A piece I wrote for my Defusing American Anger Substack (learn more at www.american-anger.com). It’s my attempt to persuade Americans why they should see it as vitally important to work on reducing political toxicity, even as they may have various fears and grievances and anger about their political opponents. If you have skepticism about the ideas in this piece, I would ask you if you'd be willing to read my ebook on this topic, Defusing American Anger. If you want a free copy, email me via my american-anger.com website and I'll send you one. This is an extremely serious problem and I think to help solve it we need more people to consider ideas that may, at first, make them uncomfortable. 

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To avoid destruction, we must recognize we're in a self-reinforcing cycle of conflict

In a recent Fox News interview, Trump was asked whether he thought there would be chaos and violence if he won the election, and his response included mentioning that, if necessary, the National Guard or other military might be needed. Many framed this response as indicating that Trump would go after his political opponents and those who opposed him using the military, leaving out the context that the question asked was about election-related violence. I discuss what this incident can teach us about our toxic political divides. Topics discussed include: Republican-side grievances and how incidents like this relate; how conflict leads us to filter things in more pessimistic and negative ways; the self-reinforcing nature of toxic political polarization; the importance of trying to understand your opponents’ narratives; how understanding doesn’t require agreeing; Trump’s “bloodbath” language and similar highly negative reactions to that; the ease with which we can be biased without even realizing it, and more. Learn more about my polarization work at american-anger.com.

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Many take Trump's words out of context: How this relates to toxic polarization

In the documentary Money Electric, filmmaker Cullen Hoback put forth the theory that developer Peter Todd was Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious creator of Bitcoin. In this episode, I talk to cryptocurrency expert Jeremy Clark (pulpspy.com)  about this theory, with a focus on the language and behavior of Peter Todd. We discuss: the 2010 forum post by Peter Todd that forms the backbone of Hoback’s theory; Peter’s behavior in the film when confronted, which many people saw as suspicious and strange; the difficulties of relying on nonverbal behavior for clues; and how simple, neat, and exciting stories can attract us.

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The behavior and language of Peter Todd, who's accused of being Bitcoin creator

On the Nextdoor app, a fake account succeeded in getting some personal info from me before I realized they were a scammer. I discuss how that scam went down, share an audio call I had with the scammer, and give some tips for spotting online scammer behaviors and traits. These tips are focused on online marketplace scams but should be applicable for a lot of online scammers in general. 

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Scammer on Nextdoor gets my personal info: Tips for spotting online marketplace scam tells

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality test is used by many organizations and consultants, but it's been criticized by many as pseudo-science that's unhelpful, and even harmful. I talk to Randy Stein, who has researched the Myers Briggs and personality tests in general. Topics discussed include: the reasons people object to the Myers Briggs test; the downsides of personality tests that group people into boxes (as opposed to using a spectrum-like approach); the Forer effect, where people often believe that vague descriptions apply to them; the downsides of labeling ourselves and others; how the complexity of a question can wrongly seem like deepness; how Myers-Briggs relates to the more scientifically respected "Big Five" personality traits. We also talk about Randy's research on political polarization, showing how we can be drawn to being the opposite of a disliked group.

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What’s the problem with the Myers-Briggs personality test?, with Randy Stein

This episode includes part of a poker tells webinar that I, Zach Elwood, did with Terry Wood, owner of PokerRailbird.com. I'm the author of three respected books on poker tells, including Exploiting Poker Tells and Verbal Poker Tells. My first book, Reading Poker Tells, has been translated into eight languages. You can learn more about my poker tells work at readingpokertells.com. Topics discussed: two important categories of poker tells; some specific examples of poker tells (including eye contact tells and how people move their eyes after betting); how tells vary when you go from lower stakes to higher stakes, and more.

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Some useful and reliable poker tells: A talk with Zach Elwood

This is my third episode about Chase Hughes, the self-titled “#1 expert in behavior and influence.” My first episode about him examined his early deceptions and exaggerations, and his involvement in pick-up artistry and vitamin supplement sales. In this one, I talk about how Chase’s work relates to Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and NLP-related hypnosis. Long story short: Chase has used the NLP trainer template but repackaged it with a military/secret-agent/MK-Ultra-type spin. I examine the connections between NLP and Chase’s content. I also attempt to explain why Chase (and people like him) can acquire good reviews and fans, despite so much of it being obviously silly and also expensive. I also examine Chase’s recent promoting of supplements sold by a chiropractor. And I talk about the various people who've promoted Chase, from influential podcasters to Dr. Phil to his fellow Behavior Panel members, and why there seems to be such a lack of interest in these people examining his background and claims. A later episode will focus specifically on behavior analysis and the Behavior Panel. This episode is focused squarely on NLP/hypnosis.

Topics discussed in this video include: how Chase’s concepts relate to NLP; what NLP is and why people attend those seminars; my own personal experiences working for an NLP trainer; how NLP seminars relate to other experiential/transformational multi-day seminars; good/neutral aspects of NLP/hypnosis/influence type content and training; the many influential people who’ve promoted Chase; why these things can impress people despite being so obviously silly and strange; what a hypnosis expert had to say about Chase's stuff; why behavior-analysis and influence/hypnosis-type offerings lend themselves to exaggerated claims; and more.  

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Chase Hughes, NLP, & hypnosis: Putting a top-secret military spin on old NLP ideas

Many surveys and headlines have claimed there's a large percentage of Americans who support political violence. Some estimates have been around 25% – and some have gone as high as 40%! This is very scary; it ramps up fears of a violent and chaotic American future, and even fears of a civil war. But political polarization researchers like my guest Sean Westwood have shown that many people are massively overstating the problem. And that overstatement is leading to hysterical and unhelpful framings and debates. Worst of all, these exaggerated fears can even contribute to a self-reinforcing cycle… a self-fulfilling prophecy. Topics discussed include: what the faulty surveys and studies are missing; how bad survey design (ambiguous questions, or leading questions) can lead to faulty estimates; what more accurate survey results tell us; how exaggerated fears can contribute to a self-fulfilling prophecy; and why people embrace and promote overly pessimistic narratives.

 

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We’re MASSIVELY overstating our political violence problem — and that’s dangerous! | Sean Westwood

This is a follow up to my last episode, in which I shared information about the many lies of Chase Hughes, the self-described “#1 expert in behavior and influence.” Some of the fans of Chase Hughes and the show he’s on, The Behavior Panel, responded in angry, unreasonable ways, personally insulting me and downplaying the significance of Chase’s many deceptions. Some of the people who responded in these ways, from what I’ve been told, are also social media content moderators who work for Chase Hughes and the Behavior Panel. In this episode, I examine these behaviors and talk about how this ties in with similar things, like people taking it personally when political leaders they like are criticized, or cult members taking criticisms of cult leaders personally, things like this. I read some of the more angry and emotional YouTube comments people sent me.

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Angry Chase Hughes’ fans lash out after his many lies are revealed

An examination of the deceptive and strange background of Chase Hughes, who refers to himself as the “#1 expert in behavior and influence.” A popular YouTube show that he’s on, the Behavioral Panel, gets millions of views. Dr. Phil has called him the “best on the globe.” But Chase’s career is built on a foundation of lies and exaggerations — not only in the behavior and psychology space, but also in other pursuits, including pick-up artistry and vitamin supplements. He has made many grandiose claims that just about every psychology expert would disagree with (for example, claims that he can teach people to hypnotize others and make them do things against their will, and even teach how to do that quickly). He has claimed since 2012 to be well known in the behavior and psychology space, despite there being almost no mention of him online in the 2010s. This video, the first of at least a two-part series, examines his many deceptions and grandiose (often absurd) claims. It establishes the extremely deceptive patterns that Chase Hughes has been practicing since 2007, when he wrote his pick-up artist book "The Passport."

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Examining the lies of Chase Hughes, the self-proclaimed "#1 expert in behavior"

This is a podcast about deciphering human behavior and understanding why people do the things they do. I, Zach Elwood, talk with people from a wide range of fields about how they make sense of human behavior and psychology. I've talked to jury consultants, interrogation professionals, behavior researchers, sports analysts, professional poker players, to name a few. There are more than 135 episodes, many of them quite good (although some say I'm biased). To learn more, go to PeopleWhoReadPeople.com.

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology Podcast