Success is all about trust โ to build a better relationship is to build trust and make people trust you. Believe it or not, your body language reveals a lot about your intentions and what you think. Body language or facial expression is a powerful tool for building trust without words.
Want to appear trustworthy in a conversation or presentation? Try this one simple trick that will make people trust you.
A recent study in theย Personalityย and Social Psychology Bulletinย offers a relatively easy way to appear more trustworthyโnews you can use for anyone who needs to win over an audience, whether thatโs an audience of one or two in a crucial conversation, or a larger audience listening to a presentation or speech.
Letโs start with the basics.ย You demonstrate trust in terms of content by showing you understand the audienceโs problems.ย Inย body languageย terms, you establish trust with open behavior and gestures, and credibility with authoritative behavior and gestures. The voice is especially important in this regardโto establish authority, speak at the low end, but not the bottom, of your vocal range.
Speakers often overcompensate instinctively, pushing their voices too low, thus achieving a vocal quality something like the sound of squirrels playing in gravel, not very authoritative. And a voice pitched too high can soundย stressedย out or frantic, donโt go there, either.
Related: How To Stay Strong And Trust Again When Youโve Been Hurt Before
One Simple Trick To Make People Trust You
The good news: The study found that โa neutral face with a slightly upturned mouth and eyebrows makes people look more trustworthy.โ
The author of the study, Dr. Jonathan Freeman, said, โOur findings show that facial cues conveying trustworthiness are malleable while facial cues conveying competence and ability are significantly less so. The results suggest you can influence to an extent how reliable others perceive you to beโbut perceptions of your competence or ability are considerably less able to be changed.โ
For anyone not completely terrified or over-caffeinated, this facial expression seems relatively easy to adopt and thus use to increase your trustworthiness.
And, as the author of the study notes, this kind of body language message is more powerful: โThe brain automatically responds to a faceโs trustworthiness before it is even consciously perceived.
The results are consistent with an extensive body of research suggesting that we form spontaneous judgments of other people that can be largely outside awareness. These findings provide evidence that the amygdalaโs processing of social cues in the absence of awareness may be more extensive than previously understood.โ
Related: 11 Reasons Why Trust Is More Important Than Love In A Relationship
You donโt consciously control your evaluation of other peopleโs reliability. Yourย unconsciousย mind does. The ability to influence that unconscious decision is powerful for anyoneย looking to connect to an audience.
Iโm going to start practicing that little smile and raised eyebrows. If I do it regularly, it will become automatic behavior on my part, and then watch out world โ Iโll be selling Brooklyn Bridges to all comers. Or at least creating a more positive connection.
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Written By: Nick Morgan, Ph.D. Originally Appeared On: Psychology Today Republished with permission.
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