Embarrassing Yourself Will Gain More Trust With People

Researchers at UC Berkeley have discovered that being embarrassed — or even just acting embarrassed — convinces others that you’re more trustworthy. In both videotapes and photographs, observers who witnessed a person act embarrassed possibly underwent an empathy response, “creating their own contexts” to put themselves in the other person’s mindset, thus heightening acceptance of the subject.

Photo by zwola fasola/Shutterstock

So how does this affect your life? For one, you shouldn’t be ashamed of showing embarrassment. Common scenarios like spilling a drink on yourself or tripping on the sidewalk may endear you to your companions if you show a bit of embarrassment. Second, when you meet people for the first time, you don’t need to pretend that you caught their name, since a slight blush at your own oversight might make them warm up to you that much faster. If you ever meet me, please say your name once, then repeat your name again in about three minutes, because there is a 99.99% chance I’ve forgotten it.

Embarrassed? You’ve won more trust [Discovery]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

Here are the cheapest plans available for Australia’s most popular NBN speed tier.

At Lifehacker, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


Leave a Reply