Trustworthiness and the Psychology of the Con
The Boston Globe looks into the art of the con and psychology of trust. Researchers have found that our we make judgements upon initial introduction, usually based on how closely appearance and other superficial factors mirror our own.
Researchers have discovered that surprisingly small factors - where we meet someone, whether their posture mimics ours, even the slope of their eyebrows or the thickness of their chin - can matter as much or more than what they say about themselves. We size up someone’s trustworthiness within milliseconds of meeting them, and while we can revise our first impression, there are powerful psychological tendencies that often prevent us from doing so - tendencies that apply even more strongly if we’ve grown close.
Once these impressions are made, it is very hard to override them– “unbelieving the unbelievable.”
…Though we live in an era of worry over faceless Internet predators and Web identity thieves, we can be at our most vulnerable face-to-face.
Alex Pentland’s study of signals, mimicry and his so-called Sociometer are mentioned in the article. His book, Honest Signals is due to be released in October.
