A few years ago, I went to a lecture at Boston College given by Professor Joe Tecce. One of his interests is predicting who's going to win an upcoming election. Since the 1988 presidential election, Joe has been accurate 100% of the time. (Are you thinking he should perhaps turn to Megabucks or Powerball?)
But what's cool is that he doesn't base his predictions on guessing. He bases them on carefully counting how often each candidate blinks during the debates. (He calls them "blinks per minute," or BPM.)
He got started on this idea when he noticed that people who are lying blink more often. He saw that liars blink even more than schizophrenics. So he thought that BPMs might indicate lying. But ultimately, he concluded that faster blinking might also just indicate a lot of stress.
During the presidential debates, John McCain blinked 104 bpm, while Barack Obama was only 62. The average for a person in front of a camera is 30-50. (Your average blink rate is 15-20 bpm.)
Here's an interview with him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS6c3UjWRT4&feature=related
Interesting, isn't it? Here's a story about his findings:
http://www.dailynewstribune.com/news/state/x1776791538/Video-Blinking-expert-predicts-president-based-on-eye-action-during-debates
Of course, this might make you nervous to go to a party with Joe. ("Will he be counting my blinks?")
Psychology has so much really fascinating stuff. We have lots of great courses in psychology at Granite State College. You can take a course online, in a classroom at any of our nine campuses, or even a combination, with some weeks online and some in a classroom so you can meet and interact with your instructor. A lot of adult online education is heading this way, and at Granite State College, we recognized that that's where adult students' interests lie.
But what's cool is that he doesn't base his predictions on guessing. He bases them on carefully counting how often each candidate blinks during the debates. (He calls them "blinks per minute," or BPM.)
He got started on this idea when he noticed that people who are lying blink more often. He saw that liars blink even more than schizophrenics. So he thought that BPMs might indicate lying. But ultimately, he concluded that faster blinking might also just indicate a lot of stress.
During the presidential debates, John McCain blinked 104 bpm, while Barack Obama was only 62. The average for a person in front of a camera is 30-50. (Your average blink rate is 15-20 bpm.)
Here's an interview with him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS6c3UjWRT4&feature=related
Interesting, isn't it? Here's a story about his findings:
http://www.dailynewstribune.com/news/state/x1776791538/Video-Blinking-expert-predicts-president-based-on-eye-action-during-debates
Of course, this might make you nervous to go to a party with Joe. ("Will he be counting my blinks?")
Psychology has so much really fascinating stuff. We have lots of great courses in psychology at Granite State College. You can take a course online, in a classroom at any of our nine campuses, or even a combination, with some weeks online and some in a classroom so you can meet and interact with your instructor. A lot of adult online education is heading this way, and at Granite State College, we recognized that that's where adult students' interests lie.
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