Blog #217--Predicting Behavior Scares People

It is possible to predict, with a relative degree of accuracy, people’s behavior. This requires knowledge of our own natural tendencies in specific situations, plus a general understanding of body language and voice inflection. It also helps to sense emotional changes and how they alter behavior. However, many people are frightened at the prospect someone else can sense what they are thinking. After all, many of us use secrecy as a preferred survival mechanism.

A good observer of behavior can find many clues to peoples’ thought processes. But one learns quickly to keep those observations hidden as protection from the strong reactions of those who fear exposure. I remember asking people if they were thinking certain thoughts from the time I was quite young, but to a person they all denied it. After awhile, it dawned on me I couldn’t be wrong 100% of the time; guesswork alone can occasionally hit the mark. When I discovered I was a natural behaviorist, I stopped worrying about what they said and focused on my interpretations. They proved accurate fairly frequently.

When I worked at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine in the 1970s, I volunteered to teach a course in animal behavior because nearly all my clients in private practice had behavior concerns. Those in charge at the school became extremely negative toward me, even to the point of telling me there was no value in psychology, for humans or animals. Now there is a regular course in behavior in most if not all veterinary schools, but it was verboten back then. Like everything else, new ideas need a long time to fester within the minds of the general population before they begin to accept them.

Of course, some behaviors are easier to predict than others. One of the easiest is also one of the most common. When children of all ages are allowed total freedom without leaders and laws to limit them, they will go to extremes quickly. One might test boundaries a little at a time, but eventually, with nothing to block the path, all sorts of selfish acts can evolve to abuse the system for personal gain.

We see this all the time. Kids without adequate parenting can become spoiled and demanding; we all know what that is like. But let’s evaluate adults without oversight. They should know better, but if they can get away with something, they will usually try it.

For example, corporations are aware they have friends within the branches of government who, through deregulation and reduction in oversight, have basically given them a free pass to do as they please. It should not be surprising that many corporations are now taking shortcuts to save money on the items they produce. Out-sourcing jobs to areas of the world with cheaper, sometimes slave labor makes them money. So does massive increases in what they charge for their products and using inferior parts or ingredients.

Those like me who can remember what fast food used to taste like undoubtedly have noticed a reduction in taste and quality in recent years. They have also noticed price increases far beyond the inflationary rate and a reduction in the work force. In some cases, the bitterness of employees toward greedy managers is palpable as soon as one enters their establishments.

There used to be a television program which tested products to see if they had the amount of product claimed on the package. It helped keep people aware of possible cheating and kept corporations on their toes to maintain a degree of honesty. This program didn’t last long, and there is no longer any government agency willing to perform a similar function. But I have found a number of examples of products that contain less than claimed.

For instance, one type of cracker I like contains three columns of crackers per box. Little by little, the columns have become shorter than they were previously. Where they used to reach within half an inch of the top, they are now sometimes 1.5-2 inches below maximum. Several bread companies are producing smaller loaves. It might not be noticeable on grocery store shelves, but lunch meat now hangs out on all four sides when made into a sandwich.

Another company closed down to destroy their employees’ labor union and then reopened with a cheaper labor force. Every item they produce now contains less quantity than before the change, but the prices are the same or higher. And the quality of ingredients doesn’t quite measure up. An educated palate can detect subtle taste differences in these and many other products.

Pharmaceutical companies have taken advantage of lax regulatory governance to produce potentially inferior products. Even if they haven’t taken short cuts on their drugs, they have certainly inflated their prices. Sometimes, their greed knows no bounds; their prices are skyrocketing despite no increase in costs. Even life-saving drugs are not immune to price gouging if there is no regulatory restriction on it. One emergency drug needed only in extreme situations recently increased nearly 500% (since modified somewhat due to extreme pressure), and it is now necessary to purchase two at a time. Behavioral limitations are nonexistent, so like little children, extreme greed results.

We have heard sad tales about why some financial institutions are too big to fail. Indeed, their financial power frightens those who might otherwise pass laws to govern them and limit extremes, giving them carte blanche to do as they please. They operate both within and outside the government, removing massive amounts of money from the general public to pad their own coffers. And they have lobbied successfully to modify laws giving themselves more and more power. It is destructive but highly predictable behavior from a group of elites who think they can do as they wish.

There is plenty of evidence that shadow governments operated in part by one or more branches of a government have a major influence not only in the U.S. but many other countries as well. Whenever a branch of government is created with no oversight, it will make its own money (in addition to tax payer funding), develop its own foreign policy, create or otherwise learn to control its own military and intelligence, engage in assassinations and overthrow governments that won’t submit to their authority. All this is possible thanks to a lack of oversight. But even oversight doesn’t work if those responsible for setting limits favor the child and permit excesses. With time, a monster is created that is too powerful to eliminate.

All these examples and much more are the predictable result of a lack of oversight. And child excesses are just a small fraction of the behaviors in which humans operate. But most if not all these behaviors can be observed and predicted because we all tend to have the same tendencies if placed in identical environments. For all our efforts to pretend we are free to create our own lives and think our own thoughts independent of others, all we really do is continue an endless cycle that has been in operation since the beginning of time.

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