The Science of Likability: 27 Studies to Master Charisma, Attract Friends, Captivate People, and Take Advantage of Human Psychology

Cognitive dissonance is essentially the resolution of a conflict between people’s views, thoughts, and actions.

It turns out that we all have specific and subtle signals and hints that massively influence the way we view others and how they view us. Most of them are miniscule, subconscious, and mired in the minutiae—but these are the details that actually make the difference.

This finding exemplified a simple truth: memory and mood are inexorably linked, and manipulating one can manipulate the other.

But in reality, people subconsciously evaluate their relationships based on how much value they get from such relationships.

Talk to people in terms of what makes them happy. It’s not a radical notion, but it’s not one we are taught to consider.

Ask them for something that will take no longer or shorter than three minutes. Don’t burden them unnecessarily, but don’t make it seem like you are hopeless and helpless.

Memories were heavily linked to the context, environment, events, and moods that were present at the time of the memory.

But the biggest takeaway from my degree was that so many of our decisions are made subconsciously and without any awareness on our part. There might be clear reasons to act logically in a given circumstance—and we just might ignore all of them for no apparent reason. Our conscious thought follows our subconscious will, and it often isn’t until far

making someone act for you, at their detriment, can make them like you more.