Goldilocks

Some corporate educators will feel vindicated when they learn what research psychologists (Amy Cuddy, et al) from Harvard, Princeton, and Lawrence have recently concluded.

The scientific word is out: we tend to judge people based on their warmth and their competence. We do it unconsciously and we do it quickly. And it’s NOT just a cultural thing; it’s a human thing.

“Warmth” is about seeing a person as friendly and well intentioned. “Competence” pertains to our sense that the person is able to deliver on those intentions. The idea is that in the back of our minds, when we’re getting to know someone—even at the very moment of introduction—we assess these two traits and judge the person as moments pass.

Interestingly, if we judge that the person has too much of one of these traits, then we probably judge that there is a deficit in the other trait. That is, if the person is TOO warm, we might predict incompetence. Similarly, if we perceive a person to be highly competent, it would not be unusual for us to predict that he or she is not very warm.

Of course, it’s quite possible that we are incorrect in these judgments we make of people—but that’s the way the species has learned to do it. Presumably, it’s helped us survive. It certainly saves time.

The upshot of this research? Aside from the fact that the tendency gets to the very ugly core of human prejudice, lot’s of things.

Got a new boss? Going for an interview? Meeting a customer? Want to behave as well as you can during business meetings? Then project balanced, high levels of warmth and competence.

Want to help someone get along with others? Then help them shore up in one of in these two areas.

To play with this a bit, to test it, think of someone you know. Bring to mind your assessment of that person’s warmth and competence. Does this combination of assessments seem to reflect your core opinion of this person?

And think of yourself. Do you project too much of one and not enough of the other? If you’re interested in fine tuning the image you project, you could self-correct accordingly. Why not compensate for the slip in judgment made by the people who judge you?