The Human Behavior Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Today we are giving a detailed explanation of what we mean when we say that “all humans are constantly on transmit.” You may have heard us make that reference on previous episodes so we decided to explain the psychological and sociological imperatives that contribute to the innate human need to be seen and heard. In order to explain WHY all humans are on transmit we go all the way...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are expanding on some of the same themes we discussed in our last episode but rather than talking about music, we are talking about movies and TV shows and how you can use your favorite shows to better understand human behavior in general. During the episode we give a number of examples of how movies and tv shows have to follow a certain algorithm in order for us to suspe...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are talking about how music is inextricably linked to human behavior even at a very primal level. During the episode we talk about many of the parallels between music and human behavior and we explain why music has played such a powerful role in the human experience. We cover a number of topics and songs during the episode, and we explain how music affects your limbic sys...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are talking about some of the different type of prank videos that you often see on social media including a recent one in Virginia where a youtuber was shot by someone who he was trying to prank. Although these types of prank shows are very popular and have been around for a long time, things don’t always go as planned. During the show we explain the different autonomic r...

Send us Fan Mail On today’s episode we are explaining how we distinguish between something that is “normal” versus something that is “novel” when it comes to making observations about human behavior. We often see people attribute more value or significance to observations that really don’t matter which can lead to serious errors in sense making. This often occurs because they are using their own i...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are discussing the importance of naming conventions, taxonomy, the lexicon you use, and the priming effect that words can have on others. Since language is extremely adaptive and the meanings behind words can change over time, unintended consequences will arise from the words you use. The name you give to something will illicit responses and influence how a person process...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are talking about one of the human behavior domains that we teach in our training courses called Heuristics. Now there are a number of different types of heuristics as well as various mental models that people like to use or discuss so we wanted to talk about how we use heuristics in the most functional manner possible. During the discussion we define some of the terms we...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are talking about a poker game that spun wildly out of control and turned into a robbery and shooting, and that was just the start of this case! The reason we are discussing this case is because during the investigation the defendants iPhone was searched and during that search the investigator found evidence of another crime that he was subsequently charged with. The defe...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are talking to Ivan Ivanovich, a global leader in the Executive Protection industry who has started, and ran, several highly successful multinational security companies. He has an impressive background and extensive experience operating in some of the most complex security environments in the world.  We first met Ivan two years ago when we spoke at the Executive Protectio...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are discussing our thoughts on the use of personality tests, especially when it comes to the hiring process and the general use of them in the workplace. During the episode we talk about the limitations and flaws of personality testing, how they oversimplify complex human behavior, and how they lack reliability. We also discuss the importance of contextual factors and ind...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are responding to some of the questions we received regarding our statement that “most people want their say, not their way.”  During the episode we explain what we mean by this statement, why it is significant, and we give a number of examples of how to identify the difference between these types of people.  We also talk about the difference between someone who is “actin...

Send us Fan Mail Today we have a special guest on the show by the name of Charlie Harr. Charlie is the Operations Coordinator for the annual Marine Corps Marathon that is coming up on October 29th in Arlington, Virginia and he is tasked with coordinating security for the event as well as implementing the Anti-Terrorism Force Protection measures. Charlie is a long-time listener of the show and has...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are going a little deeper into one of our first principles that we talked about on a previous podcast. Some of you reached out with some questions regarding what we meant by “demonstrations of intent are more important than motive” so we decided to explain what we mean by demonstrations of intent.  During the episode we talk about how all humans will consciously or uncons...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are defining something that a lot of people talk about called “Situational Awareness.” We start off by giving some historical context to the term and we explain the standard definition of what situational awareness is, as well as what it isn’t.   During the episode we talk about how the main elements of situational awareness (which is perception, recognition, and understa...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are joined by author, trainer, and former police officer Dr. John Peters. John is a highly experienced practitioner and expert witness with over 40 years of training and operational experience. We asked John to come on the show to not only talk about his experience in training but also tell some stories about when he first met Greg back in the 80’s. During the episode Joh...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are talking about the basic principles that create the foundation for HOW we articulate human behavior. Normally this is something we reserve for our in-person training courses and they are typically discussed in a very deliberate manner but we thought it would be good to share this with all of you. The 4 main principle beliefs that we talk about today are:   -People are...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are joined by special guest Dr. Jason Piccolo. Jason is a former Army Captain and career federal agent who became a whistleblower during the Obama administration.  During the episode Jason discussed his career trajectory, from enlisting in the military to working in law enforcement, and ultimately exposing disturbing data related to immigration and human trafficking while...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are talking about some recent tragedies that all involve the same type of crime where a person murdered their own family members and then killed themselves. We are discussing these cases in order to shed some light on how we can get better at identifying pre-event indicators of violence in all humans.  One of the ways we can do this is by shifting our perspective and tryi...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are joined by Chip Huth, a highly respected figure in the law enforcement community who has over 30 years of operational experience. During his career Chip led an internationally recognized tactical team where he planned, coordinated, and executed over 2500 high risk tactical operations. We brought Chip on the show to talk about the transformational changes he brought to...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are joined by an incredibly insightful and highly experienced subject matter expert by the name of Dr. John Black to talk about complexity and decision-making. Dr. Black has an impressive career that includes several decades in both law enforcement and military special operations, and he is a subject matter expert in a number of areas including training, decision-making,...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are talking about the differences between anger, aggression, and violence and why it’s important to distinguish the difference between them. During the episode we get into a few examples of what we mean by anger and aggression, and we explain how recognizing the difference between them will help you determine whether a person is going to escalate a situation to the level...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are joined by special guest Scott Kirshner who has decades of experience in the criminal justice field with experiences ranging from Parole administrator to correction officer. Scott is an accomplished trainer with extensive experience in officer safety and violence mitigation strategies, he’s the CEO of Dedicated Threat Solutions and we brought him on the show to talk ab...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are talking about Access and Boundaries which are two important concepts that are inextricably linked to one another. All criminals, terrorists, insurgents, or even people just trying to sell you something need to have access to you whether they intend to victimize you or get you to buy something.  So if we look at different types of crimes through the lens of ACCESS, it...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are talking about some of the basic rules of cognition that affect our ability to sense and make and problem solve which can cause us to make bad decisions. We recently delivered a webinar where we talked about cognitive training and how to build a “cognitive gym” and we decided to share the information that we talked about in that webinar on today’s podcast.  During the...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are talking about the psychological concept of “priming” and how it plays a significant role in your behavior.  We start the episode by explaining some of the different types of priming and how they affect your perception and memory recall.  Then we give some real-world examples of how you can use the concept of priming to your advantage, especially when it comes to knowl...