Monday, May 03, 2010

Make a good impression in 5 minutes

You Can Make a Good Impression in Five Minutes




It’s not exactly love at first sight – but within five minutes of meeting someone you can size up their dating potential. So how do you make the most of those five minutes? Psychologists studied speed-dating events, where people only have five minutes with each person to make a connection. Here’s what they found:



First, Dr. Paul Eastwick from Texas A&M says speed-dating does have real world parallels. Everyone goes to bars or parties and has brief conversations with people they’ve never met before. So the lessons learned from speed-dating apply to all romantic encounters.

Like that you can forget your list of requirements. You may have things on your dating list like: Must be tall, must like science fiction, or whatever you think is an important characteristic. However, in a study of over 10,000 speed-daters, researchers found that a list of preferred characteristics didn’t correlate with the people they liked and ended up picking. So go in with an open mind; throw away the list.

Don’t try to be who you think they want you to be. It’s true that being agreeable and having similarities promotes feelings of closeness – because people are attracted to others who feel familiar to them. However, being too agreeable and trying to force a connection makes you come off as weak and submissive. Instead, be yourself. People are attracted to those they find unique and interesting.

Also, know that there’s a difference between being agreeable and being friendly. Women want friendly. According to speed-dating research from Texas State University, the three things women say makes a good first impression are: The man communicates well, has a great smile, and acts friendly. Being agreeable means you say, “Yes, I love modern art too!” when you couldn’t care less. Being friendly is saying, “I don’t know much about modern art – but maybe it’s time to start. Would you like to go sometime?”

Finally, people are attracted to those who are attracted to them. So make it clear how you feel about someone. Singling someone out by saying something as simple as, “I really liked meeting you; you’re great” makes them remember you and feel more attracted to you.

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