Behavioural Analysis Conference 2023 / Day 1

Below is my all-too-brief summary and take-home of Day One of the Behavioural Analysis Conference 2023. Again, Chair Philip Baum and his organising team brought together an exciting group of eager attendees (both academics and practitioners) and an amazingly varied ensemble of expert speakers. All at the Prague Airport for three days. If you couldn’t attend, here are some of my personal favourites. There were many, many more. A list of all the lectures you can find on www.behaviouralanalysis.com

Sébastien Colmant (ACI Europe) discussed how to attract and retain airport security staff in the post-Covid era. He argues that upskilling security staff with Behavioural Detection training will develop and maintain interest in the job. He shared some insightful figures, for instance, about how many times an average security officer needs to ask, “Do you have any liquids or gels in that bag?“ during a day’s shift (280 times a day) or the number of X-ray images that they need to analyse in one year (some 123.200). Food for thought for a job perceived as “You can only fail”.

Sagit Yehoshua Ph.D spoke of the dramatic change in the mindset of terrorists in the last 20 years. There used to be a strong social component in their actions. Nowadays, most attacks are highly personal, with no real affiliation to a specific group. In her profiling, she sometimes could not see any ideology at all.

Aaron Le Boutillier MSc ’s presentation effectively destroyed the after-lunch dip with a thought-provoking lecture on the possible role of neuroscience in behavioural analysis training. We all saw him in real life, but please read his bio and be amazed.

Kim Covent (Advisor to the Ghent Local Police Force, Belgium) combined museums, behavioural science and The Simpsons! It all had to do with the training of museum staff in an emergency (e.g. visitors cannot leave the museum because of a threat or disturbance outside). How to communicate to the visitors clearly and practically that something is amiss? She and her colleague Wesley De Smet used the archetypes represented by the five famous members of the Simpsons cartoon family: Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie. And taught the museum staff to quickly figure out which member of the public was a “Marge” or maybe more like a “Bart” and listing ways to communicate with these archetypes (e.g. insisting on emergency, setting clear boundaries and stating the consequences for not complying with museum staff for “Barts”). Beautiful in its simplicity. And like the best solutions, it makes one wonder: “Why did I not think of that?”

The afternoon was on Human Trafficking, with Tim Colehan discussing the efforts of IATA to educate the aviation workforce and more personal stories from Sgt. Dominique Boulianne (RCMP) and Dr Sarah Hall (Pace). This last lecture centred on “Contextual Safeguarding”. For me a true eye-opener. I need to read up on this.

The final stage was for Donna Hubbard (Director of Human Trafficking Education & Awareness, flight attendant, survivor, bishop, and so much more) with a personal story that captured the room and insights for airport and airline staff when we are confronted with a possible case of human trafficking. “Yes, you could be wrong about it, but what if you were right (and did not raise the alarm?)”.

No doubt, Day Two will be another rollercoaster.

Post Scriptum: See you all at the Behavioural Analysis Conference 2024 in London, 21-23 May.