We all have our ‘I-told-you-so’ moments with our friends and most of predictions come true. But, how good are our predictions when it comes to guessing about strangers? How quickly can we gauge people and draw conclusions about them?
Less than two minutes is all it takes for us to pass judgments about people and identify them from a crowd. A study conducted by University of British Columbia, revealed that it takes lesser than 120 seconds for people to recognize a leader from a bunch of strangers. So, on what basis do we identify these individuals from the rest? Well, according to the study, there are only two factors that we take into consideration. One, the skills of the person and second, his/her dominance. So, we are likely to see an aggressive person as our leader.
Very likely, your next question is How did they find this?
An initial group of 200 participants was first asked carry our certain activities in groups. After the activity, the participants were asked to rate the dominance and influence of their group members during the task. Later, an independent group of 60 participants watched short video clips of the first group performing their task. The participants of the second group were wearing eye-tracking devices and were found to pay more attention to individuals that looked more dominant in the group.
To test this study, we devised a simple question. How long did you think about the candidate you voted for in the last elections?
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Type your answers in the comments below, we are eager to hear them 🙂
