Good to know: people actually like you more than you think

Sometimes I would like to chisel the floor beneath me open and gently let myself sink in there, without anyone seeing it. I have the gift of saying and doing embarrassing things in the first ten seconds of meeting someone. Getting a weird laugh, my stomach suddenly growling loudly out of nowhere, or saying out loud what I think. And, I also have no idea what people think of me afterwards. But really: no clue. Now it suddenly turns out that people like me more than I think. And I must admit, that strokes my ego.

It keeps people busy, because when you search, you find enough studies about what we think people think of us and what they really think of us. The ladies and gentlemen psychologists from Cornell University show that we underestimate how much the other likes us. That comes from our insecurity, but it is unnecessary. What they did? They let strangers talk to each other for about five minutes and then they gave each other and themselves a score in terms of likability. They all found each other more likable than they thought they were being found. Are you still following me? By the way, this did not decrease after weeks or months. You always give yourself a little less credit for being likable. You should stop that, it turns out.

Now I find my girlfriends the most likable, but I didn't know exactly why they kept sticking to me. It turns out they just find me a more likable person than I thought all this time. Think about that the next time you speak to or see someone, it almost gives me tjakka-like tendencies. Although I don't think I get extra points for that in being likable.

Source: Quest