5 Simple Ways to Be More Likeable

 First and foremost, you have to know that people are most interested in themselves. So in order to get people to like you, you have to be interested in them. Talk to ohter people about themselves. Ask questions. Show them that you are genuinely interested in every little detail about their lives. Do that and people will turn to you if they need someobody to talk to.

Smile. Simple as that. Just smile. Show people that you are truly happy to see them and to be able to speak to them. Besides, smiling is contagious. It will make everyone's day better.

Avoid negative topics and complaining. Do you like to listen to people complainig about how bad the traffic was? No? Well, nobody does. So you should not complain! Unless you wanna become the person who makes everybody leave the room you enter.

Don't be afraid to make eye contact. Making eye contact while speaking makes you appear more condifent and caring. Even more truthful.

Last but not least, look clean. We can't really change our physical appearance to look more attractive overnight. But what we can do is look clean and wellgroomed. Take good care of your personal hygen. Wear only clean clothes. For one, this makes you more confident, therefore you'll be more social. And secondly, they way you look is the first thing people notice about you. The first judgement. The first vibe you sent out to other people. And you want this vibe to be positive.

A Proposal to Classify Happiness as a Psychiatric Disorder

Is he suffering from a psychiatric disorder?

Happiness is an emotional state of well-being characterized by pleasant emotions. Something we all strive for. There even is an entire branch of psychology, positive psychology, that is dedicated to increasing human happiness.

One psychologist, Richard Bentall, however, proposed in 1992 that happiness, or, as he proposed it to be called, "major affective disorder, pleasant type", should be classified as a psychiatric disorder.

"Happiness is statistically abnormal, consists of a discrete cluster of symptoms, is associated with a range of cognitive abnormalities, and probably reflects the abnormal functioning of the central nervous system. One possible objection to this proposal remains--that happiness is not negatively valued. However, this objection is dismissed as scientifically irrelevant."

You can read more about why Richard Bentall thought that happiness should be classified as a psychiatric disorder here.

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Do We Believe Everything We Read?

What is our first reaction to new information? Do we doubt its veracity or do we automatically believe it?



Well, a Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza believed that the very act of understanding information was believing it. We may be able to change our minds about believing the information later, but at first, we believe everything.






A French philosopher, mathematician and physicist René Descartes, however, did not agree with Spinoza on this. He argued that understanding and believing are two separate processes. He thought that people take in the information by paying attention to it and then decide whether they believe it or not.

Who Was Right?

Daniel Gilbert and his colleagues conducted a series of experiments to test whether understanding and belief operate together or whether belief of disbelief comes later.

71 participants had to read statements about two robberies and then give the robbers a jail sentence. Some of the statements were made to make the crime seem less malicious, for example the robber's kids were starving, and the others made to make it look worse, for example the robber had a gun.

Only some of the statements were true, others were false. Participants were told that true statements were displayed in green type and false in red type. Half of the participants were deliberately distracted while they were reading the false statements. The other half were allowed to read the statements undisturbed.

If Spinoza was right and Descartes wrong, then those who were distracted while reading the false statements wouldn't have time to process the fact that the statement was written in red and is therefore false, and ergo the jail time they give to the criminal would be influenced by the false statements as well.

Well, the results showed that when the false statements made the crime seem worse, the participants who were disturbed gave the criminals almost twice as long prison sentences.

However, the group in which participants were allowed to read undisturbed managed to ignore the false statements and there was no remarkable difference between prison sentences.

These results obviously mean that only when given time to process the information did people behave as the false statements were actually false and that without the time to process the information, people believed what they read.

Gilbert and his colleagues have also conducted further experiments on this subject which have all confirmed that Spinoza was right and we really are designed to believe everything we read.