In this twelve lecture series, Brown discusses how people are able to influence others, for good or bad, and how people can recognize and resist predatory influence. He starts out by identifying four elements that factor into an interaction, and how these factors can be tweaked to improve the chance of influence. He also discusses how to recognize con-artists and how they use the same elements to trick people. Professor brown quotes different studies throughout and also takes examples from both research and popular media. He ends each lecture with suggested exercises to reinforce the principles taught.
I have listened to several Great Courses series before and this one was neither my favorite or my least favorite. A lot of the things he talks about are part of common wisdom, like the importance of wearing a smile, using a firm handshake, and being genuine. As I was listening I thought that his suggestions were just as likely to help people manipulate others as to legitimately influence others. I found it useful to think about his main points, and the series did remind me of some things I could do better with as a manager and government employee. (12 lectures, 6 hrs total, 2014)
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