This little flaw to which we sometimes succumb during a meeting would actually harm the first impression… and therefore your chances of success. What is this bad attitude that makes us less attractive? Scientists have identified it!
To appear in the best light during a meeting, we are often tempted to highlight our qualities, to keep quiet about the rest… and sometimes, to do a little too much. An error according to science. A particular behavior might even make us less desirable.
A story of attitude and speech rate at stake
Thus, lying, even subtle, could have a negative impact on the impression we leave. This is what a study published in the scientific journal reveals Personnality and Social Psychology Bulletin. In this one, researchers looked at whether telling the truth is more desirable than lying, even when we don’t know if the person is lying.
The team thus subjected 221 participants aged 19 to 68 to videos of honest and lying individuals, without knowing who was telling the truth (videos of women for men and of men for women.) The participants could thus observe the rate of speech, pauses in speech, variation in voice volume as well as non-verbal behaviors (mimics, gaze, etc.).
After viewing, participants had to answer the question “How attracted are you to this person?” According to the results, the majority of participants were attracted to people who did not lie.
Sincere people also judged as warmer
The participants were also asked another question regarding the videos viewed: “How warm is this person?” In this regard, researchers have noted a correlation between the perception of a person’s warmth and the veracity of their words. Which would partly explain why we tend to be attracted to people who tell the truth: more sincere and warmer, they would thus be perceived as more desirable.
Another study having recently revealed that humor was the personality trait that made a person irresistible, here you are with all the cards in hand if you are looking for a soul mate: be funny and sincere, to capsize hearts .
