Category Archives: Human Behavior

Human Behavior

Hoarding: It’s only human – The Baxter Bulletin

Stephanie Preston, University of Michigan Published 3:54 p.m. CT April 5, 2020

Our brains are wired to stockpile supplies and shame others for doing the same

Meat cases and store shelves all across America have been picked clean by shoppers during the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. Hoarding supplies in times of stress is a basic response seen throughout the animal kingdom.(Photo: Associated Press)

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.

The media is replete with COVID-19 stories about people clearing supermarket shelves and the backlash against them. Have people gone mad? How can one individual be overfilling his own cart, while shaming others who are doing the same?

As a behavioral neuroscientist who has studied hoarding behavior for 25 years, I can tell you that this is all normal and expected. People are acting the way evolution has wired them.

The word "hoarding" might bring to mind relatives or neighbors whose houses are overfilled with junk. A small percentage of people do suffer from what psychologists call "hoarding disorder," keeping excessive goods to the point of distress and impairment.

But hoarding is actually a totally normal and adaptive behavior that kicks in any time there is an uneven supply of resources. Everyone hoards, even during the best of times, without even thinking about it. People like to have beans in the pantry, money in savings and chocolates hidden from the children. These are all hoards.

Most Americans have had so much, for so long. People forget that, not so long ago, survival often depended on working tirelessly all year to fill root cellars so a family could last through a long, cold winter and still many died.

Suffering from hoarding disorder, stockpiling in a pandemic or hiding nuts in the fall all of these behaviors are motivated less by logic and more by a deeply felt drive to feel safer.(Photo: Thomas P. Costello)

Similarly, squirrels work all fall to hide nuts to eat for the rest of the year. Kangaroo rats in the desert hide seeds the few times it rains and then remember where they put them to dig them back up later. A Clark's nutcracker can hoard over 10,000 pine seeds per fall and even remember where it put them.

Similarities between human behavior and these animals' are not just analogies. They reflect a deeply ingrained capacity for brains to motivate us to acquire and save resources that may not always be there. Suffering from hoarding disorder, stockpiling in a pandemic or hiding nuts in the fall all of these behaviors are motivated less by logic and more by a deeply felt drive to feel safer.

My colleagues and I have found that stress seems to signal the brain to switch into "get hoarding" mode. For example, a kangaroo rat will act very lazy if fed regularly. But if its weight starts to drop, its brain signals to release stress hormones that incite the fastidious hiding of seeds all over the cage.

Kangaroo rats will also increase their hoarding if a neighboring animal steals from them. Once, I returned to the lab to find the victim of theft with all his remaining food stuffed into his cheek pouches the only safe place.

People do the same. If in our lab studies my colleagues and I make them feel anxious, our study subjects want to take more stuff home with them afterward.

Demonstrating this shared inheritance, the same brain areas are active when people decide to take home toilet paper, bottled water or granola bars, as when rats store lab chow under their bedding the orbitofrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens, regions that generally help organize goals and motivations to satisfy needs and desires.

Damage to this system can even induce abnormal hoarding. One man who suffered frontal lobe damage had a sudden urge to hoard bullets. Another could not stop "borrowing" others' cars. Brains across species use these ancient neural systems to ensure access to needed items or ones that feel necessary.

So, when the news induces a panic that stores are running out of food, or that residents will be trapped in place for weeks, the brain is programmed to stock up. It makes you feel safer, less stressed, and actually protects you in an emergency.

People will continue to hoard to the extent that they are worried. They will also continue to shame others who take more than what they consider a fair share. Both are normal and adaptive behaviors that evolved to balance one another out, in the long run.(Photo: Jenna Miller/Delaware News Journal)

At the same time they're organizing their own stockpiles, people get upset about those who are taking too much. That is a legitimate concern; it's a version of the "tragedy of the commons," wherein a public resource might be sustainable, but people's tendency to take a little extra for themselves degrades the resource to the point where it can no longer help anyone.

By shaming others on social media, for instance, people exert what little influence they have to ensure cooperation with the group. As a social species, human beings thrive when they work together, and have employed shaming even punishment for millennia to ensure that everyone acts in the best interest of the group.

And it works. Twitter users went after a guy reported to have hoarded 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer in the hopes of turning a profit; he ended up donating all of it and is under investigation for price gouging. Who wouldn't pause before grabbing those last few rolls of toilet paper when the mob is watching?

People will continue to hoard to the extent that they are worried. They will also continue to shame others who take more than what they consider a fair share. Both are normal and adaptive behaviors that evolved to balance one another out, in the long run.

But that's cold comfort for someone on the losing end of a temporary imbalance like a health care worker who did not have protective gear when they encountered a sick patient. The survival of the group hardly matters to the person who dies, or to their parent, child or friend.

One thing to remember is that the news selectively depicts stockpiling stories, presenting audiences with the most shocking cases. Most people are not charging $400 for a mask. Most are just trying to protect themselves and their families, the best way they know how, while also offering aid wherever they can. That's how the human species evolved, to get through challenges like this together.

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Hoarding: It's only human - The Baxter Bulletin

Human Behavior

A sobering report on biodiversity loss spurs big plans to save species – 90.5 WESA

As Earth experiences its sixth mass extinction and species disappear before our eyes, the United Nations and the Center for Biological Diversity have both released plans that address the extinction crisis and the closely-related problem of climate change.

The plans are a response to a recent United Nations biodiversity report that that concluded that as many as 1million species are at risk of going extinct in the coming decades. The report found that humans are responsible for extinction rates up to 1,000 times greater than what would be expected without the influence of human behavior.

Related:Can Tulane University's monkeys help the global fight against the coronavirus?

The UN plan proposesa goal of no more net loss of habitat marine or terrestrial by the year 2030, followed by a secondary goal of setting aside 50% of the Earth as protected land by 2050, explains Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Right now, only 15% of the land is protected and only 6% of the oceans are protected, Curry said. Scientists kind of agree that if we can get 30% protected by 2030 and 50% by 2050, we'll have a chance of surviving.

The UN established similar goals in 2010, which the world essentially ignored. This time, due to the pace of extinction, its really going to take a ground shift of people not just carrying their own water bottle and changing their light bulbs, but really putting pressure on their governments to protect wildlife, she said.

The plan proposed by the Center for Biological Diversity, called Saving Life on Earth, is far more ambitious. It calls for the United States government to declare the extinction crisis a national emergency. Doing so would allocate resources to address it, Curry said.

We want the United States government to prioritize biodiversity protection, carbon sequestration and recreation on those protected areas and to protect even more areas.

Tierra Curry, senior scientist, Center for Biological Diversity

It also pushes the US to provide actual protection for protected public lands that are currently used for other purposes, such as fossil fuel drilling, logging and grazing, Curry said.We want the United States government to prioritize biodiversity protection, carbon sequestration and recreation on those protected areas and to protect even more areas.

Related:Goats take over deserted Welsh resort

The plan calls for the Endangered Species Act to be restored to its full strength and to add protections for all imperiled species, and for the Environmental Protection Agency to adequately protect citizens from pesticides and other toxics, to move away from plastic entirely, to move towards plant-based plastics and to recycle all plastics, so that more plastic isn't entering the ocean, Curry said.

In addition, the plan proposes the designation and protection of at least 1,000 more wildlife underpasses and overpasses so that animal populations can migrate and be connected.

We're kind of at that pivotal moment again. Things are really bad and we really have to take national level action all the way down to local action and individual lifestyle action to protect [wildlife]."

Tierra Curry, senior scientist, Center for Biological Diversity

Curry likens the current situation to the 1970s, when rivers were catching on fire. A national sense of urgencyledto the passage of the Clean Water Act. We're kind of at that pivotal moment again. Things are really bad and we really have to take national level action all the way down to local action and individual lifestyle action to protect [wildlife], Curry said.

Related:China cracks down on wildlife trade amid virus outbreak

[W]ildlife are so important, not just for the ecosystem services they provide like cleaning the water, stabilizing the soil, pollinating your crops but wildlife is part of who we are; theyre part of our stories, our language, our culture, she said. Almost everyone loves wildlife. So, we need to protect it for ecosystem services, but also for our own well being.

If we can get people to connect to that and to realize there is a problem, I think people around the globe will put pressure on their governments to step up wildlife protection, especially as things get so bad that everybody notices, she said.

As things stand now, basicallyall types of creatures face the risk of extinction, Curry said: Birds, insects, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, coral reefs there isn't a single taxa that isn't at risk from this extinction crisis. Even common species like vertebrate populations are plummeting around the globe. Weve killed off more than half of all vertebrate populations in the last 40 years and scientists estimate that between 10% and 40% of insect species are at risk of extinction.

Across the globe, there are so many issues now, she said. We could lose elephants in a couple of generations. There is a beautiful little porpoise in the Gulf of California called the Vaquita its like a tiny dolphin and there are less than 10 of them left. Across the globe, there are species [that] people have never heard of and species that are gorgeous, and that everybody loves, like elephants and giraffes and vaquitas, that are at risk of extinction.

One of the most shocking things about the current extinction is how quickly it is occurring, Curry said. Many people, including herself, are old enough to remember how different things were just 20 or 30 years ago.

The good news, she says, is that for the most part, we know what's causing the problem: habitat destruction, exploitation, pesticides, and the revolving door between the pesticide companies and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Once we identify what's causing a problem, if we can put enough pressure on our governments, then we can address that, Curry said.

I can't even think of a species that isn't threatened by climate change. That's how bad that problem has become.

Tierra Curry, senior scientist, Center for Biological Diversity

Biodiversity loss and climate change are related and interconnected, Curry said. When she started her job 12 years ago, old-fashioned threats such as mining and logging were a primary concern. Now, she said, I can't even think of a species that isn't threatened by climate change. That's how bad that problem has become.

Related:'Our Wild Calling': Connecting withanimalstransforms lives

But protecting species and the habitat they need in order to survivecan also address climate change, she points out. Land set aside in the Pacific Northwest for the Northern Spotted Owl, for example, sequesters a huge amount of carbon in the form of old-growth forests. Desert plants and prairies are incredibly efficient at sucking carbon out of the atmosphere and storing it in the soil, so protecting species that rely on these habitats will also sequester tons of carbon.

If we succeed in protecting 30% of lands in the next decade and 50% by 2050, all of that protected land is really going to help stabilize the climate, Curry said.So it's a win-win. We get to stay on the planet; more wildlife gets to stay on planet.

This article is based on an interview by Bobby Bascomb that aired on Living on Earth from PRX.

From Living on Earth2017 World Media Foundation

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A sobering report on biodiversity loss spurs big plans to save species - 90.5 WESA

Human Behavior

Exploring the intersection of communities and technology | UDaily – UDaily

Article by Julie Stewart Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson April 07, 2020

Fromsmart speakers in our living rooms to autonomous vehicles on our roads, society is becoming more and more integrated with technology. The convenience and other benefits of high-tech devices must also be weighed with their drawbacks, such as privacy issues that arise when personal information is shared digitally.

A new interdisciplinary University of Delaware research center, experts aim to use system-based approaches to address complex challenges at the intersection of technological, social, and institutional dimensions. The Sociotechnical Systems Center (SSC), launched earlier this year, is led by Andreas Malikopoulos, the Terri Connor Kelly and John Kelly Career Development Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Addressing our pressing challenges related to improving quality of life encompasses the interaction of three heterogeneous dimensions: (1) the technological dimension that includes technologies indented to solving problems, (2) the social dimension that addresses the societal impact of these technologies and the implications to human behavior and society, and (3) the institutional dimension that includes the behavior of organized units such as administrators that govern these technologies through policies, said Malikopoulos. The constellation of these dimensions constitutes a sociotechnical system that should be analyzed holistically.

The vision for SSC is to become a collaborative and interdisciplinary community at UD with shared research interests and goals in addressing complex sociotechnical systems problems. The mission of SSC is to develop rigorous, system-based approaches aimed at addressing current challenges founded at the intersection of technological, social, and institutional dimensions.

Faculty from UDs College of Engineering and College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment are addressing the technological dimension, working on frontier technologies such as robotics and autonomous vehicles.

Faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences, Lerner College of Business and Economics and College of Agriculture and Natural Resources will create and use interdisciplinary, nonpartisan research and empirically based analysis to inform effective decision-making and policy and to improve leadership and administration.

Faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education and Human Development and College of Health Sciences will address how modern technologies affect humans and societies.

These research efforts will have applications to energy-efficient mobility systems, cybersecurity, human-machine interaction, rehabilitation, autonomous systems, social networks, connected communities, governing and administration, energy-renewable resources, vehicle-to-grid technologies, smart infrastructure and smart materials.

Nina David, assistant professor in the Biden School of Public Policy and Administration, is the deputy director of the Sociotechnical Systems Center. An urban planner, David has long thought of cities and regions as complex systems, she said.

The center is deliberately established to allow us to think of and address complexity that is wicked and complex problems that require the concerted and collective action of multiple actors to solve, said David. Our hope is that we can address these problems from multiple perspectives (social, technological, institutional). The center is also well poised to allow us to conduct grounded and engaged research research that can be published in the best peer-reviewed outlets but also has impacts on policy, and the built and natural environments.

Our goal is for the center to serve as the collaborative hub that brings researchers and policymakers together to solve the complex issues of our time. In this regard, I am looking forward to working with faculty across colleges, departments, schools, and programs on proposals, ideas, and research that have an impact on the ground. I am also looking forward to connecting faculty to policymakers in Delaware and beyond so we can build the foundation for collective action in all the research that we do.

Lena Mashayekhy is an associate director of the Sociotechnical Systems Center (SSC) and will be leading the technological dimension of SSC. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences, the Director of the Cloud Computing Lab, and an affiliated faculty member of the Data Science Institute.

I am very excited to be a part of the newly established Sociotechnical Systems Center at the University of Delaware, Mashayeskhy said. This center will enable multidisciplinary research in high-impact complex sociotechnical systems that focus on the interaction between people, community, and technology from connected communities and autonomous systems to cybersecurity, 5G edge computing, and human-machine interaction. In the technological dimension, we focus on developing rigorous engineering and algorithmic approaches that provide solutions to complex problems considering social and institutional dimensions leading to frontier technologies and computations.

A.R. Siders, assistant professor in the Biden School of Public Policy and Administration, is an associate director of the SSC and will be leading the institutional dimension.

The Sociotechnical Systems Center is about dissolving disciplinary barriers, encouraging faculty and students to make connections outside their area of expertise to solve some of the world's most pressing issues, Siders said. Academia can create false divides and walls that isolate our work, but the Center continues UD's commitment to breaking down these walls and enabling interdisciplinary and applied research. I'm looking forward to having my ideas challenged and broadened by working colleagues who have different perspectives.

Timothy Vickery, associate professor of psychological and brain sciences, is an associate director of the SSC and will be leading the social dimension of the center.

The Sociotechnical Systems Center is a very ambitious effort to bring together a unique and highly interdisciplinary group of people to solve problems of great importance to society, Vickery said. There are likely many problems at the intersection of technology, social science, and policy that are difficult to address or even unsolvable without this sort of effort to bridge disciplines. It is hard work to build these connections, because we all speak different languages, so bringing us all together is a very important first step. I am looking forward to opportunities to connect and collaborate on significant problems that would be out of my reach and comfort zone otherwise, and for the opportunity to cast basic knowledge from my domain into a form that can have more impact on real-world problems.

Ajay Prasad, chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, said he looks forward to the centers impact.

The Sociotechnical Systems Center is unique because it provides a common platform for engineers and social scientists to work together to solve complex problems of the future across technological and social dimensions, said Prasad. The SSC will impact the increasingly autonomous world of the future whether it is self-driving cars, smart cities, the human-machine interface, cybersecurity, and even the critical influence of social media and networks in electoral processes. The SCC brings together a diverse group of scientists whose collaborative efforts will create a new knowledge base to help us navigate into the future.

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Exploring the intersection of communities and technology | UDaily - UDaily

Human Behavior

We have no one to blame for the coronavirus but ourselves | TheHill – The Hill

Its inevitable that people are looking to assign blame for COVID-19.

Were living in a surreal time, experiencing personal and institutional disruptions that just one month ago would have seemed impossible and unimaginable.

Today, millions of people are isolated in their homes and practicing social distancing. The stock market has lost trillions, businesses are closing and basic life support systems are scrambling.

But rather than casting blame, we need to own it. This pandemic was born of destructive human behavior.

Our lives are deeply intertwined with other lives on Earth. We share biological material, including viruses, with other organisms. In fact, most of the cells in each of our bodies are not human, but made up of foreign DNA, including bacteria, viruses and fungi, which are concentrated in the microbiome of our digestive system.

Our health and wellbeing depends on mutually beneficial relationships with these microbes, as well as on mutually beneficial interactions with other animals and the earth. We suffer when these relationships are extractive and parasitic instead of symbiotic.

As tragic as this pandemic is, perhaps it will serve as a wake-up call.

Humans have exploited and obliterated natural ecosystems all over the world, replacing biodiversity and balance with extractive industries like factory farming and the live animal trade. Animals caught up in the destruction of these systems are forced from their natural habitats and with them comes the unleashing of viruses potentially deadly to humans.

By upsetting natures balance we are contributing to zoonotic spillover, which is the transmission of a pathogen from a vertebrate animal to a human (and a term that everyone should get familiar with, fast). This devastating transfer of viruses between species is the genesis of COVID-19. By some accounts there are tens of thousands of viruses that could potentially crossover, representing a global health threat that is poorly understood. These new unknown genetic strains are very difficult to combat and their impacts could be lethal. With the destruction of natural habitats for animal agriculture, these emerging pathogens that were once found deep in nature are more readily able to jump the species barrier between wild animals and humans.

A 2018 biomass survey published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science found that 96 percent of the mammals are either human or domesticated, while only 4 percent live in the wild.

Scientists say we are now living in the Anthropocene era, a geological epoch marked by human dominance that will be reflected in the fossil record by the prominence of plastic, as well as chicken bones the remains of tortured creatures who have been genetically engineered to grow twice as large in half the time and which are mass-produced in factory farm warehouses.

Diverse and interwoven habitats have been lost, cleared to graze and grow feed for farm animals, and this has caused native species to disappear. Huge swaths of rainforest have been burned, adding to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere, while also weakening our planets capacity for absorbing CO2. This exacerbates the climate crisis, which poses an existential threat. We are now witnessing more turbulent weather with fires and flooding around the world.

We are despoiling the earth and squandering precious natural resources, and industrial agriculture is largely to blame. Groundwater is being drained from aquifers, and iconic rivers, like the Colorado, no longer reach the coast. Tulare Lake in California, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lakes and the namesake of Americas top dairy producing county, is gone. Monocrop fields and petrochemical inputs have replaced sustainable farming and healthy soils. Biocides are killing insects and microorganisms and disrupting natural cycles, while cows, pigs, chickens and other animals who have been genetically engineered are crowded into factory farms. These confined animals are so sick and stressed that they are routinely fed antibiotics, which leads to the development of potentially fatal antibiotic resistant bacteria. At the same time, oceans are being overfished and filling up with garbage, such that scientists predict that they will contain more plastic than fish by 2050.

Our actions have consequences, and when we abuse the environment and other animals, we undermine our own wellbeing. We have acted recklessly and rationalized gross misconduct, despite warnings from experts concerned about planetary health. We need to acknowledge and learn from mistakes, and then make adjustments.

Right now, we need to focus on immediate threats from COVID-19. We must respond by following social distancing measures and washing hands, while also doing what we can to protect those most vulnerable, health care workers and others on the front lines.

Ultimately, however, personal and planetary health and resilience can be best served by learning to live more kindly. Three out of every four new infectious diseases that sicken people come from animals, and these commonly emerge when we abuse other animals. We need to reshape our relationships to be more respectful and empathetic.

Chinas ban on the countrys wet markets, including those in Wuhan thought to be the source of the current COVID-19 outbreak is a positive step, but it remains to be seen how stringently the ban will be enforced and whether or not it will be lifted once the virus is contained, as was the case after the SARS outbreak in 2003.

The wet markets of China arent the only breeding ground for disease, however. We also need to curtail factory farming, whose practice of cramming together tens of thousands of animals in unsanitary conditions is credited with causing the H1N1 swine flu outbreak of 2009. It killed hundreds of thousands of people around the globe, including over ten thousand in the U.S.

Agriculture needs a major overhaul. We can feed more people with less land and fewer resources by replacing animal farming with a plant-based food system. This would allow millions of acres to rest and recover, since animal production currently occupies ten times more land than plant-based agriculture in the U.S.

Shifting to plant based agriculture would significantly lighten our ecological footprint and allow diverse natural habitats to recover. Eating plants instead of animals also improves our health and reduces the risk of heart disease, diabetes and other chronic problems, which also increase our likelihood of dying if were infected with the coronavirus.

Our fate is inextricably linked to the health and resilience of the earth and our fellow earthlings, and when these are harmed and made to suffer, so are we. The good news is that just as the disease of cruelty can be contagious and spread, so too can compassion.

Gene Baur is the president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, a national farm animal rescue and advocacy organization.

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We have no one to blame for the coronavirus but ourselves | TheHill - The Hill

Human Behavior

This Ancient Wisdom Can Heal Todays Threat Of Disconnection – Forbes

If you knew there were specific ways that are most effective for you to destress or to negotiate with a colleague, would you want to know them? Most of us would jump at the chance and then want to learn the same for our partners, colleagues, and children. I spoke with Carey Davidson who has made these exact insights accessible by translating ancient wisdom into modern insights in her book, The Five Archetypes.

Nell Derick Debevoise: What are the Five Archetypes?

Carey Davidson captures ancient wisdom we can use to live and work better.

Carey Davidson: The five elements, or archetypes as I call them, come from Chinese medicine.They are the elemental forces of human and Mother nature that help us predict our behavior in love, at work, with self-care. Together they comprise a time-tested system for mastering everything from how plants grow to how our relationships unfold with others and ourselves.

It defines all the components required for something to be a successful living being: fire, earth, metal, water and wood. In nature, a seed is wood. Fire is the sunlight. Earth is the ground you plant it in. Water is water. And metal is air oxygen. Without all of these components in balance, a tree won't grow. It won't grow fruit, and it won't provide shade.

Chinese medicine makes a distinct connection among all things in nature.The cycles of the moon and the shifting of the seasons impact human behavior as well as vegetation and farming. So for plants and for humans, things go wrong when we dont have these five elements in balance. For people, wood corresponds to physical movement, planning and execution, initiating and goal setting. Fire corresponds to play, joy, optimism, and hope. Earth corresponds to digestion, communication, harmony, relationships, and empathy. Metal corresponds to the breath, consistency, organization, finishing things, perfection, and gratitude. And water is about staying hydrated, getting good sleep, being quiet, introspective, and reflecting.

Derick Debevoise: Does it really apply to EVERYone?

Davidson: It does, from all that I have seen. Its based on nature, so it makes sense that it would be universal. We all have all five elements within us and one primary that guides us through our lifetime. A wood person is not going to suddenly turn into primary water, and the sun isn't all of a sudden going to become a tree. Each of us has a distinct way of engaging with each other and unique things that are uncomfortable or nurturing for us.

There are some cultural leanings. For example, American culture values wood and metal energy more highly. We revere the achievements of wood: he's the valedictorian, or she's the star of the basketball team. And the perfection of metal: you played a concerto perfectly at age 10. Asian cultures tend to appreciate quiet, as you can see in their practice of Tai Chi, for example this watery, gentle movement. Whereas in New York at least, I find that water is generally our lowest element.

Derick Debevoise: How do I learn my "type" and what commitment does it take from me to find it useful?

Davidson: That's the best part. I have a brief inventory that people can take for free. When you're finished your element profile is e-mailed to you with links to relevant information. Many people have told me they immediately put that into practice. Of course, the book is now available and offers a deeper dive. And for those wanting more, I do online sessions where I give personal feedback. My clients tell me they learn so much in the first session it has an immediate effect on their lives.

Derick Debevoise: How did you arrive at this work?

Davidson realized during her time working in HR that poor communication was the root of so much ... [+] stress and lost productivity.

Davidson: I worked in HR, which seemed mostly to consist of helping people deal with poor communication and other relationship problems that hampered their ability to get work done. Those workplace dynamics cause a lot of stress which then bleeds into peoples family relationships and personal health. When I started the Tournesol Kids nonprofit work with Stephen [Cowan] to help parents use their childrens archetypes to parent better, I got curious. I started wondering if these elements inform the nature of any human, couldnt we use the insights in a work environment?

What weve found is yes, absolutely! If you understand your workforce in this way, you can know what everybody needs, how to motivate them and make them feel safe. Its a powerful way to depersonalize conflicts of personality or working styles, and value and engage all of our diverse profiles.

Derick Debevoise: Why is this work important now?

Davidson: This old way of being is starting to crumble. We have been pushing ourselves so hard and for what? We're trying to be things that we are not naturally. We don't get enough sleep. So we feel like crap. And that cascades to our mental health, our relationships, our work. Were desperate to feel better, so we search for quick fixes and cures and there are all these competing opinions out there. But we're not paying attention to our own bodies and minds to know what's right for us as individuals.We are seriously that disconnected.We get our cues on what we should be from reality TV and social media.

Whereas when you look at nature, she knows what to do, when to do it. Trees drop their dead leaves in the fall and create this wonderful rich ground to nourish their own roots. If we lived aligned with our natural gifts, wed recognize and value our own unique strengths and needs, so we can swim with the tide instead of against it and be our natural best selves. If we all behaved in this natural way, being empathetic to our own needs and those of the people around us, we could have such a better world!

At the highest level, my work with the five archetypes is really about empathy and compassion. It's what our world could use most right now.

Derick Debevoise: How can people use the archetypes in their own lives?

Davidson: Ultimately, its about self-awareness: deeply knowing who you are, what you contribute, what pushes your buttons, who nurtures you and who drives you nuts. And then theres a corresponding system of self-regulation that helps you know exactly how you cope with the people who drive you nuts. There is very clear guidance to manage stress and stay healthy according to your primary element.

And leaders can use insights about their peoples archetypes to guide onboarding processes, staff teams, manage people, and deal with conflict. Ive used the archetypes to teach CEOs how to allocate the companys time, energy, and money on learning, development, and employee incentives. Nobody wins with a system that is one size fits all: there are distinct ways that each primary type is motivated. If you're wanting to reward your team, some of them will want to be able to work at home, while others will actually fall apart and be miserable if you make them work at home.

Derick Debevoise: Can you share an example youve seen of these insights impacting people at work?

Davidson: One of my favorite examples is a young man who applied to staff our front desk and do some research and social media. His qualifications and writing samples were perfect. And then I saw that he was off-the-charts wood, and low in the other elements. I knew he would have hated this job, sitting at the desk all day.

So, I called him, and said, I love your application. You are such a good fit for this company. But you're going to be bored out of your mind with this job. I'm going to create a job for you. He was wood, so he needed movement, a challenge, he needed something he could win at.I had an event space to rent, so I told him he would get 20% of everything he booked. He could do it however he wanted, just to come up with a plan and run it by me. He could not thank me enough, and sure enough, he booked the space solid, earning us both far more than I had hoped!

Derick Debevoise: Can this framework change the world?

Davidson: Absolutely. Were living this epidemic of disconnection. Were disconnected from ourselves, the most basic me: who we are and what we need. There are so many opinions and self-care resources, but weve lost the instinct to do what is right for our unique composition. For example, as a primary fire, a silent retreat would KILL me! I would go nuts without fun and interaction for more than an hour.

We are also disconnected from our relationships: what our partners, kids, colleagues and other wes in our lives need from us. And were disconnected from our higher purpose: our unique role to contribute best to a better world.I cant tell you how many clients in their 40s come to me because they feel lost.They want to thrive in work and relationships, and are confused why after having done the right thing for four decades, they are not satisfied with where theyre at.

The ancient and natural wisdom of these archetypes is just what we need to blend with modern techniques like neuroplasticity and epigenetics to shift our mindsets, skills, and habits to be healthier and perform better.

Derick Debevoise: How do you hope people will use the Five Archetypes?

Davidson: I see it primarily as a reference tool. Imagine a workplace where we honor each other and everyones gifts. We staff teams perfectly and give people the training to round out their skillsin the format that best fits their unique style. Once companies have helped their people understand their archetypes, and feel comfortable sharing it in the workplace, these profiles can improve communication, facilitate collaboration, and reduce turnover. Ultimately, knowing your teams archetypes helps leaders make better and faster decisions that are also more compassionate.

Knowledge of the archetypes can also attract and maintain clients. It is important to speak differently to different types of people who need different things. For example, a water client needs fewer face-to-face meetings, whereas an earth wants a weekly in-person lunch!And my next book is about using the archetypes to inform your love relationships, where we could also certainly benefit from more empathy and understanding.

Ultimately, I am excited to support people in understanding and rediscovering their own true nature so they can more confidently counteract the bias our culture has about what we should be or do. This guidance toward self-discovery is how we can remember who we are at our best, and reach our potential to contribute to a better world.

Knowing our primary of the five archetypes and keeping it in balance is good for our health and ... [+] performance.

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This Ancient Wisdom Can Heal Todays Threat Of Disconnection - Forbes

Human Behavior

Brand Marketing Through the Coronavirus Crisis – Harvard Business Review

Executive Summary

The coronavirus crisis has led to new consumer behaviors and sentiments. The author recommends five ways for brands to serve and grow their customers, mitigate risk, and take care of their people during this difficult time: 1) Present with empathy and transparency; 2) Use media in more agile ways; 3) Associate your brand with good; 4) Track trends and build scenarios; 5) Adapt to new ways of working to keep delivering.

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In times of crisis, it may be hard for marketers to know where to begin. In just a few short weeks, people have shifted into protection mode, focused on themselves, their families, their employees, their customers, and their communities. Social media reflects this, with pleas for fellow citizens to follow government safety guidelines. People have crossed partisan lines to build bridges within their neighborhoods and communities and unify against an invisible force.

With social distancing keeping many people at home, were also seeing major shifts in behavioral trends. Consumers have returned to broadcast and cable television and other premium media sources for credible information. They are also seeking more in the way of escapism and entertainment downloading gaming apps, spending even more time on social media, and streaming more movies and scripted programming. And between remote working arrangements and live-streamed workout classes, college lectures, and social engagements, we are testing the bandwidth of our homes in a largely pre-5G world.

Meanwhile, the need for physical goods is placing pressure on new channels, with demand for e-commerce rising to new levels. For those who do venture out, grocery and convenience stores are the source for essentials, but supply is inconsistent. Health and safety concerns are driving more customers toward frictionless payment systems, such as using mobile phones to pay at check-out without touching a surface or stylus.

Some of these behavior changes may be temporary, but many may be more permanent. As people move beyond the current mode of survival, the momentum behind digital-experience adoption is unlikely to reverse as people are forced by circumstances to try new things. With so much changing so fast during this difficult time, what actions can brands take to serve and grow their customer base, mitigate risk, and take care of their people ?

People feel vulnerable right now. Empathy is critical. Many banks, for example, have moved to waive overdraft fees, recognizing the hardship on their customers. SAP has made its Qualtrics Remote Work Pulse platform free to companies who might be rapidly transitioning to new ways of working. Such instances show humility in the face of a force larger than all of us.

The nuances of brand voice are more delicate than ever. Brands that use this time to be commercially exploitative will not fare well. Better to do as Guinness did in the period surrounding St. Patricks Day, when the company shifted its focus away from celebrations and pub gatherings and instead leaned into a message of longevity and wellbeing. In these moments, we dont have all the answers, and we need to acknowledge that. If you make pledges, even during uncertain times, you have to be able to deliver on what you say.

To quickly pivot creative messages as circumstances change, marketers will want to build more rapid-response operating models internally and with agencies. Access to remote production and creative capacity will become particularly important as the crisis evolves. Nike, for example, immediately moved to adopt a new message: Play inside, play for the world. And in order to promote social distancing and show a commitment to public safety, Chiquita Brands removed Miss Chiquita from their logo. Im already home. Please do the same and protect yourself, its Instagram caption read.

Beyond creative, as the mix of actual media platforms used by consumers changes quickly, marketers should consider modifying their media mix. For example, with digital entertainment spiking, marketers may want to amplify their use of ad-supported premium video streaming and mobile gaming. Similarly, as news consumption peaks while consumers jostle to stay informed, brands should not fear that adjacency, given the level of engagement and relevance. News may simply be an environment that requires more careful monitoring of how frequently ads appear to avoid creative being over-exposed, which can damage brand equity.

People will remember brands for their acts of good in a time of crisis, particularly if done with true heart and generosity. This could take the form of donating to food banks, providing free products for medical personnel, or continuing to pay employees while the companys doors are closed. Adobe, for example, immediately made Creative Cloud available to K-12 institutions, knowing this was a moment to give rather than be purely commercial. Consumers will likely remember how Ford, GE, and 3M partnered to repurpose manufacturing capacity and put people back to work to make respirators and ventilators to fight coronavirus. And people appreciate that many adult beverage companies, from Diageo to AB InBev, repurposed their alcohol-manufacturing capabilities to make hand sanitizer, alleviating short supplies with their Its in our hands to make a difference message.

Feel-good content that alleviates anxiety and promotes positive messaging will go a long way to enhancing the brand. However, companies need to show that their contributions are material and not solely for commercial benefit. Consumers recognize authenticity and true purpose.

Frequent tracking of human behavioral trends will help marketers gain better insights in real time. Marketers will want to measure sentiment and consumption trends on a regular basis to better adapt messaging, closely observing the conversation across social-media platforms, community sites, and e-commerce product pages to look for opportunities and identify looming crises more quickly. Companies should consider quickly building dashboards with this kind of data to fuel the right decisions.

Marketers will also want to consider building deeper connections with their C-suite colleagues to provide insights to executives who, increasingly, will be involved with marketing choices. The marketing team should work closely with finance and operations to forecast different scenarios and potential outcomes, depending on how long the crisis lasts.

Its encouraging how quickly many companies were able to transition to remote working arrangements. Deploying collaboration technologies can seamlessly provide chat, file sharing, meeting and call capabilities, enabling teams to stay connected and remain productive. Already, virtual happy hours are emerging as the new normal to build team morale. Partners are pitching remotely, recognizing that an in-face sales call is unlikely to transpire for weeks to come. Leaders have to do their best to transition each element of the operating modelfrom marketing, to sales, to serviceto this new normal. New sources of innovation and even margin improvement will emerge out of our current discomfort.

We are in the acknowledge-and-adapt phase of the Covid-19 pandemic. But we also have to plan for lifebeyond the crisis. As we navigate what we know, marketing leaders must work externally to keep their brands and customer journeys as whole as possible, while working internally to do three things:

Unquestionably, there is a forced acceleration of the digital transformation agenda as we recognize how quickly customers and employees have embraced digitally enabled journeys and experiences.

Brands are all having to think, operate, and lead in new ways during these uncertain and unprecedented circumstances, and we will all have to learn together with both confidence and humility.

The views reflected in this article are the views of the authors and dont necessarily reflect the views of the global EY organization or its member firms.

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Brand Marketing Through the Coronavirus Crisis - Harvard Business Review

Human Behavior

Coronavirus Is Awful. The Black Death Killed Nearly Half of Europe. – The National Interest

The modern world is unaccustomed to public health crises. We live in an era that eliminated smallpox, can treat cancer, and has made HIV into a condition that is treatable and no longer a death sentence.

That is why the coronavirus pandemic has shaken so many in their confidence about modern medicine and faith in the security of their society. The panic, the uncertainty, and even the isolation are small cases of what has come before, in the form of Europes worst disease outbreak in its history.

What became known as the Black Death was an outbreak of plague that infested Europe from 1347 to 1351. Originating, like the coronavirus, in the East, it was carried in the form of fleas on the backs of rats on trading ships, and eventually spread to the entire western continent. It is estimated that the plague killed half of Europes population, perhaps as many as one hundred million people.

Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian writer living in the city of Florence, and his firsthand account of the Black Death is considered the best of the period. His descriptions of both the horror of the disease and the corresponding human behavior resemble how people are being affected in the here and now.

Boccaccio described the means that Florence took to keep out the disease, including travel bans and the recommendation of personal hygiene, both of which were attempted and failed to stop the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. There, spite of all the means that art and human foresight could suggest, such as keeping the city clear from filth, the exclusion of all suspected persons, and the publication of copious instructions for the preservation of health, and notwithstanding manifold humble supplications offered to God in processions and otherwise, the Black Death still arrived in Florence.

The author described the symptoms of the plague in grotesque detail. [T]here appeared certain tumors in the groin or under the arm-pits, some as big as a small apple, others as an egg; and afterwards purple spots in most parts of the body; in some cases large and but few in number, in others smaller and more numerousboth sorts the usual messengers of death, he wrote in 1348.

These facts, and others of the like sort, occasioned various fears and devices amongst those who survived, all tending to the same uncharitable and cruel end; which was, to avoid the sick and everything that had been near them, expecting by that means to save themselves., Boccaccio wrote, the results of which are reminiscent of how Americans are coping with social distancing today. People made parties and shut themselves up from the rest of the world; eating and drinking moderately of the best and diverting themselves with music and such other entertainments as they might have within doors; never listening to anything from without to make them uneasy.

Furthermore, this destruction of the public atmosphere led to a complete loss of civic virtue and trust in governing institutions. And such, at that time, was the public distress that the laws, human and divine, were no more regarded; for the officers, to put them in force, being either dead, sick, or in want of persons to assist them, everyone did just as he pleased, Boccaccio said.

For the masses of peasants and serfs who survived the Black Death, their allotment in life was able to marginally improve. The apocalyptic severing in half of the labor market caused wages to increase for those left alive, and there was more land to share among them. But it would take two centuries before Europe recovered from the population loss.

Hunter DeRensis is a senior reporter for theNational Interest. Follow him on Twitter@HunterDeRensis.

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Coronavirus Is Awful. The Black Death Killed Nearly Half of Europe. - The National Interest

Human Behavior

Coping With Uncertainty in the COVID-19 Era – Eetasia.com

Article By : Colin Barnden

People ask me what the current situation is best likened to: 2008, 2001, 1981, 1973, 1929, or something else? None of those. We are in unknown and un-forecastable territory....

Imagine driving along an unfamiliar unlit road, in dense fog, at 100mph, while blindfolded. Crazy, huh? Well, as an industry this is precisely what we find ourselves doing right now as we come face-to-face with the rapidly evolving threat from Covid-19. The question everyone is asking: What does the road ahead look like? The simple answer: No one knows.

In these uncertain times, people are grasping for knowns in an effort to make some sense of the unknowns. This is understandable human behavior, as everyone seeks to reduce their fears in the face of the helplessness created by the Covid-19 crisis. But lets be honest, helplessness is not an experience many in Silicon Valley C-suites are familiar with, so the learning curve from here will be steep.

People ask me what the current situation is best likened to: 2008, 2001, 1981, 1973, 1929, or something else? I tell them it is none of those. Historical precedents only give us clues, not certainty or answers. With many countries now in lockdown for an indeterminate period, 2020 will be sui generis. We are in unknown and un-forecastable territory.

So as an industry, let us face an uncomfortable truth together: The world has changed. From here, the corporate winners will be those with the cojones to accept the new normal. Adaptation is the only business plan in 2020; maintaining the status quo and waiting for everything to return to as it was is the path to extinction.

Let us start by disposing of the alphabet soup of forecasting all that V, U and L curve claptrap. Burn anything from anyone pretending to know the shape of the recovery. That stuff is a comfort blanket from a bygone age that will lead a C-suite to oblivion. You could have forecast any outcome you liked while parading around the decks of Titanic the winning strategy was to run to the lifeboats.

Before recovery, first we must find the bottom. Youll know the bottom because thats the point at which things stop getting worse. Well bump along the bottom for a period of time perhaps quarters or years, but certainly not a couple of months and only then will shattered confidence gradually start to return.

For decades we have seen individuals, businesses and nations increase debt at an unsustainable rate, drowning in an almost infinite pool of cheap money provided by central bankers who offered the false reassurances of no new financial crisis in our lifetimes . The outcome? The worst financial crisis of our lifetimes as the Everything Bubble burst on the Covid-19 pin. As the saying goes: Fool me once, shame on thee; fool me twice, shame on me.

The tech industry needs to learn this lesson right now: Entire populations that are scared today will be scarred tomorrow. Scarred from the trauma of Covid-19 deaths; from the shock of 10 million American jobs lost in two weeks; the lost incomes; the lost businesses; the lost retirements; the lost homes. C-suites should prepare now for a journey into the unknown as individuals adapt their spending and savings habits in ways we cannot model or forecast.

Did cheap money just mean more junk?

Has the tech industry just spent the last decade gorging on cheap money to create a ton of junk? Hands up anyone who just lost their job who cares about self-driving right now? Or IoT things? How about AI anything? Or Juicero?

What do most countries need a lot more of right now to defeat Covid-19? Face masks. Ventilators. Life-saving useful stuff. Not more social media. Not more venture capitalists. Not more vain CEOs and serial entrepreneurs. Going into the brave new world, the corporate winners in the tech industry will be those with C-suites that understand the need to develop products that are genuinely useful.

Nowhere is it preordained that Apple or Facebook or Waymo or anyone else should exist in perpetuity. Any company can head to the corporate cemetery: Atari, Blockbuster, Kodak, Motorola, Nokia, Polaroid and Sega all teach us that.

Finally, clever tax avoidance strategies belong in the past. No more Double Irish. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) doesnt fund itself. What were you thinking? Turn the TV on and see the sacrifices being made daily by ordinary citizens on the Covid-19 frontline. These are the real American Heroes, with not a single billionaire or millionaire among them.

Scarred people have long memories. My message to the Silicon Valley C-suites: Adapt or die. Your call.

Colin Barden, principal analyst at Semicast Research.

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Coping With Uncertainty in the COVID-19 Era - Eetasia.com

Human Behavior

Vital treaty monitoring mission continues in wake of COVID-19 response – 62nd Airlift Wing

By Susan A. Romano, AFTAC Public Affairs / Published April 07, 2020

PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- The commander of the Air Force Technical Applications Center, the organization charged with monitoring nuclear activity around the world, has made it his priority to ensure his workforce is doing all they can to make AFTAC a hard target while also flattening the COVID-19 curve.Since the initial outbreak of the coronavirus in the U.S., Col. Chad Hartman and his leadership team, headquartered at Patrick AFB, Fla., have been taking diligent steps to provide uninterrupted access to critical scientific data used by national decision makers regarding nuclear activity across the globe.Concurrently, Hartman wants to make sure his team stays connected and up-to-date on virus-related situations as they evolve, and that includes ensuring AFTAC family members are also well informed.To do that, hes taken steps to separate his workforce into two groups to protect the health of the Airmen and their families while safeguarding mission readiness.The approach is simple, said Hartman. Weve divided into two teams one Silver, one Blue. When the Blue team is in the building executing the mission, the Silver team remains at their alternate duty location to ensure were not crossing streams while practicing exquisite social distancing. I need every Airman civilian and military -- and their immediate family members to remain healthy. Having two teams that dont cross paths is one effective way to do just that.The center has adapted to the distance between its members by employing online methods of communicating, including the use of social media and teleconferences.Hartman took full advantage of the modern technology at his fingertips and scheduled a Town Hall meeting April 3 with his Command Chief, Chief Master Sgt. Amy Long, for AFTAC members and their families. More than 500 people logged on to the audio-visual conferencing platform to listen to the colonel and chief communicate updates to the AFTAC team.This was an incredible opportunity for us to maintain our social distance, avoid crossing streams, yet still deliver information to the incredible men and women who are getting the job done, whether that job is here in the building executing the mission or at home, taking care of their families needs, Hartman said.The commander also carved out several minutes for a question-and-answer session.We had no less than two dozen questions posed through the chat mechanism from the participants, and it was great to see so much engagement and interest in what folks can do to help get through this unprecedented time, said Long. These are tough times for many of our Airmen and their families, so anything we can do to help get them through it is a testament to the fantastic leadership we have in our officers, civilian leaders, senior noncommissioned officers and key spouses. Im so proud to see everyone come together as a cohesive unit.Questions during the Q&A portion of the teleconference revolved around subjects like childcare options, physical fitness training, civilian timecard procedures and when the commander thought AFTAC would return to ops normal.One of the topics I discussed during the town hall was Maslows Hierarchy of Needs, which addresses the five basic categories that motivate human behavior, said Hartman. Maslow demonstrated that people have both foundational needs like food, water, sleep, safety and shelter, as well as more complex needs like social interaction. As human beings, we all need those things, but the coronavirus has interrupted both foundational security and more complex social interaction needs that we normally take for granted. The key is to realize that the stress and anxiety caused by the coronavirus interruption of these needs is 1) natural, and 2) common to all. I thought it was important to discuss those issues during the town hall so folks know theyre not alone if feeling isolated, and although we are physically distancing to combat the virus, we can and will stay connected.Long told the 500+ participants that they needed to treat the COVID-19 response as a marathon rather than a sprint.This is our new norm, she explained. Adversity doesnt discriminate, so its important for us as leaders to demonstrate the importance of resiliency. Its natural for people to feel the weight of the circumstances on their shoulders, but its equally important for us to stay connected and understand that all of us adapt to adversity in different ways and at different speeds, and that well get through this together as a team.Hartman plans to host other town hall conferences periodically, and he encouraged his squadron commanders and superintendents to stay connected with their respective co-workers using the communications methods available to them.

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Vital treaty monitoring mission continues in wake of COVID-19 response - 62nd Airlift Wing

Human Behavior

This toilet recognizes your butthole and uploads photos to the cloud – Mashable

Stanford scientists want you to boldly go where no one has gone before. Specifically, that would be into a camera-laden toilet that scans and recognizes your analprint.

According to a paper published today in the journal Nature, researchers at the storied university have devised a system for tracking defecation and urination by specific individuals over time, sending that data to the cloud, and analyzing it for the purposes of public health. It's the latest addition to a long line of smart toilets, although this may be the first one to take a picture of your asshole.

The so-called Precision Health Toilet is equipped with four cameras: the stool camera, anus camera, and two uroflow cameras. Combined, they allow the toilet to analyze users' urine and "[classify] stool according to the Bristol stool form scale using deep learning[.]"

Notably, the toilet uses a form of two-factor authentication to ensure it associates the right poop with the right person. By employing both a fingerprint scanner embedded in the flush lever, and the aforementioned "analprint scan," the researchers hoped to prevent mixups involving shared toilets.

"The potential for using the human anus as a biometric identifier is not a new concept," writes study co-author Dr. Seung-min Park in an accompanying blog post. "The famous painter, Salvador Dal (1904-1989), had already figured out that the anus has 35 or 37 creases, which are as unique as fingerprints."

Quite the scan.

Image: screenshot / nature

Importantly, you data does not remain with the toilet, but rather is sent to the cloud for later analysis.

"All collected data (images and videos), in their raw data formats, were annotated with respect to the user and transmitted to a cloud system through wireless communication," explains the study.

When reached for comment over email, Dr. Seung-min Park told Mashable that users' privacy is of the utmost concern.

"We unconditionally ensure the security of all photos and private information of our users are enforced through end-to-end encrypted data transmission," wrote Dr. Park."We have employed a template matching algorithm to determine the region of interest (anus), which once fully developed and validated, will be autonomous without any human interaction."

Technical.

Image: SCREENSHOT / NATURE

What's more, Dr. Park added that the actual photos of users' anuses will be "encrypted by a hash function and stored on a secured device."

Dr. Park writes that the development of the Precision Health Toilet is a first step in a much longer-term effort to more broadly diagnose a host of diseases and disorders in the general population including benign prostatic hyperplasia, irritable bowel syndrome, and urinary tract infections.

SEE ALSO: The weird science behind smart toilets and your pee

"This toilet system is expected to have a major impact on health monitoring research," concludes the study, "as the toilet enables longitudinal monitoring of human health with minimal interference of human behavior."

That is, if everyone can overcome their embarrassment first.

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This toilet recognizes your butthole and uploads photos to the cloud - Mashable