How a Secret Service agent, CIA officer, mentalist and poker pro read people
Evy Poumpouras starts with a baseline and looks for harmony between words and body, Jonna Mendez talks about spotting lies and trusting intuition, Oz Pearlman describes a built-in BS detector, and Daniel Negreanu explains how he reads opponents at the poker table. Four professions that depend on reading people offer methods anyone can compare, and a check on popular myths such as eye contact as a sign of honesty.
What method do all four people readers share? Show answer
Learn a person's normal behavior, then watch for departures from it. No single cue settles anything.
What is a baseline, in Evy Poumpouras's terms? Show answer
A person's own normal way of standing, speaking and behaving. She says you can get it in a couple of minutes.
What does Poumpouras mean by harmony? Show answer
What a person says, what their body shows and what they do should agree. A mismatch is worth noticing.
What does Poumpouras say about eye contact and lying? Show answer
The link is largely a myth. Eye contact depends on shyness, upbringing and conditions such as ADHD or autism.
Why does Poumpouras say never to call people out? Show answer
The cues are for gathering information and deciding better. Simple questions let people show you more.
What does Jonna Mendez watch for in a liar? Show answer
Trying too hard to convince, shifting expressions, stories that bounce around, and refusing to let a point go.
What does Mendez's disguise work teach a reader of people? Show answer
An impression is built from a few details and a manner, and both can be manufactured.
What changes when people lie, according to Oz Pearlman? Show answer
Their level of detail, speed and cadence, compared with their usual pattern. Most add unnecessary detail.
Why does Daniel Negreanu make opponents comfortable? Show answer
Relaxed people give off more information, and he reads best when he is relaxed too.
What does thinking in ranges mean? Show answer
Holding every possibility open and narrowing it with each action, instead of fixing on one conclusion.
Where do the four disagree? Show answer
On eye contact as a cue, on how much to trust body language, and on how far to trust first instincts.
When does reading people fail? Show answer
Online, against trained or prepared people, and when you judge someone by a general rule instead of their own normal.