‘We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.’ –Dostoevsky
Are most people nice, happy, trustworthy and interesting? Or do people usually strike you as cold, grumpy and not to be trusted? How you answer can tell us something about you. In a recent psychology article, Wood et al. explore “perceiver effects”, or in other words how your own personality affects your perception of others. They show that our personality affects perceptions of others with respect to one major factor: how positively we view other people. If we see others as relatively happy, we are also likely to think that they are more trustworthy, nice, interesting and have fewer anti-social tendencies. Seeing others in a more positive light is related to being happy, satisfied with life and emotionally stable yourself.
photo { Marc Van Dalen }
