The Human Behavior Podcast

Send us Fan Mail On today’s episode Greg and I are joined by our friend retired US Army Lt Col Andy Riise. Andy is a West Point graduate and spent over 20 years leading Soldiers including multiple combat tours to Iraq and Afghanistan and five years with two elite Special Forces units. He taught Performance Psychology and leadership at West Point, the Air Force Academy and currently at Texas A&...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode we are talking about Urban Legends and why our brain chemistry is so enamored with them. We give a few examples of stories that have stood the test of time, even though they were either partially or completely made up.  We talk about a number of factors that contribute to our belief in these common myths including things like group think, confirmation bias and c...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, we are joined by Constable Chris Ingledew from Lester, England.  Chris is currently serving as a police officer in the UK and is a member of several specialized units on the UK Police force. After a lengthy email exchange regarding some of the selection criteria used in these units, specifically regarding vision requirements, we invited Chris on the show to dis...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode we are talking about the meaning behind things like tattoos, graffiti, messaged clothing, and different historical symbols.  The biggest problem that we see when it comes to understanding things like symbolism and iconography is that people often jump to unreasonable conclusions when attempting to find the meaning behind them. This happens because we often remov...

Send us Fan Mail On today’s episode we are talking about a few every day examples of how sometimes we have a tendency to lack critical thinking ability even for some common sense situations.  We also discuss how our own experiences with “close calls” can actually in a sense make us a little dumber.  Please don’t forget to follow us on social media, you can find the links in the episode details, an...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, we are talking about two recent cases that demonstrate how our environment influences our behavior and how we can use that information to conduct predictive analysis.  The first case is from Tennessee where a “prank robbery” led to the death of the wannabe prankster and the second case involves the recent death of two FBI agents who were killed in the line of d...

Send us Fan Mail On today’s episode, we are talking about the case of a TSA agent who was recently sentenced on felony charges of using fraud or deceit to falsely imprison a woman at LAX airport. We talk about a number of topics in the episode including the tribal necessity to “fit in” and how we have a psychological need to believe others.  We also explain how these behaviors will happen incremen...

Send us Fan Mail On today’s episode we are talking about vision and how it affects the way we perceive our environment. We often hear people talking about their “blind spots” or  how we need to “take someone else’s perspective” and those sayings are typically used in a metaphorical sense. Well, on this episode, we are talking about the literal meaning of those terms and how they actually work.  Pl...

Send us Fan Mail On today’s episode we are addressing some of the major issues we see with current police training and how it often lacks the critical elements that are necessary to mitigate a catastrophic event.   Although we reiterate it several times throughout the episode, we  want to make it very clear that we are not AGAINST the type of training that we reference in the episode, we are merel...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode Greg and I are joined by our good friend Dr. Peter Bryant Greenwood.  Dr. Greenwood is a pathologist who has decades of clinical and biomedical research and development experience in multiple settings, including academia, biotechnology, startups and clinical practice. We met Dr Greenwood several months ago when we were involved in some of the Pandemic recovery e...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, we are joined by our good friend Mike Siracuse to discuss the important takeaways from the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville.   Mike is an Information Scientist who has extensive experience in the U.S. Government as well as the private sector in the area of Information Awareness Services. If you would like to learn more about Mike, check out the Left Of Greg E...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, we are talking about the importance of understanding a person's intent , rather than focusing on their ideology or motive .  Although this is something we typically talk about when it comes to understanding criminals, terrorists, and insurgents, they often use the same method to help me have a better understanding of social media posts and a better underst...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, Greg and Brian are talking about Criminal recidivism and your New Years Resolutions.  Although these are two seemingly unrelated topics, they actually have a lot more in common than you think! There are a lot of contributing factors to the issue of criminal recidivism so Greg and Brian stick to what they know best, which is the behavior that surrounds, or is as...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, Greg and Brian are discussing what they refer to as “ruse crimes” which are basically crimes that are committed using some kind of ruse or trick. A lot of crimes can fall under this category and they are often easy to fall for because they play into our own cognitive biases. This is why they also discuss things like “explanatory storylines,” protecting your ego...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, Greg and Brian are joined by game designer Reed Berkowitz. Reed has an extensive and impressive background in educational, gaming, and entertainment products and has worked with everyone from Universal Studios to Broadway playwrights, helping them to explore interactive media and create new stories in new forms. Brian recently reached out to Reed and asked him...

Send us Fan Mail On today’s episode, Greg and Brian are joined by some of their past guests in order to commemorate the 100th episode of the podcast! In today’s show, they talk about some of the things that they've learned along the way, how the podcast has grown, and they even get some of the guests to give their best impressions of Greg and Brian. This episode was released on Thanksgiving D...

Send us Fan Mail On today’s episode, Greg and Brian are talking about a case that is about to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court involving the confiscation of private property during the course of a police investigation. Although the property that was confiscated was legally purchased firearms, this case has more to do with the 4thAmendment of the Constitution than it does the 2nd Amendment.  Greg...

Send us Fan Mail On today’s episode Greg and Brian are talking about another “Gregism” called the Happy Head.  The Happy Head affects all humans and it especially affects us during exciting events like the robbery and shooting spree that we bring up during the episode or even while Greg is attempting new parkour moves. During these events, we often “outrun our headlights” because we don’t realize...

Send us Fan Mail On today’s episode, Greg and Brian are joined by their long time friend Matt Fennel. Matt is currently running a training facility aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and he also still serves in the Marine Corps Reserves. Matt has trained tens of thousands of Marines in his career and brings an extraordinary amount of experience to this particular conversation.  Matt recently...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode,  Greg and Brian are talking about cognitive biases, mythical creatures and stereotypes. They discuss why humans use stereotypes, what they are used for, and whether or not they’re any good. Later in the episode, Greg explains what he calls “Primed-Recognition Decision Making” and then they discuss why people often jump to Unreasonable conclusions when presented...

Send us Fan Mail On today’s episode, Greg and Brian are doing a breakdown of Colonel John Boyd’s OODA Loop. Some of you may have heard of this before but for those that haven’t the OODA loop stands for Observe Orient, Decide, Act and it is a decision-making process that can be used effectively in rapidly unfolding situations. The reason they are discussing this highly complex decision-making model...

Send us Fan Mail On today’s episode, Greg and Brian are talking about the current climate regarding the lack of trust that many people feel regarding major news outlets. They start the conversation by putting things into a historical context with a brief discussion on how the invention of the printing press is a lot like the invention of major social media outlets.  They also bring up the differen...

Send us Fan Mail On today’s episode, Greg and Brian are talking about social media manipulation and extremist groups with their friend Dr. Carlos Vazquez. Dr. Carlos is an author and holds a doctorate in Psychology and a Master’s in Criminal Justice. He consults and lectures on Criminal Psychopathology, criminal organizations, and media manipulation. He is the author of the book  “Apocalyptic Psyc...

Send us Fan Mail On today’s episode, Greg and Brian are discussing some recent, as well as some historical examples of how and when the 1st Amendment of the Constitution applies in certain situations.  We specifically talk about the recent story of a Louisville Police Officer who was forced to resign after an internal police department email was leaked and we compare that case to some other recent...

Send us Fan Mail On today’s episode, Greg and Brian are joined by Dr. Colleen Richardson. Colleen is the chief of psychology at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Dallas, Texas and is also a veteran herself. Recently, Brian met Colleen in Salt Lake City at the funeral for his friend and fellow Marine veteran Tyler Bues. On August 25th of this year, Tyler, or “Blue” as many people called him,...