How It Works: Clinton’s “Reality Distortion Field” Charisma

How It Works: Clinton’s “Reality Distortion Field” Charisma: "

One piece of the puzzle: getting eye contact right. Not evasive, not creepy — just right. (Photo: Mr. Theklan)

This is a guest post from Michael Ellsberg, a good friend who’s spent the last several years studying interpersonal persuasion and language (spoken and unspoken).

He has performed hundreds of tests in the field as the creator of Eye Gazing Parties, which resembles speed-dating with no speaking. Elle magazine called his parties “New York’s hottest dating trend,” and for good reason. Having attended one party, I can attest: three minutes of staring into someone’s eyes tells you more about them than ten minutes of talking.

In this post, he deconstructs Bill Clinton’s so-called “reality distortion field” into elements you can practice for business or pleasure. Don’t miss the play-by-play video demonstration…

Enter Michael Ellsberg

I’ve figured out the secret—or at least, a big secret—of Bill Clinton’s legendary charm and face-to-face persuasion.

“I have a friend who has always despised Bill Clinton,” a person at a cocktail party told me during the time I was writing my book about eye contact. “Yet, somehow my friend found himself at a function that Bill Clinton was attending. And, within the swirl of the crowd, he was introduced to Clinton.”

“In that moment, face-to-face, all of my friend’s personal animosity towards Clinton disappeared, in one instant,” my new acquaintance at the party continued. “As they were shaking hands, Clinton made eye contact with my friend in a way so powerful and intimate, my friend felt as though the two of them were the only people in the room.”

Steve Jobs is famous for having a “Reality Distortion Field” (RDF)—an aura of charisma, confidence, and persuasion, in which people report it almost impossible to avoid surrendering to the man and following his will when interacting face-to-face. Well—love his politics or hate them—Clinton is known for an RDF even stronger than Jobs’. Perhaps the strongest in the world.

So, what’s the secret to Clinton’s RDF?

While writing my book, I heard some version of the above story about Clinton not once but three times. So, I Googled “Bill Clinton” and “eye contact.” A number of references to Clinton’s eye powers turned up.

A New York Times Magazine profile near the beginning of his presidency referred to his facility for “making eye contact so deep that recipients sometimes seem mesmerized. Tabloid rumors aside, Clinton embodies the parallels between the seductions of politics and the seductions of sex. As one Clinton watcher said recently: ‘It’s not that Clinton seduces women. It’s that he seduces everyone.’”

A post on the celebrity news blog WENN said, “Actress Gillian Anderson has discovered the secret behind former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s sex appeal—lingering eye contact.”

Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully on The X-Files) spoke on Late Night With David Letterman of an encounter she had with Clinton several years earlier: “We all, mostly women, lined up. And when he gets to you, he takes your hand and makes eye contact. After he leaves and he moves on to the next person, he looks back at you and seals the deal. When I got home, I expected to have a message from him, and I didn’t. I bet women across America expect it too.”

Is it possible to hack this skill with eye contact? Is it possible to recreate Bill Clinton’s fabled RDF? (At least, the eye contact part?)

Absolutely. In my experience training myself and others, you can become a world-class master of eye contact in about 2 weeks.

How to Go From “Eye Shy” to “Eye Ballsy” In Three Easy Steps

STEP 1: Practice Brief Eye Contact With Strangers

While you walk down the sidewalk (during daylight hours!) look at the eyes of every person walking towards you long enough to see their eye color. Less than a second. Then look away. This is the best technique I know for building solid eye contact skills quickly. In my experience, if the eye contact is brief enough, no one minds at all, and you get tons of practice in.

You can also practice longer eye contact with waiters, salesclerks, cashiers, and other paid service staff, so long as you do it respectfully and in a friendly way.

In all cases, keep a neutral facial expression and soft gaze. You don’t want anyone to think you’re trying to stare them down, rob them, or get them into the sack. If you practice all this for a week or two as you go about your daily business, the quality of your eye contact will become better than most people’s, in a short amount of time.

STEP 2: Learn the Art of Personal Space

You’ve probably experienced bosses or strangers “get up in your face,” and it feels very unpleasant. Bill Clinton and others with RDFs are experts at getting close to you while making you feel totally safe and comfortable. This increases feelings of intimacy, trust, and affinity.

How do they do it? They have mastered the subtle art of personal space. First written about in-depth by anthropologist Edward Hall, our sense of “personal space” is the feeling we get of being “invaded” when someone steps too close.

Interestingly, our sense of personal space is not a pure function of physical proximity; many other psychological factors influence it. In general, your sense of physical proximity with someone increases when they are:

- Making direct eye contact with you

- Facing you directly (as opposed to standing side-by-side looking into the crowd)

- Touching you (i.e., rubbing elbows in a crowd, patting your back, touching your arm or shoulder)

- Raising their voice

- Talking about you (as opposed to a neutral subject)

If a stranger starts doing too many of these at once, your personal space begins to feel violated, and you start having that icky “eww get away from me!” feeling we’ve all experienced with unwelcome conversations at parties.

In contrast, if you learn to modulate these five different factors, and combine them in different ways, you can make your conversation partners feel safe and comfortable while at the same time feeling close and intimate with you.

When you increase eye contact, try leaning back or standing back a little to increase their comfort. When you are physically close because it’s a crowded room, try lowering your voice. When you pat someone on the back or touch their arm as you talk, try standing at an angle, not facing them directly.

By playing with these different factors, cranking some of the dials up as you turn others down, you can create the feeling of being incredibly close, without triggering the “Red Alert! Get Away!” response in your conversation partner. People with RDFs are masters of this skill. And it’s very seductive.

STEP 3: Practice Being Present

Have you ever felt someone was making eye contact with you, but wasn’t taking in a thing you were saying? My friend Marie Forleo has referred to this phenomenon as a “pretend gaze—their eyes are on yours, but their mind is on a Hawaiian beach.”

In our age of tweets and Facebook status updates and cellphone buzzes and new texts and IMs and VMs every few seconds, focusing your inner attention on the same person you’re talking with can be challenging, but its worth practicing the skill. (BTW, following Tim’s low-information diet helps with this.)

For one week, whenever you talk with someone, practice noticing whenever your mind drifting—to the laundry, your bills, you co-worker’s snide comment today, that hottie you just spotted at the party whom you want to meet. Then, when you notice this inevitable mental drifting, bring your attention back to whomever you’re talking with at the moment. They will truly appreciate it.

We are living in a world where no one, it seems, has attention for anyone or anything for more than a few moments. How rare it is when someone pays attention to us. Consider the wording of the phrase: pay attention. In industrialized nations, at least, attention is becoming almost as scarce a resource as money. Someone who “pays” it to you is giving you something of true value.

As Elizabethan poet and statesman Fulke Greville has written, “Our companions please us less from the charms we find in their conversation than from those they find in ours.”

Clinton pays out his focused attention generously, making us feel he’s truly interested in us and what we have to say. This is why people love talking with him face-to-face.

That feeling of “we were the only two people in the room,” which Clinton is so skillful in fostering, stems from his eye contact, from his careful use of personal space, and from his unshakeable attention once he’s talking with you.

Learn to combine these three factors together, and you’re on your way to a rock-star Reality Distortion Field. Just be careful about what you do with all the attention!

BONUS: If you want a fantastic education in how the three factors we’ve been talking about–eye contact, personal space, and presence–interplay to create legendary persuasion, watch the below video clip from the second Bush-Clinton-Perot debate, on October 15, 1992.

The idea of a town-hall format was proposed to the Bush team by Clinton’s team in 1992, and Bush agreed. This was the first town hall presidential debate in US television history. Little did Bush know he had just agreed to battling the master on his own territory.

To appreciate just how fully Clinton nails this debate moment, I suggest watching the 4-minute clip twice–first with audio turned off, and then with audio on. If you’re at all interested in this post’s topic, it’ll be worth it.

I’ll put several comments below the video. [Note: I am not making any endorsement one way or the other about the political views expressed in this clip. I'm only talking about body language and persuasion.]

Commentary:

First point: In the initial seconds of the video, Bush checks his watch when the voter begins asking him a question. Presence? How about “How long do I have to listen to you before I can talk?” This was widely considered a “Dukakis-in-the-tank/Dean Scream” moment during the campaign, and among the worst gaffes in presidential debate history (up there with Gore’s sighs and eye rolls in 2000). And it all hinged on one moment of absent presence.

Notice Bush’s eye contact as he answers the woman’s question. It is sporadic, weak, drifting, and random. He hasn’t decided whether he’s talking to her, to the moderator, to the whole audience, or to the air in the room. In terms of personal space, he is totally unsure of how close he should stand; he walks closer to her, then backs off, visibly uncomfortable with the personal space aspect of the interchange. In all three factors of RDF we’ve talked about–eye contact, personal space, and presence–he’s clearly not making a personal connection with the voter.

At 2:30, when Clinton begins to answer, notice how he manages to simultaneously own the space and put the woman at ease. He walks up several yards closer than Bush did, making a personal connection in her space, without making her uncomfortable. His eye contact is clear, unwavering, and calm. There’s absolutely no mistaking whom he’s talking with. Clinton’s there in the room with two rival candidates, news media, other audience members, and a national TV audience of millions. Yet that feeling of “The only two people in the room” is palpable when he talks with the voter.

The result of this town hall debate? 58% of viewers declared Clinton the winner of the debate, 16% for Bush, and 15% for Perot. (In the previous debate, with a traditional podium format, 47% of viewers declared Perot to be the winner, with 30% for Clinton, and 16% for Bush.)

Look at the woman’s response at 3:22. Clinton completely has her. (Remember actress Gillian Anderson’s comment?) Bush’s facial expression at 3:47 is priceless. He knows he’s been beaten.

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About the author: Michael Ellsberg is the author of The Power of Eye Contact. For his forthcoming book, already purchased by Penguin/Portfolio, he’s seeking to interview people who didn’t finish college who are successful at what they do. Fit the bill? Go to this page.

Ellsberg is also the creator of Eye Gazing Parties, a series of social events based on eye contact which attracted feature press coverage from the New York Times, Associated Press TV, CBS News, CNN, Good Morning America, MSNBC, Regis & Kelly, and more. Elle magazine called Eye Gazing Parties “New York’s hottest dating trend.”

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Coffee and a sweet treat to think better? Caffeine and glucose combined improves the efficiency of brain activity

The combination of caffeine and glucose can improve the efficiency of brain activity, according to a recent study in which functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to identify the neural substrate for the combined effects of these two substances.

The study, which was published in the journal Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental, is led by the researchers Josep M. Serra Grabulosa, from the Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology at the UB and a member of the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS); Ana Adan, a lecturer from the same department and a member of the UB's Institute of Brain, Cognition and Behaviour (IR3C); and Carles Falcón, a member of the Biomedical Research Networking Center in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN).

"Our main finding is that the combination of the two substances improves cognitive performance in terms of sustained attention and working memory by increasing the efficiency of the areas of the brain responsible for these two functions," explains Josep M. Serra Grabulosa. This supports the idea of a synergistic effect between two substances, in which each one boosts the effect of the other.

Specifically, the team found that individuals who consumed caffeine and glucose in combination showed reduced brain activation associated with the task in the bilateral parietal cortex and the left prefrontal cortex -- two regions that actively participate in attention and working memory processes. The reduced activity and the fact that no drop in behavioural performance was observed during the task suggests that the brain is more efficient under the combined effect of the two substances, since it needs fewer resources to produce the same level of performance than required by those subjects who were administered the placebo or who took only caffeine or glucose.

For the study, the team of researchers from the UB used functional MRI to analyse brain activity during the n-back task, which evaluates sustained attention and working memory -- basic capacities in improving everyday cognitive tasks. In a double-blind randomized design, participants were tested after drinking a study beverage containing either caffeine, glucose or the two combined or a placebo consisting only of water. Tests were conducted with a sample of 40 healthy volunteers at the Diagnostic Imaging Centre of the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona.

An earlier study by the same research team on the effects of caffeine and glucose consumption revealed improvements in attention span and declarative memory without significant alteration of the participants' subjective state. The conclusions suggested that a combination of caffeine and glucose has beneficial effects on attention (sequential reaction time tasks) and learning and on the consolidation of verbal memory, none of which were observed when the substances were consumed separately.

Editor's Note: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

The 2010 prostate cancer Thanksgiving report

On November 26, 2009, we issued our first prostate cancer Thanksgiving report — a way to look back over the past year and celebrate the successes and the progress in the prevention, diagnosis and management of prostate cancer. And so with the intention that this be an “annual read” for the prostate cancer community — we now present the 2010 version …

If you think we missed anything we should be thankful for from a prostate cancer point of view, please feel free to express your viewpoint using the comment box below.

In January this year, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network issued new treatment guidelines for prostate cancer that specifically recommended active surveillance as a highly appropriate form of management for carefully selected patients with very-low-risk and low-risk disease, and the promising investigational drug MDV3100 started to enroll US patients into its first Phase III clinical trial — becoming the second truly novel form of hormone therapy (after abiraterone actetate) to achieve this stage of development.

Also in January, Bianco et al. clearly demonstrated, for the first time, the degree of variation in outcomes obtained by even experienced prostate cancer surgeons. This is, of course, a mixed blessing, but it does ensure that patients have very clear evidence for the fact that even the supposedly best prostate cancer specialists do not necessarily get “the best” results.

In February, the American Heart Association, in association with the American Society for Clinical Oncology and the American Urological Association issued a “science advisory” commentary on the cardiovascular risks associated with inappropriate use of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT).

In March, at the Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, Sartor et al., presented data showing that a “second generation” taxane — cabazitaxel — was able to extend the survival of men with progressive, metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) after prior treatment with a docetaxel regimen, becoming just the second chemotherapeutic agent to demonstrate a survival benefit in mCRPC. In addition, new data continued to confirm the promise of ipilimumab as a possible treatment for patients with high-risk and progressive forms of prostate cancer.

In April, Katz et al. published data on the use of CyberKnife stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) from a 300+ series of patients with localized prostate cancer, representing the first large case series evaluating the potential of CyberKnife therapy. Then at the end of the month, after all of the ups and downs, the FDA finally approved sipuleucel-T (Provenge) for the treatment of men with minimally symptomatic mCRPC. Meanwhile, “under the radar” CMS rescinded the “least costly alternative” policy that had limited payments for drugs like the LHRH agonists.

May was a relatively quiet month, but then in June the FDA approved cabazitaxel, based on the data presented at the Genitourinary Cancers Symposium. This is the first time that two new drugs for prostate cancer treatment have ever been approved in the same year. In addition, Oncogenix started a Phase III trial of custirsen sodium (OGX-011) in men with mCRPC.

July started off with a bang when Hugosson et al. published data from a 14-year-long trial of prostate cancer screening in Göteborg, Sweden, offering fascinating data from men in a previously unscreened population. Later in the month we saw publication of data on 12-year follow-up after brachytherapy and 10-year follow-up after cryotherapy.

On August 20, 2010, Us TOO International officially celebrated its 20th birthday — with an “educational party” in Chicago. And then on August 31, President Obama marked the beginning of Prostate Cancer Awareness Month (on September 1) with a Presidential Proclamation.

By early September, we knew that the first Phase III clinical trial of abiraterone acetate had produced a positive result in men with mCRPC — but we had to wait until Octoberto get the actual data. In addition, new Phase III trials of MDV3100 and OGX-011 were also initiated.

At the end of October, Sylvester et al. reported 15-year follow-up data on treatment of a consecutive series of 200+ early brachytherapy patients.

Finally, just this month, we have seen the start of a Phase III clinical trial of TAK-700 in patients with chemotherapy-naïve mCRPC; we have seen additional data from Lilja et al. on the ability to project 20 to 30-year risk for prostate cancer; we have seen a CMS panel recommend national coverage for Provenge for Medicare patients; and we have seen the approval of denosumab to prevent fractures and other prostate cancer-related skeletal events.

On the whole, it seems to have been a pretty good past 12 months since last Thanksgiving … so for our American readers, make the most of your Thanksgiving turkey on Wednesday. For everyone else, we look forward to a similarly positive report a year from now — hopefully to include the approval of dutasteride in the prevention of prostate cancer and abiraterone acetate to extend the survival of men who have already stopped responding to docetaxel-based chemotherapy.

Keep Hospitals Constantly Sterile with a UV Light That Kills Bacteria Without Harming Humans

It’s widely known that ultraviolet light has bacteria killing properties. Unfortunately, its usefulness is limited since it also harms us. But now researchers have developed a high intensity, narrow spectrum wavelength that’s safe enough to be used as lighting in hospitals.

High Intensity, Narrow Spectrum (HINS) light works by exciting molecules within bacteria to lethal levels, inducing bacterial suicide. Since it’s harmless to humans, it can be incorporated into lighting, keeping areas constantly sterile.

The researchers, from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, also anticipated that people may not enjoy living in a purple-hued world, so they’ve figured out how to combine it with LED technology for a warmer, more pleasant glow. [University of Strathclyde via Smart Planet via Popular Science]

Can Corporate Fleets Kickstart the Electric Vehicle Industry?

Last week, GE committed to the single largest electric vehicle purchase commitment ever--25,000 EVs over the next five years for the company fleet. The move suggested that commercial fleets can be a powerful driving force in the nascent EV industry. The Electrification Coalition (EC), a group made up of auto and power industry executives, confirms it with the Fleet Electrification Roadmap, a report that makes the business case for the 16 million electric fleet vehicles in the U.S.

As the GE purchase demonstrated, corporations have the cash to buy large amounts of EVs. That means a big purchase can quickly ramp up battery and parts production in the EV supply chain--a benefit for both fleets and private EV customers. But that's not the only reason why EVs make sense for fleets. The EC explains:
Most significantly, fleet owners may be more willing than individual consumers to focus on total cost of vehicle ownership as opposed to upfront costs. This approach advantages the economic dynamics of electric drive vehicles in cases where the higher upfront costs vis-à-vis an internal combustion engine vehicle can be demonstrably offset through lower operating and maintenance costs over time.
Fleets also can take advantage of cheap commercial and industrial electricity rates. That's something private EV consumers lack. And since many fleets have predictable delivery routes -- think UPS -- range anxiety is not a major concern.
In order for EVs to become attractive to fleets, the U.S. government will have to implement a number of policy changes. The EC has a laundry list of suggestions, including temporary point-of-sale purchase incentives, tax credits for private fleets, and renewable energy bonds for a fleet vehicle charging infrastructure.
Even without these policies in place, some fleets will still go for EVs. GE, for example, has a stake in the EV supply chain: the company manufactures EV charging stations. If the report's suggestions are put into place, fleet
adoption could result in 200,000 EVs and PHEVs
on the road by 2015.
The EC has influenced U.S. government policy before--policy suggestions from the 2009 Electrification Roadmap were included in legislation approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. It's not unthinkable, then, that the EC's latest suggestions could solidify into real policies.


Ariel Schwartz can be reached on Twitter or by email.

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U.K. Government Making Plans To Gauge Happiness Level of Rain-Soaked Citizens

Despite the fact that the U.K. is about to implement some of the most savage economic cuts seen in over a generation, the British government is to roll out a survey to gauge the mood of its nationals. The brave move involves asking the Office of National Statistics to come up with some mood-sensing questions to add to its household survey, in a hope to discover just what it is that makes people happy. The idea behind it being that if the government knows what makes its citizens happy, it can then do more of it to increase the population's wellbeing.
British Prime Minister David Cameron* has long spoken about GNH, or gross national happiness, something he feels is more important than GDP, and he's not the only political leader interested in the concept. France's President Sarkozy announced last year he would include happiness and quality of life ahead of his country's economic prowess, as recommended by Nobel economists Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen.
According to a Canadian statistician in on the British discussions, 'The U.K. plans are putting into action the two most important elements of the Stiglitz/Sen reports: systematically measuring subjective wellbeing as part of a broader national accounting system, and using these data to inform policy choices.' Sen has even been advising on the policy.
The commodity has already been measured on Facebook, and it will be a tough job for Britain's independent national statistician, Jil Matheson, to come up with the right questions in order to take the nation's emotional temperature, and find out just how fulfilled the nation is as a whole. According to a government source:
The aim is to produce a fresh set of data, some of it new, some of it using existing data sets currently not very well used, to be published--at a frequency to be decided--that assesses the psychological and physical wellbeing of people around the U.K. So that's objective measurements of, for instance, how much recycling gets done around the U.K., alongside more subjective measures of psychology and attitudes.
Although stoical in the main, it can be said that there is a certain mercurial quality to the British character--although this, it can be said, is often down to the weather. That's not true for everyone, however. Given the corruscating winters on offer in Scandinavia, it is Denmark, Finland and Norway which scored highest in Gallup's recent survey of the world's happiest countries.
[Image via A M Kuchling's Flickrstream]
*Full disclosure: David Cameron's my cousin.

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Neon Trees

Taiwanese researchers have stumbled onto something truly magical. When gold nanoparticles were introduced into Bacopa caroliniana plants they caused the chlorophyll to produce reddish light. Bye-bye street lights? But wait, there’s more:

While lit, the glowing trees consumed more carbon from the atmosphere than normal (i.e. the luminescence causes the cells to undergo photosynthesis).

PopSci calls this a “triple threat,” in that the trees could cut energy costs, reduce global warming and keep streets safely lit at night. I’m more than inclined to agree. [RSC Publishing via Inhabitat via PopSci, Image: Flickr]