If You Want To Learn More About A Person You Just Met, That's The Question You Should Ask Them

When you first meet somebody, a colleague or a new acquaintance, for instance, it’s difficult to judge their personality straight away.

This can be hard because most of us try to show the best version of themselves when meeting new people. They do this because they want to seem more attractive to others and it’s only when you get to know them better that you discover their faults.

So how can you know if it’s going to be worth the time and effort to speak to new people you meet?

You usually don’t, and that means people are wary of one another until they decide whether this relationship is going to last or not.

However, science may have the answer, as a new study claims one simple question can reveal an insight into a person’s personality: ask them what they think about somebody else.

According to Dustin Wood, a professor of psychology at Wake Forest University, our perceptions of others can show a lot about our own personality. For example, if we see more people positively, it can say a lot about our own positive traits.

How positively you see others can be a sign of how happy and content a person is with their own lives and how much they are loved and appreciated by other people.

Those who are maybe unhappy or unsatisfied with their lives will be more likely to give a negative view of other people. The same applies to the people who have higher levels of narcissism as well as the ones who are prone to antisocial behavior, as they tend to be very critical in their outlook.

As Wood noted: “A huge suite of negative personality traits is associated with viewing others negatively. The simple tendency to see people negatively indicates a greater likelihood of depression and various personality disorders.”

So, asking for somebody’s opinion about somebody else can also give you a good indication of the way they view themselves. The reason is the fact that most people usually tend to refer to traits that they recognize in themselves as well.

That means that it's worth remembering that when somebody describes other people, they could actually be presenting parts of their own personality.