What does your boss, your client, and your gym crush all have in common? They are all the targets of your influence efforts. Earlier this year, Herman Brodie was invited to sit down with Alice Sherwood, author of 'Authenticity: Reclaiming Reality in a Counterfeit Culture', to discuss a topic that fascinates them both: the science of influence, in particular, manipulation. The event was the 'Weekend of Mistakes', organised by the Library of Mistakes at Hay Castle. Here is a brief clip from their conversation.

Rachel Kline interviews Herman Brodie about workplace inclusion. Read the full article at Authority Magazine. https://medium.com/authority-magazine/herman-brodie-of-prospecta-on-how-to-create-more-inclusive-workplaces-8d2c26fd56a6

People prefer brands that share the letters of their name. They are also more likely to respond favourably to a request from someone who shares their name. Can one use this knowledge ethically?

Extract from Herman's presentation "The Winning Prospects of Prospect Theory" at the Investments & Wealth Institute's ACE Academy 2022 in Nashville, TN

Kahneman and Tversky's Prospect Theory is a cornerstone of Behavioral Finance, yet many investors don't see how it can help them understand and predict asset prices. Find out more.

People often make biased decisions when they plan their retirement. This arises largely because we struggle to envisage the wants and desires of our future selves, or we mispredict what will make us happy. Sometimes, we just seize any available option because we want to get a complex decision behind us, or because we do not like to dwell too long on the prospect of getting old. In this talk I reveal some of the major money misconceptions concerning retirement planning and help financial advisors guide future retirees to bias-free decisions.

The buying and selling decisions of investment managers are two profoundly different decisions. The differences, though, result in the former making money while the latter costs money,

In every meeting, the person on the opposite side of the table can manipulate you. They can craftily influence the way you evaluate a situation or an asset; they can deftly nudge your probability estimations higher or lower; they can even pre-determine the way you ‘choose’ to understand information. Whether in a recruitment interview with a potential hire, or in a conversation with a finance director, those people have the possibility to manipulate your thoughts, beliefs, and judgements to suit their ends. Some people are particularly good at manipulation, either as a learned behaviour or as a natural talent. To climb the ranks of a large organisation, it is an indispensable skill. So, if your job involves, for example, trying to extract valuable information from CEOs of major firms, the chances are not only that they are good at it, but also that they are better at it than you. Sadly, in the manipulation stakes, the adage ‘forewarned is forearmed’ is hopelessly inadequate. The simple knowledge that manipulators are among us is a weak defence. This is because manipulation works through its ability to convince us that we were the ones who ‘had the idea in the first place’. So, to guard against it, one must take purposeful actions before, during and after the encounter. This briefing illustrates the science behind some of the investment world’s most common manipulation techniques and shows how you can use them on yourself to prevent others from using them on you. Due of the nature of the subject matter, only honest people need attend.