Behavioral Intelligence

Every decision a person makes tells a story. Just as the methods outlined throughout this book cause predictable responses within the target audience subjected to psychological operations, all the actions we take and behaviors we exhibit are the predicable responses to those things that have shaped us over the course of our lives. The only difference is that psychological operations are intentional modifications of action and behavior caused by the conscious manipulation of the things to which people are exposed, while everything else that the person is exposed to tends to be incidental, but the actions that result are still predictable. In psychology, intelligence refers to a person’s ability to acquire and apply knowledge, but that’s not the type of intelligence being discussed in this chapter. In this case, intelligence refers to any information about another group, organization, nation, or people that is useful in strategic planning or executing military operations. With the right kinds of intelligence about the actions and behaviors of others, one can not only deconstruct behaviors to derive their root causes, thereby allowing one to understand the intentions, motivations, and plans of others, but one can even predict the future actions that the person will take. This intelligence isn’t the type of invasive psychological information about people, which requires in-depth interviews, either—it’s all simple things that can be readily observed, much of it from a distance.