Hacking Shyness – Designing Social Interaction

Shyness and embarrassment are not individual emotions – they’re produced by a social dynamic that can be fixed through better design.

When we’re kids, we’re fearless – self-conscious emotions like shame and embarrassment are something we learn. Socialisation into a culture is important, of course, but we tend to overdo it: as we learn how to behave, we internalise critical voices and external judgement so strongly, that they actually prevent us from engaging in things we’d like to do.

In this talk, Sebastian Deterding walks us through how these mechanisms work – and how to go about countering them. He presents a set of design patterns for creating social dynamics that allows for play, participation and experimentation without fear.

This talk is useful if you yourself are shy – but it’s absolutely necessary if you organise any kind of event where people are expected to participate, interact or explore something that is new to them.