Tuesday, November 14, 2017

PERSONAL SPECIAL ...Small gestures, big impact

Small gestures, big impact


Use these science-backed strategies to become more likable without words doing the talking
Becoming more likable is easier than you think. There's lots of research on the traits and behaviours that make people likable and these have nothing to do with what you are saying. Strategies include dressing up, demonstrating more energy, and handing the person you're with a cup of cof fee to make an impression.
Here are some of the most fascinat ing pieces of re search on the best ways to make friends and impress co-workers, all without saying a word:

Look self-assured and energetic

New York Univer sity researchers documented the `chameleon ef fect', which occurs when people unconsciously mimic each other's behaviour. That mimicry facilitates liking. The same study found that likability also depended on `the speed and energy of [participants] body movements' and `the self-assuredness of their body movements'. Non-verbal cues are perhaps more meaningful than you would think.


Speak in a higherpitched voice

It's less about what you say and more about how you say it. A 2014 paper, published in the journal PLoS ONE, found that men and women who speak in a higher pitch are perceived as more likeable and trustworthy. A group of 320 Scottish partici pants listened to 64 Scottish speakers say the word `hello', then rated the speakers on different traits.Researchers drew connections between the speakers' pitch and the subsequent ratings.


Spend more time around them

According to the mere-exposure effect, people tend to like other people who are familiar to them. In one example of this phenomenon, psychologists at the University of Pittsburgh had four women pose as students in a university psychology class. Each woman showed up in class a different number of times. When experimenters showed 130 students pictures of the four women, the students demonstrated a greater affinity for those women they'd seen more often in class -even though they hadn't interacted with any of them.


Maintain contact

In a French study, published in 2007 in the journal Social Influence, young men stood on street corners and talked to women who walked by. As it turns out, the men had double the success rate in striking up a conversation when they lightly touched the woman's arms as they talked to them instead of doing nothing at all.

A University of Mississippi and Rhodes College experiment studied the effects of interpersonal touch on restaurant tipping, and had some waitresses briefly touch customers on the hand or shoulder as they were returning their change. As it turns out, those waitresses earned significantly larger tips than the ones who didn't touch their customers. Subliminal touching occurs when you touch a person so subtly that they barely notice. Common examples include tapping someone's back or touching their arm, which can make them feel more warmly toward you.


Wear a smile

Recently, researchers at Stanford University and the University of Duisburg-Essen found that students who interacted with each other through avatars felt more posi tively about the interaction when the avatar displayed a bigger smile.Another study suggested that smiling when you first meet someone helps ensure they will remember you later

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