Category: Social psychology

The trick works well when other people already see you as competent.

A small mishap or blunder can make you more likable, research finds.

In the psychology study, people spilled a cup of coffee over themselves, after which people rated them as more attractive.

The blunder made people appear more human and approachable.

The trick works well when other people already see you as competent.

The authors explain that talented people are sometimes disliked by others:

“…group members who are considered the most able are not necessarily the best liked.

It has also been demonstrated that people who initiate the most ideas and are acknowledged as the best “idea” men [or women] by other members of their group are usually not the best liked group members.

A great deal of ability, in and of itself, might make the stimulus person seem “too good,” unapproachable, distant, non-human.”

Called the ‘pratfall effect’ by psychologists, it relies on the blunderer already being seen as confident.

In contrast, the incompetent blunderer is seen as less attractive after a pratfall.

So, just knocking things over, spilling drinks and slipping on bananas all day won’t do the trick!

The study’s authors write:

“Taken as a whole, these data support the contention that a blunder on the part of a superior person removes the onus of being “too good”; it increases his approachability and makes him seem less austere, more human-while a blunder on the part of a mediocre person makes him seem that much more mediocre.”

The study was published in the journal Psychonomic Science (Aronson et al., 1966).

One makes people look sexually receptive, the other more fashionable.

People wear more red and black when they want to look most attractive. It is well-known that red increases attractiveness as it sends unconscious signals that the person is sexually receptive. But it is only recently that psychologists have caught on to the power of black to make people appear more fashionable. Dr Robin Kramer, who led the study, said:

“Red is traditionally seen as the colour of love but more recently research has shown that both black and red are perceived as equally attractive, and that the two colours may simply increase attractiveness in different ways. While red may increase perceived attractiveness through evolutionary mechanisms, dates appear to rely more heavily on black in order to attract a potential mate, suggesting that cultural and societal influences may play a much larger role in the way people dress than the use of evolutionary signals.”

The results come from a study that analysed the dressing habits of 546 people on a UK dating show called ‘First Dates’. It found that, when dating, both men and women were much more likely to wear red and black in comparison to their pre-date interview. Black shoes, trousers and dresses were much more in evidence when people dated, than when they were interviewed beforehand. The same was true for both heterosexual and same-sex dates. Ms Jerrica Mulgrew, who co-authored the study, said:

“Our results provide the first real-world demonstration that people display more red and black clothing when meeting a potential partner for the first time and it was particularly interesting to find a larger increase in the amount of black worn as this wasn’t the focus when we designed the study.”

The study was published in the journal Evolutionary Psychology (Kramer & Mulgrew, 2018).