April 22nd, 2014- Session 1: Who's Lying Here? Reading People and Judging Credibility
The first breakout session that I attended today was attorney Wendy L. Patrick's presentation, "Who's lying here? Reading People and Judging Credibility"
Wendy L. Patrick is a San Diego Deputy District Attorney, named by her peers as one of the Top ten criminal attorneys in San Diego by the San Diego Daily Transcript and one of San Diego's Super Lawyers. She has completed over 150 trials ranging from hate crimes, to domestic violence, to first-degree murder (Info. from EVAWI informational booklet).
In her presentation, Patrick explained and applied the techniques and methods discussed in her book, Reading People, by outlining the "Seven Colors" one can use to learn how to read anyone on a number of different levels in order to maximize the productivity of your interaction, whether professional or personal. Patrick pointed out that even we as audience members were behaving in a particular way as we sat and listened to her presentation: we were dressed professionally, alert, and were on our best behavior. She stated that if people did not act like their full selves in a professional setting such as this, we could only imagine how a victim may feel during initial contact with a provider or advocate.
Patrick provided a personal and wildly entertaining yet alarming example of why this skill of reading people was so vital; she described a moment when she was on the elevator, getting ready to go to the courtroom where she would proceed with her case, when she noticed an attractive male who also joined her on the elevator. He was also well dressed in a suit and holding a brief case, and Patrick, under the assumption that he too was an attorney, asked which room he was headed to. He was heading to the same place as she. She had then thought to herself, "Ugh!" Now this was going to be another case where the stupid defendant had enough money to get himself some swanky attorney instead of the public defendant. However...the story has an interesting twist. The charming, handsome man that shared the elevator with Wendy Patrick was the serial rapist she was convicting. Under a completely different appearance and guise, he was unrecognizable. Patrick expressed how she had seen mugshots of him before but in this particular scene, she had not recognized him.
Thus comes the power of reading people and all of their "Seven Colors" which I will outline below. This is incredibly important in both personal and professional contexts- Patrick noted that in this particular case, one of the jurors had later admitted that she voted him as not guilty due to the particular connection she had felt with him (he had maintained over a month's worth of eye contact and a particular appearance throughout trial). Patrick emphasized the importance of reading people so that we are able to get over our "knee-jerk reactions of what we think people should look like; through this practice, we can start and maintain an intentional effort to pay attention to ourselves and others in our work and our professional lives.
Patrick brought up an incredibly interesting point that she often noticed in court: sometimes the guy in the well-dressed, $1000 suit isn't the person on your side- I paraphrase Patrick below:
Wendy L. Patrick is a San Diego Deputy District Attorney, named by her peers as one of the Top ten criminal attorneys in San Diego by the San Diego Daily Transcript and one of San Diego's Super Lawyers. She has completed over 150 trials ranging from hate crimes, to domestic violence, to first-degree murder (Info. from EVAWI informational booklet).
In her presentation, Patrick explained and applied the techniques and methods discussed in her book, Reading People, by outlining the "Seven Colors" one can use to learn how to read anyone on a number of different levels in order to maximize the productivity of your interaction, whether professional or personal. Patrick pointed out that even we as audience members were behaving in a particular way as we sat and listened to her presentation: we were dressed professionally, alert, and were on our best behavior. She stated that if people did not act like their full selves in a professional setting such as this, we could only imagine how a victim may feel during initial contact with a provider or advocate.
Patrick provided a personal and wildly entertaining yet alarming example of why this skill of reading people was so vital; she described a moment when she was on the elevator, getting ready to go to the courtroom where she would proceed with her case, when she noticed an attractive male who also joined her on the elevator. He was also well dressed in a suit and holding a brief case, and Patrick, under the assumption that he too was an attorney, asked which room he was headed to. He was heading to the same place as she. She had then thought to herself, "Ugh!" Now this was going to be another case where the stupid defendant had enough money to get himself some swanky attorney instead of the public defendant. However...the story has an interesting twist. The charming, handsome man that shared the elevator with Wendy Patrick was the serial rapist she was convicting. Under a completely different appearance and guise, he was unrecognizable. Patrick expressed how she had seen mugshots of him before but in this particular scene, she had not recognized him.
Thus comes the power of reading people and all of their "Seven Colors" which I will outline below. This is incredibly important in both personal and professional contexts- Patrick noted that in this particular case, one of the jurors had later admitted that she voted him as not guilty due to the particular connection she had felt with him (he had maintained over a month's worth of eye contact and a particular appearance throughout trial). Patrick emphasized the importance of reading people so that we are able to get over our "knee-jerk reactions of what we think people should look like; through this practice, we can start and maintain an intentional effort to pay attention to ourselves and others in our work and our professional lives.
"Familiarity breeds contentment"This was an important point that Patrick brought up- she noted how in every new broadcast about a tragic incident of violence, the news broadcasters always interview neighbors who cite pointless statements such as, "He was such a nice guy" or, "He was so quiet" --Patrick points out that if "he was so quiet" then how much could you really know much about him? Here comes in the power of stereotypes.
Patrick brought up an incredibly interesting point that she often noticed in court: sometimes the guy in the well-dressed, $1000 suit isn't the person on your side- I paraphrase Patrick below:
Honesty is sometimes almost inversely proportional to the education level of the personShe noted that physical appearance and the appearance of wealth and "put-together"ness did not and does not equate to honesty, integrity, or credibility; in fact, the guy in the shirt with the inappropriate quote (who is asked to wear his shirt inside out) and the ripped jeans may be the more credible and honest source.
Now. To the Seven Colors:
- Personal Appearance
- Body Language
- Voice
- Communication Styles
- Content
- Actions
- Environment
Points about each:
Personal Appearance
- Research shows that especially in social media, we base our first initial impressions and opinions based off the picture that we see. We then tend to color our other judgments and opinions about other aspects about a person based on this initial impression of this photo.
Body Language
- You can't always control everything about your body language
Voice
- Hearing emotion in voice
Communication Style
- Differences in communication styles can singlehandedly accounts for why some people rub each other the wrong way.
- One style: Noble Communicator- The type of person that beelines to his/her desk at work. Does not engage in small talk. Purpose of communication for the noble communicator: exchange of data
- Reflective Communicator- Goes around the peripherary of the office; Purpose of communication for the reflective communicator- build relationships
- N + R--> can often lead to miscommunication
- Noble Communicator may complain about how the reflective communicator wastes time and doesn't take anything seriously and the Reflective communicator may be hurt and state how the noble communicator is rude and terse
Content
- The words that are used
- Ex. Profanity, language choice- reveals volumes about others
- Ex. Even a statement like, "I killed that cross examination!" vs. "I successfully implemented my cross examination in the court room"
Action
- Self Explanatory
Environment
- Hearing emotion in voice
Concepts
The Halo Effect- Patrick described this notion of the Halo Effect. When we are faced with somebody who is really pleasing, we tend to subconsciously associate traits with them.
Michelangelo Effect- Shows that when we treat somebody as if they have certain qualities and traits --> the person may actually adapt and conform to the heightened image you have of them
Durability of the first impression: Within the first 3 minutes- we may decide whether we want to keep talking to a person or not (longer side: 10 minutes). We determine within the first 3 seconds whether we want to approach them romantically or not.
--> When you've formed that first impression then you're suddenly presented with rogue pieces of information--> What do we do?--> We justify it. We dismiss the information and decide not to tell others because we know what they would say--this calls to cognitive dissonance
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| From Wendy L. Patrick's session "Who's Lying here? Reading People and Judging Credibility" This infographic shows a pie chart of the most trusted professions. Lawyers are at the bottom of the list at number 17 (18%), twice as high as a Car Salesman (:P) |
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| Wendy Patrick and an image of the Seven Colors |
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