain, would give the defense an advantage.

To overcome the unpredictability of changes to the character of war, the United States should attempt to create the next character of war rather than just predicting it or, even worse, being a victim of it. Doing so requires rigorous experimentation at the tactical and strategic levels that produces changes to operational concepts, doctrine, the military education system, and military technology.

Experiments with software adaptation rates should figure out how quickly software can adapt if highly skilled programmers and machine learning experts with the right authorities, system access, and hardware can participate in tactical exercises. Experiments with infrastructure as a weapon system requires a more strategic approach. Wargames should explore what might happen if, during a military operation, electrical grids start mass wildfires, dams flood towns across America, and air traffic control systems begin causing accidents rather than helping avoid them. How might Americans and their political leaders react? How would these disasters affect military resources and planning? Experiments with the individualization of warfare could be the most challenging. What might happen during a training exercise if a well-resourced opposing force was allowed to target key players, unexpectedly removing them from the exercise?

Not Just Technology

The possible qualitative changes listed above focused on technology. It is worth noting that qualitative changes in warfare have rarely, if ever, come from technology changes alone. They have typically been equally or even more driven by social change. While social change is difficult to predict, today the rise of nationalism and urbanization are the most likely to impact the character of war. The extent of that impact and what it might be remains to be seen. The above list is also not an inclusive list of potential technology-based changes to the character of war. Artificial intelligence will almost certainly have impacts not anticipated here, and other types of technology, such as biotechnology or nanotechnology, may have consequences that are even more significant.

Qualitative changes to warfare have always come in the past. There is no reason to suspect this time is unique, that the current way of war is somehow permanent. What would happen if, rather than preparing to fight the war Americans expect and have prepared for, adversaries prepare to fight a type of war that invalidates or reduces American advantages? Could that result in defeat? What might be the consequences of a tactical, operational, or even strategic loss? If they are severe enough, the Department of Defense should go back and see if theres any reason to believe their assumptions about the character of war may in fact be invalid, and that a different type of war may emerge. In this case, as shown above, the potential exists.

While the United States would be foolish to abandon its current advantages, it would be just as foolish to discount possible change. Doing so will allow the American militarys strengths, just like those enjoyed by the Prussian army before the Revolutionary Wars and by the French military before 1939, to suddenly become far less relevant. The Department of Defense and the rest of the national security community need to anticipate, prepare for, and, if possible, create the next qualitative change in warfare. If they do not, someone else surely will.

Justin Lynch served as an active-duty Army officer before transitioning to the Army National Guard. As a civilian, he has served in multiple roles in the national security enterprise, including roles focused on information technology. The opinions expressed in this article are his alone, and do not represent those of any organization with which he is associated.

Image: Imperial War Museum

Originally posted here:
Yet Another Article about Information Technology and the Character of War - War on the Rocks

Human Behavior

SIUE takes aim at racism by hiring faculty of color by the handful – Alton Telegraph

Published 12:11pm CDT, Monday, August 31, 2020

Photo:

SIUE School of Education, Health and Human Behavior new hires include, top row from left, Candace Hall, EdD, lecturer in the Department of Educational Leadership and co-director of the College Student Personnel Administration (CSPA) program; Nate Williams, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Teaching and Learnings secondary education program and pedagogical, curricular and leadership support at the SIUE East St Louis Charter High School; and Rachel Tenial, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology; bottom row from left, Cherese Fine, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership; Cedric Harville, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Applied Health; and Divah Griffin, SEHHB development officer.

Photo:

SIUE School of Education, Health and Human Behavior new hires include, top row from left, Candace Hall, EdD, lecturer in the Department of Educational Leadership and co-director of the College Student

Photo:

SIUE School of Education, Health and Human Behavior new hires include, top row from left, Candace Hall, EdD, lecturer in the Department of Educational Leadership and co-director of the College Student Personnel Administration (CSPA) program; Nate Williams, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Teaching and Learnings secondary education program and pedagogical, curricular and leadership support at the SIUE East St Louis Charter High School; and Rachel Tenial, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology; bottom row from left, Cherese Fine, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership; Cedric Harville, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Applied Health; and Divah Griffin, SEHHB development officer.

Photo:

SIUE School of Education, Health and Human Behavior new hires include, top row from left, Candace Hall, EdD, lecturer in the Department of Educational Leadership and co-director of the College Student

SIUE takes aim at racism by hiring faculty of color by the handful

EDWARDSVILLE In one small way to combat a more than 400-year-pandemic of institutionalized racism in the U.S., Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Education, Health and Human Behavior (SEHHB) Dean Robin Hughes, PhD, is working in a deliberate and calculated way to make her University better, stronger and more equitable by hiring a group of faculty members of color, known as cluster hires.

I thought about a request for a cluster hire of faculty of color, when I learned about strategic hiring funds during my interview visit, said Hughes. In this case, its a hiring process that recruits and hires a number of faculty of color who are experts in the fields of education, applied health and specifically psychology. We intentionally sought to hire a number of individuals to fill multiple positions in the School of Education, Health and Human Behavior.

Hughes first plans involve hiring four faculty members of color. One position is still in negotiation. The current three SEHHB cluster hires are:

Nate Williams, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Teaching and Learnings secondary education program and pedagogical, curricular and leadership support at the SIUE East St Louis Charter High School

Cherese Fine, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership

Rachel Tenial, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology

The University has a commitment and strategic goal to hire faculty of color, noted Hughes. We responded to the Universitys goals.

Hughes also points to research that shows the benefits of hiring faculty of color.

Faculty of color support students growth and social well-being in myriad ways, she continued. They are role models. They increase students sense of belonging. They support student retention overall, and retention of students of color specifically.

For instance, our Department of Psychology was intentional about responding to the needs of students of color. They noted that about 20% of their students were Black, and they had no Black faculty. Psychology faculty believe it is important to hire faculty of color.

The SEHHB cluster hires were achieved through the Universitys Strategic Hiring Funds made available through the Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion.

The funds include a three-year start-up. The units are responsible for funding after that, explained Hughes. The SEHHB administrative team is well aware of the fiscal responsibility for every hire. This is nothing new to me as a leader. All hires are fiscally strategic. All hires are made to support the expertise of the unit. All hires are made to support the community.

Hughes also named three additional hires:

Cedric Harville, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Applied Health

Candace Hall, EdD, lecturer in the Department of Educational Leadership and co-director of the College Student Personnel Administration (CSPA) program

Divah Griffin, SEHHB development officer

We deliberately recruit the most brilliant and most qualified in every candidate pool all of the time, added Hughes.

Once hiring faculty of color, a university also has to be calculating about retaining them, according to Hughes.

This means critically reviewing policies that typically drive away faculty of color, she shared. The SEHHB is working to strategically restructure these policies, among other things, to make sure that we keep people once we recruit them. For instance, when a faculty member of color goes up for tenure and has to publish in a top tier journal (which is racist in its subtext and is always ill-defined), we have to make sure that our policies are inclusive of the top tier work that they do. Not top tier according to a few people who made that decision 400 years ago when Harvard first became a university or by the current group of scholars who are affirmed and perpetuate western cannon notions of whats good and top tier.

The SEHHB dean posed a few questions for SIUE and other colleges and universities to consider in seeking to move from an exclusive mindset, practice and environment in higher education to a more inclusive one.

Specifically, in response to questions about how hiring faculty of color advances the goals of any organization, Hughes points to a counternarrative and asked, How has hiring all white or predominantly white staff and faculty improved and advanced a college or university? How has not paying attention to purposely hiring faculty and staff of color impacted your college or university?

Its 2020, and colleges and universities are just now deconstructing racist policies, Hughes. We have some catching up to do.

Read more:
SIUE takes aim at racism by hiring faculty of color by the handful - Alton Telegraph

Human Behavior

Unquestioned Trust: How the Financial Industry Can Create Secure (and Seamless) Online Banking Experiences – Banking Exchange

As their investment in digital transformation increases, banking organizations are learning a valuable lesson that all comes down to trust.

In our current pandemic era, customers are dramatically accelerating the demand for this transition. According to the World Retail Banking Report 2020 from Capgemini and Efma, 57 percent of clients surveyed now prefer (and implicitly trust) online to in-person banking (up from 49 percent pre-COVID-19) and as much as 55 percent favor using mobile banking apps (up from 47 percent). As a result of these increases, the global online banking market is expected to reach $20.5 billion by 2026, up from $9.1 billion in 2019, according to a forecast from Valuates.

At the same time, industry executives fully know and trust that hackers are increasing their interest in online banking, too, hoping to cash in on easy-money growth. Four out of five executives cite security/privacy concerns as the primary adoption obstacles to implementing a digital platform model, according to the Capgemini/Efma report. And their reservations are well-founded. Banking trojans such as Dridex, Trickbot and Ramnit are stealing account credentials, gaining remote control of infected systems, intercepting and redirecting users to hacker-controlled servers, and launching spam and malware campaigns.

In June, the FBI issued a warning about the likelihood of cyber criminals targeting mobile banking customers through malicious programs disguised as banking apps. Overall, cyber attacks against the financial sector have grown by 238 percent and ransomware incidents have spiked nine-fold since the outbreak began, according to the VMware Carbon Black, Modern Bank Heists 3.0 research report.

To counter the onslaught, banks are going beyond phishing and social-engineering-vulnerable passwords and are increasing their authentication requirements with device-level authentication. For example, if an account holder types in the right password from an IP address that also matches whats in the file, then the log-in is approved. But this isnt enough in our global, mobile, digital transformation age. Users now connect ubiquitously from multiple devices, making this device-fingerprinting and its continual verifications more cumbersome to users and less reliable for security.

Unfortunately, financial institution leaders often believe that implementing two-factor authentication with challenge questions like, Whats your favorite meal? and What city were you born in? will close the gap. But cyber criminals easily circumvent these controls. Via SIM swapping, for instance, they take control over a victims phone number by convincing the victims mobile carrier to switch their subscriber identity module (SIM) to a new SIM card located in a device under attacker control. With this, the attacker can then hijack the one-time codes sent via SMS, thus exploiting the two-factor authentication. And as for answers to personal security questions that only the legitimate user should know? The same user is literally giving these personally identifiable answers away in their daily social media posts and often within their stolen, personal emails.

Whats worse is that increasing friction into the consumer experience runs counter to the purpose of digital transformation and the goal of both secure and seamless, online banking experiences. These enhanced security measures force users to take multiple, burdensome steps to conduct their business. And when pushed too far, financial institutions start finding their services are more secure as a result of having fewer customers.

Fortunately, there is a better way. Breakthroughs in software and mobile technology are proving the reliability of using behavioral biometrics to deliver stronger, yet more user-friendly, authentication. Behavioral biometrics validates users by tracking how they physically interact with sites, apps and device interfaces whichever device the customer chooses to engage from.

Unique attributes like how an individual presses on touchscreens, moves a mouse, types on a keyboard and holds a smart phone are automatically analyzed to identify suspicious logins and nefarious activities without impacting the authentic customer experience. And because malware and bots are unable to replicate and impersonate both unique and innate human behavior, the technology can rapidly detect and alert on anomalies offering the time to quickly intervene or dramatically reduced effort to resolve fraud investigations. As a result, the interaction is more secure with the process invisible to the banking customer.

There is no turning back in the digital transformation journey. You commit. You invest. You innovate. And then you keep at it, with continuous improvement as a constant driver. And remarkably, it requires a zero-trust approach so that trust, as in human-human interactions, is continuously assessed, built, and evolved with every engagement.

Jordan Blake, BehavioSec

See original here:
Unquestioned Trust: How the Financial Industry Can Create Secure (and Seamless) Online Banking Experiences - Banking Exchange

Human Behavior

10 Books to Read About Infectious Disease & Pandemics – One Green Planet

As cases of the coronavirus pandemic continue to rise globally, books on pandemics are in high demand. From historical fiction to nitty-gritty nonfiction, books have the power to reveal important insights regarding the science behind these diseases, how people have coped with them in the past, and what we can do moving forward.

Here is a list of ten books you should read on infectious diseases.

In Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, David Quammen chronicles his travels around the world investigating the origins of past infectious disease outbreaks, including Ebola and lesser-known viruses such as Nipah. Quammen tries to show how human behavior can drive destructive zoonotic virus as animals and humans are coming in contact more and morethe spillover of deadly microbes from animals to humans becomes inevitable. Buy Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic here on Amazon!

People and gorillas, horses and duikers and pigs, monkeys and chimps and bats and viruses, Quammen writes. Were all in this together.

Published in 2018, two people recall their experience on the frontline of the deadly 2014 Ebola outbreak that killed more than 11,300 people in west Africa. Oliver Johnson, a doctor, and Sinead Walsh, then Irish ambassador to Sierra Leone, expose the poor decision-making and failure of local and international leadership in responding to the outbreak. Walsh and Johnson call our attention to the immense courage of those who risked their lives every day to contain the disease. Buy Getting to Zero: A Doctor and a Diplomat on the Ebola Frontlinehere on Amazon!

Written by Laurie Garrett, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, The Coming Plague details how the modern world is full of infectious diseases including HIV, Lassa, Ebola, and others. Garrett explores the conditions that led to recurrent outbreaks of new emerging diseases.

While recent scientific and technological and social developments have greatly helped society ward off disease, Garret also examines how modern science may have led to mutated old viruses, now resistant to all or most treatment, that pose a problem for future generations. Buy The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance here on Amazon!

This New York Times Bestseller by John M. Barry dives into the 1918 Spanish flu and how it altered the course of history. The Great Influenza highlights the importance of science and truth in combating a pandemic. Buy here on Amazon!

As Barry concludes, The final lesson of 1918, a simple one yet one most difficult to execute, is thatthose in authority must retain the publics trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one. Lincoln said that first, and best. A leader must make whatever horror exists concrete. Only then will people be able to break it apart. Buy The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History here on Amazon!

Combining science and history, Bryn Barnard details how infectious diseases began and dramatically shaped the course of human history. From influenza to smallpox, from tuberculosis to yellow fever, she explores the causes and effects of some of the worlds deadly epidemics. Buy Outbreak! Plagues That Changed Historyhere on Amazon!

How to Survive a Plague follows the story of the grassroots activists who challenged government officials on their lack of scientific research into the AIDS epidemic. Inspired by the 2012 documentary with the same name, How to Survive a Plagueprovides an insiders account of a pivotal moment in the history of American civil rights and medical science. Buy How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS here on Amazon!

InThe Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years,journalist Sonia Shah delivers a riveting overview of the causes, treatments, and effects of malaria which still kills about 1 million people a year. Shah tracks the historical rise of malaria from its birth in Africa through the Industrial Revolution to current global health initiatives. Buy The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Yearshere on Amazon!

Critically acclaimed author Jim Murphy describes the spread of yellow fever and its effects on Philadelphia residents in 1793, drawing connections between 18th-century beliefs and practices to modern-day social and political events. Murphy also highlights the heroic role of Philadelphias free blacks in combating the disease and the effects of yellow fever on the Founding Fathers. Buy An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793here on Amazon!

In each chapter, science and medical journalist, Madeline Drexler, takes readers through an in-depth account of different emerging diseases. Emerging Epidemics discusses the looming risks of influenza, the potential dangers of bioterrorism, and what scientists on the front-line are doing to stop these threats before its too late.

Drexler warns us that the most ceaselessly creative bioterrorist is still Mother Nature, whose microbial operatives are all around us, ready to pounce whenever conditions are right. BuyEmerging Epidemics: The Menace of New Infections here on Amazon!

Parasite Rex reveals how hidden organisms can infiltrate and control the bodies of their hosts. Through his travels, Carl Zimmer brings the reader into the world of parasites which make of the majority of lifes diversity and have the power to steer the course of evolution. As more and more diseases are transferred through species, Parasite Rex exposes the vectors of disease and teaches us how to survive in a world with these hidden yet powerful creatures. Buy Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Natures Most Dangerous Creatureshere on Amazon!

Fictional books can also provide critical insights regarding how people handled previous infectious diseases and how we could prepare for future pandemics. Check out these historical and futuristic works of fiction on deadly diseases:

Read about the top 8 scientific, medical, and culture podcasts to help you stay updated on the coronavirus pandemic.

For more Animal, Earth, Life, Vegan Food, Health, and Recipe content published daily, subscribe to the One Green Planet Newsletter! Lastly, being publicly-funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high-quality content. Please consider supporting us by donating!

Visit link:
10 Books to Read About Infectious Disease & Pandemics - One Green Planet

Human Behavior

Augmented Reality Market to Hit $65.22 Billion by 2027; Speedy Rise in Smartphone Usage around the World to Broaden Market Horizons: Fortune Business…

Pune, Sept. 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global augmented reality market size is projected to reach USD 65.22 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 48.3% during the forecast period. Growing presence of AR devices and solutions amid COVID-19 pandemic will create new avenue for expansion in the market, finds Fortune Business Insights in its report, titled Augmented Reality Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Component (Hardware, and Software), By Device Type (Head Mounted Display, Heads-Up Display, Handheld Devices, Stationary AR Systems, Smart Glasses, Others), By Industry (Gaming, Media & Entertainment, Automotive, Retail, Healthcare, Education, Manufacturing, and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027.

Click here to get the short-term and long-term impact of COVID-19 on this market.

Please visit: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/augmented-reality-ar-market-102553

With large swathes of people worldwide confined to their homes to contain the spread of the coronavirus, diverse entities are looking for efficient ways to ensure continuation of work without impediments. AR technology has offered the desired solutions. For instance, first-year medical students at Clevelands Case Western Reserve University have been utilizing HoloAnatomy and HoloLens to study the human body from their homes. In May 2020, Facebook also unveiled its prototype AR and virtual reality (VR) technologies to enable employees to work from home in the long-run, even after the pandemic is over. Thus, AR is proving extremely beneficial for remote working as well as remote learning and as a result, its adoption is all set to surge not just during, but also after the COVID-19 pandemic has abated.

The report states that the global market value in 2019 stood at USD 2.82 billion and offers the following:

Get Sample PDF Brochure: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/sample/augmented-reality-ar-market-102553

Market Restraint

Potential Negative Effects of AR on Human Behavior May Slow Down Adoption

A study recently conducted by researchers at Stanford University found that after people had experienced augmented reality through computer-generated simulations, their behaviors and interactions changed in the physical world as well. The findings of the study revealed that subjects who were made to wear AR-powered goggles were unable to distinguish between the virtual world and the real world. According to the researchers, excessive usage of AR is likely to have a significant impact on the social-psychological interactions of people in real-world scenarios. Spreading awareness about this drawback of AR may restrict its adoption. In addition to this, many experts fear that overload of information may confuse and overwhelm the wearer, preventing quick decision-making, which will defeat the purpose of deploying augmented reality (AR) tools in organizations. These shortcomings may limit the augmented reality market growth in the upcoming years.

Regional Insights

Robust Investment Culture to Favor Market Growth in North America

With a market size of USD 0.92 billion in 2019, North America is slated to dominate the augmented reality market share during the forecast period. The main reason for the regions leading position is the favorable investment climate, especially in the domain of information & communication technology (ICT). Moreover, companies in the US and Canada are widening the applicability of AR in different fields, which will play a key role in the long-term development of the market.

Promising growth in the automotive, logistics, manufacturing, and gaming industries is expected to be the primary growth driver for the market in Asia Pacific. In Europe, on the other hand, proliferation of companies and start-ups specializing in AR/VR technologies, especially in the UK, is likely to propel the market in the continent.

Speak to Analyst: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/augmented-reality-ar-market-102553

Competitive Landscape

Product Diversification to be the Top Growth Strategy for Key Players

Competition in the AR market is characterized by the path-breaking innovations introduced by tech giants such as Microsoft and Qualcomm. These behemoths, with their well-established presence, strong financial health, and loyal customer base, are taking constant efforts to enhance their R&D capacities to develop diversified products and broaden the scope of their proprietary offerings.

Industry Developments:

List of Key Companies Profiled in the Augmented Reality Market Report

Quick Buy AR Market Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/102553

Detailed Table of Content

TOC Continued..

Get your Customized Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/customization/augmented-reality-ar-market-102553

Have a Look at Related Research Insights:

NLP Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Deployment (On-Premises, Cloud, and Hybrid), By Technology (Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Text Analytics, Speech Analytics, Pattern and Image Recognition, and Others), By Industry Vertical (Healthcare, Retail, BFSI, Automotive & Transportation, Advertising & Media, Manufacturing, and Others) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026

AI Market Size, Share and Industry Analysis By Component (Hardware, Software, Services), By Technology (Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Others), By Industry Vertical (BFSI, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Retail, IT & Telecom, Government, Others) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026

Virtual Reality Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Offering (Hardware, Software), By Technology (Nonimmersive, Semi-Immersive), By Industry Vertical (Gaming & Entertainment Media, Healthcare, Education, Automotive, Aerospace & Defense, Manufacturing), By Application (Training & Simulation, Educational, Attraction, Research & Development) and Regional Forecast, 2019 2026

Network Security Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Type(Firewalls, Antivirus and antimalware software, VPN, Data loss prevention, Intrusion prevention systems, Wireless security, Others), By Enterprise Size (SMEs and Large Enterprises), By Deployment (Cloud, On-premises), By Industry (BFSI, IT and Telecommunications, Retail, Healthcare, Government, Manufacturing, Travel and Transportation), and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027

Quantum Cryptography Market Size, Share and Global Trend By Component (Hardware & Services), By Services (Consulting, Support and Maintenance, Integration and Deployment), By Applications (Application Security, Network Security, Database Encryption), By Industry Verticals (Banking, Finance Services, Insurance, Consumer Good and Retail, Government & Defence, Healthcare and Life sciences, Telecom and IT) and Geography Forecast till 2025

About Us:

Fortune Business Insightsoffers expert corporate analysis and accurate data, helping organizations of all sizes make timely decisions. We tailor innovative solutions for our clients, assisting them address challenges distinct to their businesses. Our goal is to empower our clients with holistic market intelligence, giving a granular overview of the market they are operating in.

Our reports contain a unique mix of tangible insights and qualitative analysis to help companies achieve sustainable growth. Our team of experienced analysts and consultants use industry-leading research tools and techniques to compile comprehensive market studies, interspersed with relevant data.

At Fortune Business Insights, we aim at highlighting the most lucrative growth opportunities for our clients. We therefore offer recommendations, making it easier for them to navigate through technological and market-related changes. Our consulting services are designed to help organizations identify hidden opportunities and understand prevailing competitive challenges.

Contact Us:Fortune Business Insights Pvt. Ltd.308, Supreme Headquarters,Survey No. 36, Baner,Pune-Bangalore Highway,Pune- 411045, Maharashtra,India.Phone:US: +1-424-253-0390UK: +44-2071-939123APAC: +91-744-740-1245Email:sales@fortunebusinessinsights.comFortune Business InsightsLinkedIn|Twitter|Blogs

Read Press Release https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/press-release/augmented-reality-ar-market-9713

Continue reading here:
Augmented Reality Market to Hit $65.22 Billion by 2027; Speedy Rise in Smartphone Usage around the World to Broaden Market Horizons: Fortune Business...

Human Behavior

Why Some People Over-Apologize, And Others Never Do – The Swaddle

As the #MeToo movement demonstrated, some people are so bad at apologies, that you find yourself resisting the urge to tell them to go back in time, and learn how to apologize. On the other hand, some of us are so over-apologetic, that we dont just apologize to inanimate objects we may have accidentally bumped into, but also feel the need to apologize for the actions of others that are beyond our control.

But, why do we apologize at all?Because human behavior is interdependent, people apologize when they have breached someones trust, or wronged them in any manner, with the objective of restoring their relationship. When one breaks a rule of social conduct, a subsequent apology re-establishes the rule by acknowledging that it was broken, and rebuilds trust in the individual wronged that the apologizer wont repeat their mistake again. Moreover, by validating the feelings of the person one wronged, an apology also shows care.

Over-apologizing, on the other hand, can stem from a myriad of formative childhood experiences. For some, over-apologizing is a way to avoid conflict, especially if they grew up in a household where conflict sparked screaming matches, or led to violence. It can also stem from a fear of abandonment. In terms of understanding the history behind one struggling to avoid conflict at all costs, Panthea Saidipour, a psychotherapist, noted that if one has witnessed conflicts being meted out with being iced out and given the cold shoulder, which for a kid can feel tantamount to being abandoned, one steers clear of situations that could spiral the same way by over-apologizing. [Apologizing] for having any needs at all, can stem from being raised by a parent, who had a low tolerance or even contempt for your needs, Saidipour added. This can also result in endeavors to constantly please people, and be perceived as a good person, since apologies minimize the negative repercussions of the incident and repair the actors damaged identity. As such, over-apologizing becomes an internalized coping mechanism.

Related on The Swaddle:

Indias #MeToo Apologies Are Rolling In. Do Any Warrant Forgiveness?

But, in addition to being a coping mechanism, apologizing repeatedly can also serve as a safety manoeuvre to keep oneself safe in abusive relationships. Also, experiencing a severely traumatic childhood, can sometimes, lead people to believe that they are the root cause ofall the terrible things happening around them, even after they grow up, causing them to over-apologize. Those who over-apologize often feel like a burden to others, as if their wants and needs are not important, Kelly Hendricks, a couple and family therapist in San Diego, told Psych Central, explaining how the behavior might also be a result of feeling unworthy.

Further, experts believe that anxiety can also lead to over-apologizing, as a means to manage emotions of fear, nervousness, and worry. It could also be a result of the spotlight effect, which generates extreme self-consciousness by making one believe that others are keeping close note of the minutest details of their failures. Over-apologizing can stem from being too hard on ourselves or beating ourselves up for things, Dr. Juliana Breines, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Rhode Island, explained. In addition to anxiety, another mental health disorder that can lead people to over-apologize is OCD. Dr. Michael Alcee, clinical psychologist, explained that people with OCD are often very sensitive about harming others and about exhibiting overly-assertive or aggressive thought or action, and by apologizing excessively, they believe theyre undoing any harm they believe they may have caused.

And, while some people cannot stop apologizing, some simply dont apologize. Experts believe those who refrain from apologizing as much as possible, are prone to believe that apologies will open the floodgates to further accusations and conflict, and at the same time, relieve the other party of any culpability, Dr. Guy Winch, a clinical psychologist, noted. In order to offer a heartfelt apology, a person needs to have a solid platform of self-worth to stand on, Harriet Lerner, psychologist and author of Why Wont You Apologize?, told The Cut, adding that people whove done more harm, or are less self-aware, are constantly perched upon a small, rickety platform of self-worth, which makes apologizing difficult for them. Apologizing becomes a challenge for people when they have trouble separating their actions from their character, which makes accepting responsibility, or apologizing, threatening to their basic sense of self-esteem, and their identity.

Related on The Swaddle:

Could an Apology Cause Its Recipients More Harm Than Good? Perhaps.

Also, as studies have established over the years, women apologize more than men. In all cultures studied, men apologize less frequently than women. I think one of the greatest risks of being an under-apologizer is to be raised male, and the greatest risk of being an over-apologizer is being raised female, Lerner notes. Among other factors, researchers believe it is also a result of: first, menhaving a higher threshold for what constitutes offensive behavior, and therefore, requires an apology; and second, women caring more about how their actions emotionally affect people around them, which leads them to have a lower threshold for what requires an apology. And, that develops because, girls are more often rewarded for focusing on others feelings while boys are more often rewarded for asserting themselves, Dr. Stephen P. Hinshaw, psychologist, said.

Irrespective of whether one is a an over-apologizer, an under-apologizer, or simply, an individual who apologizes a regular amount, its important to remember that apologies are not only powerful, but also key to preserving our relationships with people we love. Apologies generate empathy. Apology has the ability to disarm others of their anger and to prevent further misunderstandings. While an apology cannot undo harmful past actions, if done sincerely and effectively, it can undo the negative effects of those actions, Beverly Engel, a psychotherapist and author ofThe Power of Apology,wrote in Psychology Today.

Continue reading here:
Why Some People Over-Apologize, And Others Never Do - The Swaddle

Human Behavior

Don’t bank on herd immunity to save us from COVID-19 – Massive Science

There has recently been some speculation that the human population, or at least some segments of it, may already have had sufficient COVID-19 infections to achieve the protective effect of herd immunity. There are also new studies using computational modeling that suggest that the population levels of immunity needed for broad protection are lowerthan the most common estimates of 60-66% immune. While these new and hypothetical constructs of infection-acquired herd immunity show useful directions for the future of public health research for both COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, there are still too many unknowns to use these numbers to design active health policy.

As I wrote earlier this year:

Many hard hit communities, such as the Hasidic community in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklynand other urban neighborhoods in London and Mumbai, have already had a substantial number of infections within distinct spatially contained groups, leading people to speculate that they may have established a protective level of immunity within these areas. In addition, many researchers have developed mathematical models of the outbreak and have come up with values lower than the typical estimates of the population needed for herd immunity for COVID-19, ranging from about 43% to as low as 10-20%.

The classical calculation of herd immunity is based on the infectivity of the virus in question, definedby the mathematical expression, 1-(1/R0). R0 (R-naught) is the basic reproductive number of the virus, which is an indicator of how easily an infection is transmitted. This is an estimate of the number of secondary cases generated by an infectious individual at the start of a novel outbreak, when the rest of the population is susceptible. There are many difficulties in estimating R0 during an active outbreak, resulting in some wide variations in estimates over time anddata coming from different geographic locations. Early WHO estimates turned out to be too low, but the most widely used estimates R0 for SARS-CoV-2 now remain at around 2.5 to 3, meaning that one infectious person will infect 2.5 to 3 others. The calculated estimate based on a R0 of 2.5 to 3 results in 60-66% percent of people needing to have immunity before there is any herd immunity effect for the population.

Herd immunity helps reduce the likelihood of disease transmission from infected individuals to non-immune individuals. Immunity can be acquired from vaccines or, in many cases, previous infection and recovery from the infection.

U.S. Government Accountability Office on Flickr.

A mathematical model recently published by Tom Britton and colleagues in Science suggests that because population groups vary by factors including age and rates of social activity and contact, herd immunity could established through illness and recovery with only around 43% of the population,instead of the 60% required using a classical model assuming an R0 of 2.5.

While this type of mathematical model for herd immunity is theoretically interesting since it attempts to capture contextual factors and elements of population heterogeneity, it is still too early to be directly applied to public policy. Our current knowledge about SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) is incomplete, including a lack of information about how we may develop immunity and how long immunity will typically last.Mathematical modeling isalso based on broad assumptions that are often untested in the real world. Much more research is needed before we know if these new ideas about herd immunity should be applied to public health interventions and planning.

There are generally two broad categories of infectious disease models: mechanistic models, which use scientific understanding of disease dynamics and human behavior, and statistical models, which rely only on patterns in the data

U.S. Government Accountability Office on Flickr.

The most striking example of how fast our understanding can change is the recent confirmation of a reinfection with a second case of COVID-19 after four and a half months in Hong Kong.Unlike earlier reports of reinfection, which were mainly anecdotal, this case was confirmed based on viral genome sequencing, showing that the second infection was from a genetically distinct strain. This suggests that reinfection is an important possibility and that immunity acquired through illness and recovery may last only months. This new case adds additional elements of uncertainty to Britton and colleagues model, since the authors state that their current model was designed based on the assumption that infection with and subsequent clearance of the virus leads to immunity against further infection for an extended period of time.

Reinfection and the typical duration of immunity are not the only uncertainties. It also remains unclear to what degree immunity is antibody-mediated versus cell-mediated, whichkinds of antibodies are most important, whether immunity might prevent future disease or only make reinfections less severe, and whether prior exposure to common cold coronaviruses offer any protection. Immune response also may depend on characteristics beyond age, including biological sex and individual genetic variation, and other factors. The data available is often incomplete, meaning that mathematical models may be based on biased samples; underreporting of data has been high, and areas without sufficient testingdo not provide adequate data.

There are also a number of difficulties inherent in using the basic reproductive rate to predict disease spread, and it is difficult to disentangle the basic rate R0 from the actual transmission rate (Rt), which is impacted by changes in behavior and in population immunity over time. If done properly, all of the measures meant to control the virus, including lockdowns, social distancing, business closures, travel bans, mask wearing, and contact tracing, will reduce the transmission. While this is a good thing for the publics health, it makes the data collected ambiguous: has disease transmission has been slowed by public health measures, or is it waning naturally?

Current estimates suggest that a person infected with COVID-19 will, on average, pass the virus to 2-3 other people.

United Nations COVID-19 Response on Unsplash.

There are also speculations that the amount of virus a person contacts impacts the severity of illness (this is known asa dose-response relationship), potentially explaining why masking is effective. It is still unclear to what degree seasonality plays a role in transmission, and more research is needed on the exact mechanisms of virus spread and persistence in the air and the role of indoor conditions such as humidity, temperature, and ventilation. Finally, once a vaccine becomes available, it will impact herd immunity, though the results will depend both on the effectiveness and the distribution of any future vaccines as well as whether people are willing to get the vaccine at all.

Throughout this pandemic, the concept of herd immunity has been frequent fodder for wishful thinking. Some countries, including Britain and Sweden, attempted to rely on herd immunity rather than implementing broad control measures. Now Britain has reconsidered this plan, and Sweden has sustained much larger spread of the disease and greater number of deaths than its neighbors.

In the United States, wishful thinking about the virus disappearing on its ownhas delayed needed intervention and prompted premature reopening. Pandemic control measures have many unpleasant side effects, and herd immunity can be an appealing concept for those who seek reassurance that the world will eventually return to normal, but our best way forward requires an understanding that conducting quality research and applying it effectively to policy take time and a great deal of work.

Go here to read the rest:
Don't bank on herd immunity to save us from COVID-19 - Massive Science

Human Behavior

I’m a Body Language Expert. Here’s What I Saw During the Conventions. – POLITICO

At the beginning of Joe Bidens speech, we see the tension of the moment when he does whats called a hard swallow. Even for a gifted speaker who is used to public speaking, this is still a tense moment, as he accepts the nomination. And, for a split second, in spite of his broad, friendly smile, it shows in that one small facial distortion. He compresses his lips after saying, Ill be proud to carry the banner of our party into the general election. With the audio on, you can hear his voice crack slightly, again a result of the natural tension one would expect from such an event. Its obvious that he takes seriously the gravity of whats happening. Hes been preparing all his life for this moment. Its not a stutter or age-related thing, just a subconscious behavior that speakers use to deal with a little bit of stress when we say something of emotional magnitude.

Notice here the squinting of his eyes and the finger pointing. He does this for emphasis, to demonstrate that what he is saying is important, it has gravitas. The furrowing of his glabella, the area between the eyes, conveys that what he is saying should be troubling. Even without sound, you know hes serious about something. When I turn the sound on to see what he said, its: The president still does not have a plan. Well I do. He says these last three words with a firm, assertive voice that makes us pay attention.

We are trained to look at the glabella even as babies. You can do this as an experiment to see it in action: If you furrow your glabella and squint your eyes at a baby, theyll react negatively, probably with crying. From a very young age, were primed to look at this section of the face to gauge whether everything is okay, and when we see this particular look, we recognize it as a serious face.

Notice how Senator Kamala Harris is compressing the lips on each corner of her mouth. This is indicative of disdain and, in this case, as I listened then to the video, for those who would harbor racists views. This is the moment where she says, there is no vaccine for racism. We pinch the corner of the mouth to say nonverbally, Im not satisfied. The moment I saw it, I knew she was saying she was not happy with something. And it turned out I was right. When she talks about racism, shes saying that its just not okay the same way a parent might convey a similar message to a misbehaved child.

When Nancy Pelosi is speaking, notice she arches her eyebrows. This is what I like to call the human exclamation point. Its a gravity defying behavior: We only expend energy when we are passionate about something, and in this case, shes describing how proud she is of the size of her caucus and how many women are in it. She wants the viewer to pay attention to her confidence, and by repeatedly arching her eyebrows, she says: Dont just listen to my words, listen to my body language as well. She finishes her speech with a steeple, the finger points together, which is another sign of confidence.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was only given a very short segment in the DNC, but when it came to her nonverbal presentation, she was very effective. Without listening to what shes saying, you can see that shes a good speaker. Unlike Biden, her eyes are wide open and relaxed. What this tells the viewer is that she is confident and comfortable with what she is saying, and thats really important in public speaking. What we look for as viewers without even knowing were looking for it is whether the speaker makes us comfortable. Thats often conveyed through body language. Ocasio-Cortez is clearly adept with this medium, and it shows in her body language.

Most importantly, shes not overly dramatic; shes not raising her voiceand you can tell even without the sound. Her comfort here should make viewers comfortableand perhaps opponents uncomfortable.

As the camera follows Jill Biden in a classroom, we notice how comfortable she is in this setting, how fluidly she moves and speaks, as if she has done this all her life. Our brains react to movement with an orientation reflex that basically follows any movement, so her walking makes us pay attention to her. We can also appreciate that she comes from a working background, by the environment she has chosen. It humanizes her.

With the wave of a hand, she communicates this is my realm. Its a welcoming gesture. In this particular moment, we also see that her thumbs are in the up position, which we do to let others know that we are speaking with confidence. Shes letting people know that she is confident that she fits right in and that we should be confident with her as a public figure.

Michelle Obama uses a number of hand gestures to emphasize, to demark, to point, to chop effectively, all of which add to the message she is sending. Because its on a Zoom-like medium and not on a stage, these behaviors are elevated to be in frame, but it doesnt look contrived. Whatever she is saying, you know it is important. It made her deliverysaying that we have got to vote like our lives depend on itmore impactful.

Here we see a very powerful gesture with Kimberly Guilfoyles hands spread out wide away from the body, fingers spreading apart for emphasis. These kinds of gestures scream for attention and contribute to understanding the intensity of sentiment expressed. One cannot look away.

However, a very expansive gesture is great if youre in an auditorium, but here you have a small screen. Even the cameraman or director noticed that and switched to a wider shot. Similarly, you can tell even with the sound off that shes talking in a very loud voice. It feels discordant in this setting. This manner of presentation is too theatrical. Performances need to meet the audience, and if theres no audience there, you should shape your performance around that. Most people dont remember what politicians say, but we remember the presentation. Its interesting to me that a woman who has always taken care of how she presents herself, including as a TV host, didnt register that her message would be better conveyed if it were more suited to the format. Viewers register the disconnect, and thats what sticks with them.

During his convention speech, Don Jr. tilts his head, cocking it slightly and squinting his eyes while at the same time making a wide gesture with his hands. Together, it conveys that hes incredulous or suspicious about something. His body language communicates something to the effect of saying sarcastically, Can you believe that? In reality, at this particular moment, he says: People of faith are under attack. Youre not allowed to go to church. But mass chaos in the streets gets a pass. Some of these behaviors, like his slight twitch of the head and askance facial expression, are so fast that theyre whats called tachykinesic. We dont consciously realize that we notice it, but it registers subconsciously.

Senator Tim Scott is clearly a very dynamic speaker. Here we see two behaviors of interest: the furrowing of the glabella that communicates that he is troubled by something (even before he emphasizes that again with the shake of his head), and the pinched thumb and index finger, which is called a precision grip. This is usually used to indicate we are thinking about or articulating something very precisely. Both behaviors add to the message making it more powerful. He also emphasizes his message by leaning in slightly, and he punctuates it by arching his eyebrows, like Pelosi did. The viewer understands without even hearing his speech that he is an important figure with an important message.

What was most noticeable about Melania Trumps speech was that she appeared to be someone who is not used to public speaking. We have to keep in mind that maybe this is not a role she would have wished for, but she is obviously willing to give it her best. Shes clearly reading from a teleprompter, and you see some tension in her face and neck that conveys some nervousness and straining. If you were to show this to an audience unfamiliar with who she is, they might say that she looks a little stressed. I dont want to speculate too much, but the question our brains ask is: Do we see a high degree of comfort? And, politics aside, I dont think we do. We dont see a relaxed face.

What does that ultimately mean? Politics will still dictate how people felt about this, but as an ethologist, someone who studies behavior, I dont think her tension depends on what she had to say but rather on the fact that she had to do this at all. She may not be uncomfortable with the message, but she appears very uncomfortable with the setting.

Kellyanne Conways speech struck me as really strange, because we know she is used to speaking to the public. Here, her arms were stuck to the side of her body, which is not normal for her. She knows how to convey effective messaging, but this is not that. The energy and emphasis that we would normally see is lacking. The human brain seeks to see the hands, and public speakers usually use that to communicate effectively. Ive seen her talk to the media at the White House, but here we see a much more restrained face, and, most noticeably, her arms dont leave her side. You can speculate all you want about what psychological forces might have been acting on her, but what matters to me is that the presentation was unusual and the audience registers that, even if they cant articulate it.

Rep. Dan Crenshaws segment was another that was very effective in terms of nonverbal communication. On mute, his gestures are very relaxed and comforting, and when you turn the sound on, his tone of voice affirms that. His cadence simultaneously puts the viewer at ease and commands their attention. He comes across as cool, calm and collected. The stagecraft also evokes patriotism in a way that makes a lapel flag pin that nearly everyone else feels compelled to wear unnecessary. You understand that he served his country.

As a speaker, it is clear he is confident, and his gesturesopen palms in the vertical receptive positionare consistent with his message. All of whats communicated nonverbally here says: Listen to me because Im important. He does it really well, and without knowing anything about him or his politics, I can tell that hes a leader.

Rudy Giuliani pinches the corners of his mouth slightly, which is a signal of disdain or contempt. When I listened back, I saw that he was talking about progressive Democrats. Anytime you see air quotes, you know someones introducing something theyre going to ridicule, and then you see that reaffirmed with the pinching of his lips. You also can tell that he turns his head a little bit askance, like Don. Jr. did.

While there was no shortage of commentary about Melania Trumps facial expression when Ivanka Trump joined the stage at the White House before Donald Trumps speech, I think many people were reading too much into the moment. It may have appeared like she was betraying some deeper feelings about her daughter-in-law. But in this case, I believe the simplest explanation is likely the right one: that Melanias smile momentarily lapsed as she turned her head. Its certainly awkward on camera, but overall, the First Lady appears much more relaxed and comfortable standing alongside her husband in front of a crowd than she did earlier when she had to speak on his behalf.

You can also see the contempt conveyed during President Donald Trumps speech with the pinching of his lips. When you turn the sound on, you hear that hes talking about mayhem in Democratic cities. But what stands out the most from his performance is the way he leans against the podium. It conveys that this is a very comfortable kind of space for Trump, and you dont really see it in this kind of public speaking. Normally, a president isnt this relaxed. Its more common with smaller groupsfor example, a professor speaking to a class might take on this position. Hes not just holding the podium but putting his weight on it, which you can see by the angle of his shoulders. For viewers, the White House is something almost reverent, and we are primed to want to see nonverbal communication consistent with the highest office. When we see behavior like this, it feels discordant and not very presidential.

Obviously, there are people who like that about Trump, who like that he doesnt adhere to traditional notions of respectability but rather conveys open disdain for Democrats. Is he too cavalier? Thats up to the politics of the viewer. Theres no disagreement that all people are clearly receiving the message hes giving off.

Read the original post:
I'm a Body Language Expert. Here's What I Saw During the Conventions. - POLITICO

Human Behavior

Game Theory Explains the Pandemic – India Currents

The COVID-19 spell has left governments, markets, and civil society wobbling through disruptions and damage. The ambiguity that envelops not only the evolution of the disease but also its impact makes it a challenging and complex task for policymakers to devise a suitable policy response.

The pandemic has brought to the forefront some key ethical questions that we must explore. The Human gene is thought of as the most skilled of making a choice based on free will, on reason and rationality. From the study of human behavior, it is widely known that the current setting can be related to the behavior of people, the choices they make, and the human tendency for cognitive error, to be able to forecast patterns and design effective interventions.

Today, the whole world stands on the edge, geopolitics at a cusp, policymakers in a dilemma, to generate an appropriate policy response. This is the classic case for strategic thinking and can, therefore, draw on insights from behavioral economics and game theory. The former is a field of social sciences that is a blend of economics and psychology and looks into human decision-making behaviors, whereas the latter is the study of models based on strategic interactions between players, on rational choice and on maximizing behavior by the people.

In the context of the pandemic, the questions that come to ones mind are:

Game theory is the science of strategy that deals with outcomes that are produced by interactions, based on the behavior of the players. It is a tool to study interactions in the context of interdependencies.

A game is any situation involving two or more players in which the fate of each player depends not only on her actions but also on the actions of the other players. Some notable points are:

The main ingredients of a Game:

The novel Covid-19 pandemic seems like a real-time situation that can be fitted well into the basic game theory model called the Prisoners Dilemma. The prisoners dilemma is basically a game in which there is an incentive to make a choice that may not produce the best possible or optimal outcome for the group as a whole.

Some aspects of this pandemic reflect the same premise, such as the decision to maintain social distancing during a pandemic looks a lot like a move in a multiplayer form of this game. One can either cooperate, and do something that costs a little while helping those around, or deviate, and bring one, a small benefit but at a greater cost to those around oneself.

If one maintains social distancing, it is not necessary that he/she will not contract the virus as it also depends on what others are doing. Thus, it is a game-there are strategic interactions.

Let us say, we have a two-player Prisoners dilemma game. Both players A and B have two choices. Choice C, in which both choose to maintain social distancing and hence cooperate and, choice D, where they both deflect and do not social distance. The payoff matrix is given below:

Player B

Player A

The efficient outcome is (C, C) with respective payoffs (5,5). This occurs when they both agree to cooperate and maintain social distancing. This is the result of Collective rationality. The outcome (5,5) is preferred by both (everyone) but is unstable in that each person has an incentive to cheat there is a temptation to go out when everyone is locked inside their respective homes. However, here both the players have a unilateral incentive to deflect and this outcome becomes unstable and fragile. Each player becomes vulnerable to the so-called selfish gene inside of him and has an urge to cheat and deviate and thus get a higher payoff for oneself. If A falls prey to this temptation, thinking that B would have done the same and drops the precaution of social distancing, then he gets a small benefit (8,0) but at the cost to others in the society. If player B is led off by the temptation to deviate assuming that A would have reacted in the same way and decides not to distance himself, then likewise his payoff is (0,8).

Thus, the Unique dominant (or rational) strategy for each person is Not to Cooperate. There arises a tension between Individual Rationality and Collective Rationality. Individual Rationality leads them to settle at the optimal outcome, where both them end up in deviating with lower payoffs for themselves at (1,1) and a higher risk of getting the virus. This in fact is what is called the Nash equilibrium. Cooperation gets destroyed by the Art of War and paradoxically non-cooperation becomes the dominant strategy.

Ironically, the biggest debate rattling the world is that which political power would emerge as the winner in this COVID stirred race for dominance.

Questions that come to the ground are, whether a country should cooperate with others and share the results of its innovative practices or not? How to get from (1,1) to (5,5)? That is, how can one make a good outcome happen? This requires Cooperation and Trust.

Is there a need for a third party to enforce the peace, to enforce cooperation, to enforce a lockdown? Yes, perhaps and the third party can be the Sovereign (i.e., the State)?

What are the payoffs and the costs?

What should be the geo-political policy response?

Here lies the tight-spot faced by policymakers today

In the current times, the main players are the citizens and the governments whose choices make a difference and to a large extent play a vital role in checking the pandemic, which had constructed the game theory model in question, in the first place. COVID-19 will reshape our world. We dont yet know when the crisis will end. But we can be sure that by the time it does, our world will look very different. How different will depend on the choices we make today. Every stakeholders choice is an externality for others.

Global pandemics need global solutions.Radicalscaling up of international cooperation among scientists, economists and policy-makers is the need of the hour. A cooperative strategy by all the players in the Covid-Game is the optimum one. It is the Nash equilibrium, in the Covid-induced policy-cogmaire!

Malini Sharma is the Senior Assistant Professor and Head of the Department of Economics at the Daulat Ram College, University of Delhi in India.

More people are reading India Currents than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organizations, we havent put up a paywall we want to keep our journalism as open as we can.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help. Our independent, community journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective matters because it might well be your perspective, too.

If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. You can support us via our nonprofit arm, India Currents Foundation and it takes just a moment to give.

See more here:
Game Theory Explains the Pandemic - India Currents