How big can you think?

Posted March 26th, 2009 at 4:21 pm by Elizabeth Churchill, Yahoo! Research

 6 Comments / Filed in: Behind the Scenes, Video

Did you know that humans have only used verbal language for the past 50,000 years – a virtual blink of the eye in evolutionary time? This got me wondering how people communicated before language. Since we’ve been thriving on this planet for 160,000 years (or millions more, depending on when you start the “human” clock), how exactly how did we express ourselves? And do we hang on to old non-verbal habits today?

MIT Professor Alex “Sandy” Pentland stopped by to discuss this very topic with us yesterday as the latest in a series of Big Thinkers lectures at Yahoo! Research. He also shared insights into the expansive research he’s done in his career on what he calls “honest signals,” the non-verbal clues and patterns that reveal everything from how people interact on the job to who they date and whether or not they’re going to buy a given product or service when the telemarketer calls.

Professor Pentland is leading the exploration of this new realm of social science – designing new ways to collect data about our non-verbal communication patterns and analyzing the ever-growing mountains of data we’re creating when we use new technologies (like the Internet and especially mobile phones). Pentland’s work is aimed at making the ways we communicate without language a first class part of how we see and understand the world, and, together with his colleagues and students, he’s applying these new ideas to everything from predicting which speed-daters are going to get together, to tackling public health issues, to what makes companies and creative teams productive (here’s a hint: face time at the water cooler actually pays off!).

In the video below, I interviewed Prof. Pentland about his work. In a week or so, his full lecture will be available at the Yahoo! Research Big Thinkers site, but in the mean time, we hope you enjoy this preview. And for those iPhone and Blackberry users out there, you may want to download the CitySense app the next chance you get for a hands-on experience with the types of data and research Professor Pentland is working on.

Since 2006, we’ve had 20 “Big Thinkers” from UC Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, and others talk to us about everything from economic theory and marketplace design to online amateur media production and other forms of user generated content. They’re a lot of fun and we hope to share more of these interesting discussions and ideas with you as often as we can.

Elizabeth Churchill
Principal Research Scientist, Yahoo! Research

Tagged: Video, yahoo research

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6 Comments Add your own

Techknock | April 5th, 2009 at 6:15 am

Really motivating post.

Ari | April 13th, 2009 at 12:42 am

Hey Elizabeth,

Thanks for posting the interview, very interesting topic, that all of experience in our daily lives. By the way….you gotta watch out for your NECK waving LEFT and RIGHT (time, 6:11 on the video elasped) and your hands, they move all over(3:35 on the video)..hmmm…ask Prof. Pentland’s about these signals..my verdict- you are too nervous when you move your hands all over and trying too hard to be cool or excited when you roll your neck..LA style…WHAT’S YOUR VERDICT??

Ari

sikiş | April 24th, 2009 at 7:22 am

Really motivating post.

Will I | May 27th, 2009 at 5:43 pm

Hello Elizabeth Churchill,

Thank you for this interview especially around non-verbal communication.

I’m now completely motivated to using the mobile phone as the only technology link to trainees in their Learning.

Tolou (Thanks).
Will I

medyum | July 16th, 2009 at 4:38 am

Thanks for posting the interview, very interesting topic, that all of experience in our daily lives. By the way

Thanks…
Medyum

medyum | July 17th, 2009 at 9:46 am

Thanks for posting the interview, very interesting topic, that all of experience in our daily lives. By the way

Thanks…
Medyum