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social psychology
We assume new acquaintances like us less than they do.
In a 2018 study, participants consistently underestimated how much their conversation partners liked them.
Researchers tracked pairs of strangers who had just met and talked for five minutes. Both parties rated their own liking of the other and estimated how much the other liked them back. Across multiple scenarios, people systematically underestimated their own likability.
Your inner critic is projecting a social awkwardness that the other person rarely notices.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Boothby et al., 2018, Psychological Science
- What the check found
- The claim accurately describes the methodology and findings of Study 1 in the seminal 2018 'liking gap' paper by Boothby et al. published in Psychological Science.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.