interview with newcastle herald weekender

WEEKENDER PAGE 38

Q&A

ALAN STEVENSNovocastrian Alan Stevens hasquali�cations in neurolinguisticprogramming, hypnosis, neurologicalreprogramming, human patternrecognition, and reading expressions anddangerous demeanour. He has consultedfor governments and corporate groups.He has tips for professionals, and peoplegoing on dates.

When did you become interested in bodylanguage and human behaviour?I becamemore interested in the 1980s as asur� ifesaver looking to understand whypeople put themselves in obvious danger.Then about 10 years ago I wascommissioned by a currency tradingcompany to �nd out why very few of theirstudents over the years had any successtrading. The reason in every case hadeverything to do with human behaviour. Ifound the psychology of tradingfascinating, which drove me to look forthe most advancedmethods of readingpeople. I found the world’s leaders in anumber o� elds and then brought theskills together into one program I’ve calledhuman pattern recognition (HPR).

What is human pattern recognition?HPR is the combination of a number ofdi�erent skills that allow you to recognisea person’s conscious-preferred behaviourpatterns and their unconsciously ‘‘leaked’’indicators that give away what they reallyfeel and what they are concealing in anysituation. It consists of visually readingbody language, micro-expressions, facialfeatures and personality traits, andlooking for combinations o� ndicators,recognising the discrepancies between aperson’s words and their behaviour.

How can you tell if someone is lying?When someone is lying, they have toremember the lie they’ve just told. Whenthat happens their concentration goescompletely to covering the lie and that’swhen their body language and facialexpressions start leaking like a burstwaterpipe. Ask them the right questionsand they will dig a hole they can’t climbout of. Watching that happen can be fun.

What can you read from body language?You can quickly build and test if you haverapport with them, monitor the �ow ofmeetings, and test how any conversationis going. It’s probably easier to list whatyou cannot read than what you can. Thethings you can’t read are how they arelikely to behave and respond in the futureand in a separate situation.

How can you spot a psychopath?The talks we’ve done [in Newcastle] havebeen light-hearted. It’s not somuch thatthe person is a psychopath but we canquickly pick up that a situation is not quiteright. Body language tells us if there is orisn’t congruency between what they aresaying and how they feel. Micro-expressions help us to detect dangerousdemeanour in other people.

Is dating in the 21st century di�erent tothat of previous centuries?Expectations are totally di�erent today.Things are freer and the pace is muchfaster. Today, one in �ve people meetonline where it’s estimated that 35 percent of those registered on dating sites arealready married. It can be a predator’splayground. Facebook is now blamed for20 per cent of divorces. I’ve been lookinginto that with a social media group here inNewcastle.

Whomight �nd human patternrecognition useful?The short answer is in every situationwhere two or more people interact.Reading people is essential for trainingmanagers and those leading teams. Otherareas are recruiting and job allocation;putting the right person to the right joband task. Investigators, solicitors and alltypes o� nterviewers would bene�t, aswould medical practitioners. It also helpshigh school students �nd a career thatsuits their personality.

Lisa Rockman