People by nature are incredulous creatures, and Russians especially. More than 75% of our citizens believe that in a relationship you need to be careful. In the opposite – people need to be trusted – only 25% are sure. Oddly enough, it is precisely the gullible natures who are less likely to be deceived. Studies show that they better recognize the lie.
We are used to believe that incredulity and caution help to recognize the lie. Researchers Nancy Carter and Mark Weber ** from the Rotmansky School of Management at the University of Toronto (Canada) decided to check if this. At first they asked a group of MBA students a simple question – who, in their opinion, feels a lie, a gullible person or a prudent cynic better? As expected, 85% of students replied that cynics know better how to recognize a lie. Then Carter and Weber tested students to determine the individual level of gullibility, and asked them to watch several videos – staging the interview when applying for a job.
Candidates for the position in these videos were supposed to make all their forces in order to appear in the best light and get a job. At the same time, half said that they could lie three times during the interview.After watching the video, the participants in
the experiment needed to evaluate the honesty of the heroes of the videos and tell which of them they themselves would take to the position on the site of the employer.
Surprisingly, participants with the highest level of trusting were the best lies detectors. More precisely, they determined which of the interviewed in the video lied. On the contrary, incredulous recognized the lie and agreed to hire one of the ralons candidates.
Researchers put forward two main hypotheses, why gullible people easier recognize the lie:
1. Subtle perception. People can become more gullible over time, because they subtly feel a lie. If you easily determine when you are lying, then you are less worried that you can be fooled.
2. Readiness to take risk. Living in society means risk it to one degree or another. Anyone who is not afraid of this risk and is actively in contact with strangers, eventually learns to determine the lie more accurately. Anyone who avoids social contacts never develops the skill to distinguish a lie from the truth.Of course, in addition to these factors, it is worth taking into account the individual characteristics of a person. Some of us have a natural gift to read body language and more developed social skills, the rest have to work more on it.
Whatever the explanation, one thing is clear – trusting people, sometimes for no reason, we ultimately win. The problem of a suspicious person is that, not trusting strangers at least a little bit, he misses the potential opportunities for communication. Suppose a barely familiar person invites you to a restaurant. Reject an invitation out of fear that he may have hidden bad motives, is safer, but at the same time you lose a chance to meet a friend for life.
The same with business. Trust is the basis of business relations. Favorable transactions are concluded on the basis of mutual trust – everyone contributes to, although often does not have the fullness of information about the partner.
Trusting people are more accurately determined when they are lying, and can enter into social contacts in the early stages of relations, gaining an advantage in both personal and professional life.
*Fund survey public opinion.
** n. L. Carter, J. Mark Weber “Not Pollyannas: Higher Generalized Trust Predicts Lie Detection Ability”. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2010;No. 1 (3).