The Man Who Lied to His Laptop: What Machines Teach Us about Human Relationships

STARTLING INSIGHTS INTO PERSUASION, TRUST, EMPATHY, AND TEAMWORK BASED ON REVELATIONS ABOUT HOW WE TREAT OUR COMPUTERSThe driver was insistent: ?A woman should not be giving directions.? Despite the customer service rep's reassurance that the navigation system in his car wasn't actually a woman-just a computer with a female voice-the driver (and many others like him) refused to listen. There was only one person for BMW to call for help: Clifford Nass, one of the world's leading experts on how people interact with technology.After two decades of studying problems like BMW's GPS system, Microsoft's Clippy (the most hated animated character of all time), and online evaluations that led people to lie to their laptops, Nass has developed a powerful theory: Our brains can't fundamentally distinguish between interacting with people and interacting with devices. We will ?protect? a computer's feelings, feel flattered by a brown-nosing piece of software, and even do favors for technology that has been ?nice? to us. All without even realizing it.Nass has found that the most powerful strategies for working with people can be learned from watching what succeeds and fails in technology interfaces. If a computer can make friends, build teams, and calm powerful emotions, so can any of us.Nass's studies reveal:? Mixing criticism with praise-a popular tactic for managers-is a destructive method of evaluation.? Opposites don't attract-except when one gradually changes to become more like the other. ? Flattery works-even when the recipient knows it's flattery. ? Team-building exercises don't build teams-but the right T-shirt can. ? Misery loves company-but only if the company is miserable, too.Nass's discoveries push the boundaries of both psychology and technology and provide nothing less than a new blueprint for successful human relationships.

Clifford Nass is the Thomas M. Storke Professor at Stanford University and director of the Communication Between Humans and Interactive Media (CHIMe) Lab. He is highly regarded for his research on the social and psychological aspects of how people interact with technology. Nass is sought after as a designer, consultant, keynote speaker, and quotable expert. He lives in the Bay Area.

Lloyd James (a.k.a. Sean Pratt) has been narrating since 1996 and has recorded over six hundred audiobooks. He is a seven-time winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award and has twice been a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award. His critically acclaimed performances include Elvis in the Morning by William F. Buckley Jr. and Searching for Bobby Fischer by Fred Waitzkin, among others.