Back on February 4, 2020 I blogged about how The Toastmasters Pathways Level 2 project on Understanding Your Communication Style says there are four communication styles. Where did they come from? In that post I discussed the DISC model from William Moulton Marston (Dominance – Influence – Steadiness – Compliance). I mentioned that a popular Swedish book from 2018 by Thomas Erikson, titled Surrounded by Idiots had restated those four categories as colors. Now there is a new 2025, fully revised and expanded edition of that book – Surrounded by Idiots: The four types of human behavior and how to effectively communicate with each in business (and in life). There is a preview at Google Books. He very briefly mentions the DISC model. But finally on pages 333 to 335 there is a short reflection on its history.
On page 37 of the book (and a color version at the inside front cover) there is a four-column table with Different Characteristics per Color, as shown above. The second row has wording for DISC, but there is no explanatory column at the left. Then, on pages 38 to 40, there is another excruciatingly long table listing Characteristic Traits with thirty rows that does include an explanatory column.
And on page 100 there is a 2x2 table (as shown above) with those four types. [He didn’t show the words for DISC, but I have added them].
Also, in Chapter 22 beginning on page 251 Thomas discussed The Most Common Combinations of two colors, as I have shown above in another table.
The book jacket claims that:
“Thomas Erikson is a Swedish behaviorist and the bestselling author of the Surrounded By books, a series about human behavior and communication. The series, including Surrounded by Idiots, has sold more than ten million copies in 70 languages.”
A half-dozen other books in the series are (in chronological order):
2020
2021
2021
Surrounded by Setbacks: Turning obstacles into success (when everything goes to hell)
2022
2023
Surrounded by Energy Vampires: How to slay the time, joy, and soul suckers in your life
2024
Surrounded by Liars: How to stop half-truths, deception, and gaslighting from ruining yourlife
A post at Reddit pointedly asked Has it occurred to Thomas that he might be the problem?
Thomas did not bother to add information from his other books to his latest revised one about Idiots. I found at the public library and skimmed all his others except the Energy Vampires one. Here are excerpts from some of them.
Page 54 of the Psychopaths book has a better 2x2 table (as shown above) with those four DISC types.
And pages 78 and 79 of his Setbacks book has a better table with a description of the four colors (as shown above). Thomas did not bother to repeat those two improved graphics in the revised Idiots book.
Similarly, there is a better Description of DISC on pages 82 and 83 of Surrounded by Psychopaths:
“The DISC Model
Not everything in an individual’s behavior can be explained by the DISC model.
There are other models that explain behavior, but I use this as the basis because it is simple to digest and teach. There are more parts of the puzzle than the colors to map various behavior patterns.
The DISC model is based on thorough studies and is used throughout the world. It has been translated into more than fifty different languages.
Historically, there are similar views in different cultures – for example the four humors described by Hippocrates, who lived in Greece about 2,500 years ago.
About 80 percent of all people have a combination of two colors that dominate their behavior. Approximately 5 percent have only one color that dominates behavior. The others [15 percent] are dominated by three colors.
Entirely Green behavior, or Green in combination with one other color, is the most common. The least common is entirely Red behavior, or Red in combination with one other color.
There may be differences between the sexes, but I do not deal with the gender perspective in this book.
The DISC model does not work for analysing people with ADHD, Asperger’s borderline personality disorder, or other disorders.
There are always exceptions to what I claim in this book. People are complex – even Red people can be humble, and Yellows can listen attentively. There are Green people who deal with conflict because they have learned what to do, and many Blues understand when it’s time to stop fact-checking. Problems in communication arise when people lack self-awareness.
My own colors are Red and Blue and a bit of Yellow. No Green to speak of. Sorry.”
An article edited by Lotten Kalenius from the Swedish Skeptics Association (VoF) on April 15, 2024 is titled One of Sweden’s biggest scientific bluffs which discusses the book and Thomas Erikson. It has a section titled Is Erikson an authority in behavioural science? When he was looked up:
“So, we used Ladok, the register of everyone who has studied at Swedish colleges and university, to see if we could find the courses taken by Erikson. There was no-one with his name and birthdate registered. In fact, Erikson’s professional background is in sales, first for the bank Nordea and then running his own business training salespeople. It is most likely that his only educational background is, at best, the Swedish equivalent of a high school diploma.”
Lotten noted that Erikson was named Fraudster of the Year in 2018 by VoF and also added:
“He has as much right as my poodle to call himself a behavioural scientist.”
Erikson is quite glib as illustrated in a 12-minute YouTube video titled Red behavioural profile DISC | Dominant people | Surrounded by Idiots. But what he mostly says is Ipse Dixit – dogmatic expressions of opinion asserted without proof. I will ignore all of it. Think carefully before you accept any of it.
A jester statue was adapted from one at Wikimedia Commons.
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