Psychologists are like detectives — always looking below the surface of everyday interactions to find out what people are really thinking and feeling.
And over the past few decades, they've begun to solve hundreds of mysteries: How will your interviewer react if you answer a question about drugs honestly? How do you get someone who thinks differently to see your point of view?
Below, we've listed 10 of those incredible insights. Read on to learn more about yourself, your friends, your coworkers — and how to foster the best relationships with all of them.
SEE ALSO: 21 mind-blowing psychology findings that explain the baffling choices you make every day
1. A bad impression can be changed
For a long time, scientists thought that bad first impressions were near-impossible to change. Even if the person believed they liked you, they might still dislike you on a subconscious level.
Recent research suggests otherwise. If you give the person a chance to see your behavior in a new light, you have a chance at changing their subconscious evaluations of you.
For example, say you ignore an acquaintance on the street because you just had a massive fight with your partner and aren't in the mood to talk. Later you find out that the acquaintance thinks you're a jerk. You might want to get in touch with her and explain that you normally love talking to her, but you'd just finished sobbing and didn't want to embarrass yourself or her.
2. The first judgment people make is whether you're trustworthy
According to Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy, people ask themselves two questions when they first meet you:
• Can I trust this person?
• Can I respect this person?
In other words, they want to know if you're warm and/or competent.
Writing in her 2015 book "Presence," Cuddy says warmth is the more important factor in how people evaluate you — after they establish that you're trustworthy, they can look for evidence of your competence.
3. We prefer people who share personal information
Recent research suggests that it's generally better to reveal even potentially embarrassing information than to try concealing it.
As Business Insider's Erin Brodwin reports, "When others can tell we might be hiding something — or at least not telling the full truth — they tend to perceive us as less trustworthy than people who reveal more about themselves."
In one experiment, participants played the roles of job seekers and employers. Job seekers were asked to fill out a questionnaire asking whether they'd ever done drugs, and to imagine that they had. Most chose to withhold information about which drugs they'd used and how often.
But here's the kicker: Employers were more likely to want to hire those who'd answered "yes" than those who hadn't answered at all.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider