Read People Like a Book: How to Analyze, Understand, and Predict People’s Emotions, Thoughts, Intentions, and Behaviors

by Patrick King

This person, in insulting you this way, has told you something very important about themselves, if you know how to listen. Very astute and observant people know that what a person insults you with is often nothing more than the label they can’t acknowledge they actually give themselves.

When you can pinpoint what people are motivated by, you can see how everything leads back to it either directly or indirectly.

pleasure principle,

states that we move toward pleasure and move away from pain.

pyramid of needs, otherwise known as Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It states that we are all seeking various types of needs in various points in our lives; when you can observe which level other people are in, you can understand what they are seeking out and motivated by. The levels of the hierarchy are as follows: physiological fulfillment, safety, love and belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization.

Defense mechanisms are the ways that we avoid responsibility and negative feelings, and they include denial, rationalization, projection, sublimation, regression, displacement, repression, and reaction formation, to name a few.

there are two neural pathways related to facial expressions. The first is the pyramidal tract, responsible for voluntary expressions (i.e., most macroexpressions), and the extrapyramidal tract, responsible for involuntary emotional facial expressions (i.e., microexpressions).

the things that threaten us are more verbal and conceptual—but

Crossing, closing in, or shutting off – could signal guardedness, suspicion, shyness

Expanding, opening, loosening – signals friendliness, comfort, trust, relaxation

Forward, pointed, directed – may speak to dominance, control, persuasiveness

Preening, touching, stroking – shows romantic intentions

Striking, abruptness, force, loudness – signal energy or violence, sometimes fear

Repeating, agreement, mirroring – shows respect, friendliness, admiration, submission

five traits: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

People who have high levels of conscientiousness tend to be extremely focused on their goals.

For personality, the spectrum is extroverted (E) to introverted (I). For perception, the spectrum is sensing (S) to intuition (N). For judging, the spectrum is thinking (T) to feeling (F). For implementation, the spectrum is judging (J) to perceiving (P).

Truth-tellers may struggle to remember a detail, but they’ll be far more comfortable saying “I don’t know” whereas a liar can often be seen to be rushing to make up some detailed nonsense to fill their perceived gap in knowledge.

psychopathy. It doesn’t

What kind of prize would you work hardest for, and what punishment would you work hardest to avoid?