How to Know What People Want
Let’s play a game. I’ll show you images and ask your personal preferences and impressions of them. Then, we’ll see if I guessed your “personal” thoughts on them correctly.
In which dress do you think the woman looks more attractive?
Which pair of hands look more intimidating?
In which picture does Donald Trump look more powerful?
In which statue head does Abraham Lincoln look more natural?
In response to the first question, especially if you are a male, you likely thought the woman looked more attractive in the picture on the right. Studies have shown that red makes women appear more attractive to men compared to other colors. As design expert William Lidwell explains, “When presented with images of the same women in the same poses in different color dresses, researchers found that the lady in red was consistently rated to be the most attractive and most desirable, and the raters said they would be more interested in asking her out on a date and spending money on her than when she was presented in non-red clothing.” This isn’t, of course, foolproof. For example, blue may be your favorite color and influenced your decision. However, the studies don’t lie -red can make you seem more attractive.
These “Steeple Hands” are known to be a very dominant gesture. It is more common to find these intimidating than palms facing upwards. Hands in steeple position are often used in business meetings and by powerful political figures. Contrastingly, when palms are up, they not only make a person appear more openminded, but the gesture can also make them feel that way.
The Definitive Book of Body Language** informed me that, “when two leaders stand side by side for media photographs, the one who stands to the left of the pictures is perceived by viewers to have a dominant edge of the other.” Jeb bush has a height advantage to Trump, which gives an instant sense of power. However, there are still physical ways to combat that, such as how Trump always seems to be on the power side for pictures.
The two photographs of Abraham Lincoln are both of the same statue. Lighting is the only difference. In the photo on the left, he is lit from the top left. On the right picture, from the bottom. Likely due to our experiences with sunlight, we find objects to look more natural when lit from above. Bottom lighting shadows change how convex and concave features look, resulting in a distorted image.
So how did I do? While these predictions are fun, I’ve also found this information to be useful for me in life. You can harness knowledge about human nature to make your daily life more effective. Let’s say you’re a designer pitching your design for a dating website. Putting a picture of a woman in a red dress may give you an extra edge. With your top-down lighting knowledge, you make your buttons lighter on top and darker on the bottom so they look convex. Finally, you use confident body language and positions throughout your presentation to come off professionally.
How will you use your new knowledge?
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**For more body language tips refer to The Definitive Book of Body Language by Barbara and Alan Pease.
