The Power of Persuasion and Pre-Suasion to Produce Change
We all seek to influence the decisions and behaviours of others. Acquiring useful information from a target, convincing peers to share information, and spurring…
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Quick reads exploring the world of social and behavioural science and security threats
Try To See Things My Way? The Role Of Perspective Taking In Eliciting Information
Lorraine Hope and Wayne Thomas on assessing another’s perspective to understand how and when we can effectively influence them A terrorist plotting a mass…
Positively Influencing Individuals During Organisational Change
What are the strategies for mitigating the risk of insider threat from disillusioned employees? Professor Rosalind Searle and Dr Charis Rice explain Employees who…
Lingering Problems With The Mr Big Technique
What are the problems with the Mr Big technique? Dr Kirk Luther, Professor Brent Snook and Professor Timothy Moore explain. Police investigators are sometimes…
Informants Under The Influence: Can Intoxicated Informants Provide Accurate Information?
Heather Flowe looks at what alcohol-intoxication can mean for the reliability of evidence. In 2012 to 2014 the majority of violent incidents in public…
The Trade Of The Tricks: How Principles Of Magic Can Contribute To National Security
How can principles of magic contribute to national security? Simon Henderson reveals all… The goal of magic is to engage and entertain an audience…
Displacement and Transition Risks
Refugees often don’t have choices in the series of difficult transitions they make. Physical transitions across borders are fraught with danger, but also require…
Influence In Extremist Messaging
How can uncovering patterns in extremist messaging help with identifying and countering extremist content? Sheryl Prentice explains. Roshonara Choudhry, a London-based student arrested for…
The Partisan Brain: Why People Are Attracted To Fake News And What To Do About It
Fake news is a form of influence and Andrea Pereira and Jay Van Bavel draw on their research illustrating how partisanship can lead people…
Subtle Influence and Information disclosure: How Priming Works in Intelligence Interviews
Research shows that we can improve our chances of influencing someone to help us by priming them to be helpful. David Neequaye explores how…
Communicating across cultures
Paul Taylor writes about the difficulties of communicating across cultures, and why these matter. From small talk to empathising, he outlines some of the…
Terror attacks: how psychological research can help improve the emergency response
Western society is engaged in what has been referred to as an “arms race” against terrorism. Atrocities are increasingly characterised by novel and low-cost…