I am sure y'all have figured out I like trivia and facts. During one of my searching and clicking around online I came across this from Google Answers
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> From: capitald-ga on 30 Oct 2004 22:03 PDT
Hi there,
The field that covers this kind of thing is social psychology.
To make a summary of the research here is a list of the things that
make people like you:
1. Empathy: Your ability to read the other person
2. Similarity: People like people who are similar to themselves
3. Liking: The fact that they think you like them will make them like you
The first is empathy - which is your ability to relate to another
person is feeling. There is actually some research that shows that
your ability to read another person accurately is correlated to how
socially popular you are.
As an example: it is important when dealing with people to 'match'
whatever mood they may be in - being excited when talking to a person
who is upset is going to annoy them - and someone who is dull in
responding to someone who has some exciting news is not going to come
off well. Leil Lowndes is an author that talks about some of these in
her books (see Amazon.com)
Another important author is Allan Pease on Body Language - I met him
in August at one of his seminars - I think it is worth reading his new
book called the definitive guide to body language.
The next one is similarity: We tend to select mates and friends
because of our similarity. Tony Robins has some material that is worth
reading - see especially his chapter on rapport in Unlimited Power - a
book he wrote ages ago.
The final thing to consider is that people like people who like them -
Cauldini is a very famous prof. of psychology who wrote a book called
'influence' which I strongly suggest you take a look at.
There is a discussion that people who listen are seen as better
'conversationalists' - how to win friends and influence people talks
about this.
In the book 'the seven habits of highly effective people' stephen
covey has an empathic listening technique where you listen to what is
said, paraphase what they said back to them along with the emotion
that they are feeling. Rather than going into too much detail - i'd
suggest instead that you read the chapter in that book which is called
'first understand then be understood'
Finally - use your empathy skills to read what the other person is
thinking, talk to them using their words and language - and take a
sincere interest in other people. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I will hold on to my buck-two-ninety-eight till y'all put in your two cents!
