EPISODE 9: What the Cybersecurity Team Wants and Can’t Tell You (Because they Need More Behavioural Science)

Compromising Positions - A Cyber Security Podcast

Welcome to Compromising Positions!

The tech podcast that asks non-cybersecurity professionals what we in the industry can do to make their lives easier and help make our organisations more prepared to face ever-changing human-centric cyber threats!

Join your hosts, Lianne Potter, Cyber Anthropologist and Head of Security Operations for a major retailer, and Jeff Watkins, Cybersecurity enthusiast and CTO for a software consultancy as they interview this week’s guest!
This week our guest is Melina Palmer, a renowned keynote speaker in behavioural economics and the CEO of The Brainy Business, as well as hosting one of the best podcasts on the subject of the practical application of behavioural economics.

In this episode, we discuss how silos and tribal mentalities occur in the workplace due to confirmation bias and how we can expand the circle of empathy to create a more cohesive team.

We'll also delve into the issue of time discounting, availability bias and optimism bias to understand why people are drawn to the easy option in the moment.

We shall explore how the cybersecurity team's curse of knowledge can be a barrier to effective communication, and the need to create easier-to-digest content that enables 'buy-in.'

Key takeaways for this episode are:

Understanding the behaviour that leads to insecure cybersecurity behaviour is crucial in developing effective cybersecurity strategies.

Silos and tribal mentalities in the workplace can be detrimental to team dynamics and productivity. Leaders should work towards creating a 'team company' culture.

Confirmation bias and focusing illusion can lead to negative relationships and narrow perspectives. It's important to listen and build positive connections.

Cybersecurity messages should be framed in a way that resonates with users and takes into account their knowledge and habits.

To effectively communicate cybersecurity information, it's important to get into the mind space of the person you're communicating with and provide easy-to-digest content.

If you're interested in understanding the behavioural science behind cybersecurity and how we can communicate more effectively, then you're in the right place.

Links to everything Melina discussed in this episode can be found in the show notes and if you liked the show, please do leave us a review.

Follow us on all good podcasting platforms and via our YouTube channel, and don't forget to share on LinkedIn and in your teams.

It really helps us spread the word and get high-quality guests, like Melina, on future episodes.

We hope you enjoyed this episode - See you next time, keep secure, and don’t forget to ask yourself, ‘Am I the compromising position here?’

SHOW NOTES

The original, and arguably the best book on Nudge Theory - Nudge: The Final Edition: Improving Decisions About Money, Health, and the Environment by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein. This is a must read book to learn about influencing behaviour change

The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities for Personal and Collective Success by Jay Van Bavel and Dominic J. Packer

A short video on the philosophy of Ayn Rand

Melina’s episode on Confirmation Bias

Melina’s episode on Focusing Illusion

We couldn’t find the exact study Melina mentions in regards to teachers bias and the impact on grades but we did find another similar study that shares almost the same results - (Biased) Grading of Students’ Performance

Melina’s episode on Availability Bias

Melina’s episode on Time Discounting

Melina’s episode on Optimism Bias

ABOUT MELINA PALMER

Melina Palmer is a globally celebrated keynote speaker showing companies how they can easily get customers to buy and employees to buy in by leveraging the power of behavioural economics.

She is the CEO of The Brainy Business, which provides behavioural economics training and consulting to businesses of all sizes from around the world.

Her podcast, The Brainy Business: Understanding the Psychology of Why People Buy, has downloads in over 170 countries and is used as a resource for teaching applied behavioural economics to many universities and businesses. Melina teaches applied behavioural economics through the Texas A&M Human Behavior Lab and obtained her master’s in behavioural economics from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

A proud member of the Global Association of Applied Behavioral Scientists, Melina has contributed research to the Association for Consumer Research, Filene Research Institute, and writes on Behavioral Economics & Business for Inc Magazine.

Her first book, What Your Customer Wants and Can’t Tell You (2021), won first place in the Chanticleer International Book Awards in its category, of which her second book, What Your Employees Need and Can’t Tell You (2022), was also a finalist. Her highly anticipated third book, The Truth About Pricing, is scheduled to be published in January 2024.

LINKS RELATED TO MELINA PALMER

The Brainy Business (Website)

The Brainy Business Podcast

LinkedIn