Face reading tips and techniques

Face reading techniques can prove to be very useful in your professional and personal lives. Face reading techniques will help you learn more about an individual and help you take a right decision. The following article will introduce you to some of the face reading techniques.
Face reading techniques help you learn a lot about a person's inner characteristics and nature. It will help you notice if the person is hard working or a sinister character. Face reading techniques is not a new science or study, but has been around since Aristotle's time. There is a vast history and extensive literature available regarding face reading or physiognomy. The classical literature containing information on face reading by Homer, Hippocrates have also been found. But, the crown for carrying out extensive research and study on physiognomy goes to Aristotle. He studied the various features like color, skin, hair, limbs, gait and even voice and noted down his interpretations. The practice of physiognomy or face reading techniques have also been noted by Latin classical authors like Jubenal, Suetonius and Pliny the Elder.

The initial face reading techniques were descriptive in nature and the medieval ones related to the predictive and astrological sides. Al-Razi, an Arab writer and alchemist and Avicenna a renowned scholar have also been known to have contributed a lot to the literature related to physiognomy or face reading techniques. By the 18th and 19th century, the art of physiognomy was widely used to detect criminal tendencies. In the 20th century, the face reading techniques became popular in the interpretation of mental faculties and character traits. Franz-Joseph Gall developed a method of pure empiricism that according to him could detect the criminal minds.

Dr. Edward Vincent Jones, a US Superior Court Judge, in the 1920's went on to study the physiognomy traits. He was motivated to learn more about the face reading techniques as he found many similarities between the hundreds and thousands of people he met in his courtroom. With the earlier literature as his basis, he resolved the contradicting statements in and came up with his own sixty four physical traits and called it 'personology'. These personology traits are also seen in systems other than physiognomy. American psychologist Paul Ekman, in the 1960's, started a face reading business, where he found the face as an instrument to communicate. This facial communication according to him are governed by certain rules that help in reading facial expressions. This article will discuss some free face reading techniques that will help you get a fair idea regarding the inner true self of a person. The following free face reading techniques cover few important facial expressions that will help you learn more about the unknown traits of a known person.

Face Reading Tips

Face reading techniques have been studied through centuries to know more about an individual. The inquisitive human mind has always been fascinated to know more about the minds of his fellow men. The ancient Chinese art of face reading believed in the ideology that the human face was a reflection of the inner spirit and the people of Medieval Europe thought the face was synonymous with virtue. There are over 100 points on the face that you can analyze and find more about a person. Here we will see a few face reading tips that you may find useful when trying to learn more about a person. You can learn more on body language.

Facial Shape
You can learn a lot about a person with his or her facial shape. The following common facial shapes will help you learn a few face reading tips:

• Round Face: They are known as water-shaped faced people. They have a plump and fleshy face. People with round faces are an emotional lot. They are known to be sensitive and caring. They are thought to have strong sexual fantasies. If you are looking forward for a long term, stable relationship, these people will prove to be the right choice.
• Oblong Face: The long, thin face is called as the wood-shape face. These people may have a muscular or athletic physic. They are thought to be practical, methodical and tend to be a tad more overworked. They are thought to be weighed along with narcissism and may have problematic relationships.
• Triangular Face: These face types are usually related to a thin body and intellectual suasion. They are considered to be creative and thought to have a fiery temperament according to the Chinese face readers.
• Square: They are known as the metal shape face. These people are thought to have an intelligent, analytical and decisive mind. The face shape is associated with an aggressive and dominating nature. You can read more on face shape and personality

Face Profile
There are five types of face profiles that you should consider when trying to read a person with the help of face reading techniques. The five face profile types are:

• Convex: The person with the convex profile types have a sloping forehead, slightly prominent brows and a large nose that is slightly curved. They also have a receding chin shape. These people come under the category of hard headed people who have a demanding nature and an impatient streak.
• Concave: The people with concave profile type have a prominent forehead, almost flat eye brows, smaller and straight or slightly inward curved or bent nose. They have a flat mouth and well formed chin that has an outward curve. These people are thought to be good natured and patient lot. They tend to judge over things intentionally.
• Plane: The plane profile type neither have the intentional character of the concave type or the demanding nature of the convex type. They have a consistent character and a balanced state of mind.
• Concave-Convex: This profile has individuals with a concave upper part and lower convex facial part. These people tend to be of very weak character and are often impulsive in nature. They tend to be very unreliable people.
• Convex-Concave: The upper face in convex and the lower face is concave. These people are said to have a dominating and ruling personality. They are also associated with the intentional and persistent nature of the concave profile.

Forehead Shape
You can learn many things about a person's thinking style if you know the face reading techniques related to the forehead. The following forehead tips will help you know more:

• Straight Forehead: These are known as progressive thinkers and follow a progressive style of thinking. They cannot think of a third point, until they understand the second point. They are mostly misunderstood in childhood as dumb kids though, they turn out to be intelligent. It is the progressive style that slows down their thinking and they do not have a fast reflex response. They have difficulty when working under pressure and need time to think progressively. Thus many times they tend to loose their control in situations like the last few minutes before their exam ends or in case of deadlines.
• Slopped Forehead: These people are fast thinkers and so quick they tend to complete your sentences before you finish. They are easily bored with people with straight forehead as they cannot slow down to match their speed. You can find basketball players and football players with slopped foreheads as they are quick and fast. They are also quick decision makers and thus tend to get caught in a lot many wrong decisions.
• Curved Forehead: These are very creative people and do not like restrictions thrust on them. They love to use their imagination and hate to do maths and accounts. They are very good with arts and areas related to creativity and imagination. The curve of their head tends to occupy a large section of their brain, thus are very intelligent and you may find many geniuses in among them.

Eyes
The eyes are said to be the windows of the soul and you can learn a lot with the help of face reading techniques of the eyes. If someone has prominent eyes you can conclude that they are bright and happy and you may consider the person as a kind hearted, friendly and approachable individual. Small, shifty eyes indicate a nervous temperament. Small eyes may also indicate a perfectionist and attentive person.

Eyes that are close set tend to show good concentration power. Uneven set eyes show the person has a different look out at things from different perspectives. Wide set eyes indicate a broad minded and tolerant person and have a little regard for figures of authority. Narrow set eyes indicate a narrow minded person.

The upward slanting eyes show an opportunistic person and someone who gets what he wants. People with deep set eyes are intense, progressive and observant. They are usually into creative and writing fields. You can even learn more about a person by the way he or she looks, whether a warm hearted person or cold and cruel nature or an amorous lover.

Eyebrows
The face reading techniques in respect to the eye brows also reveal a lot about a person. If a person has weak or thin eye brows, he tends to be indecisive and has may lack slightly in self confidence. Bushy eyebrows indicate assertiveness and strong personality. Unibrow shows an intense persistent and these people tend to be jealous and possessive in nature. They are introverts and tend to think a lot.

Nose
The shape of the different types of noses are very important trait in face reading techniques. A person with high, straight, full and fleshy tip that has a gently flared but protected nostrils is thought to be the ideal nose shape. The fleshy tip is a symbol of warmth, cordiality and a deep sense of empathy. They have high standards set for themselves and are basically good mannered souls.

People with big or over sized nose tips indicate violent streaks and a larger nose tips shows that a is more prone to violent acts. An aquiline nosed person is a strong willed, independent and enterprising individual. An upturned nose indicates someone who loves to mix with people around him.

Mouth
The face reading techniques for mouth shape also helps in learning more about a person. Small shaped mouth shows a tendency of being feminine and men with small mouth tend to be shy and not very manly in their ways. Large mouth shows a talkative person and the width indicates the generosity of character.

Thin top lips and full bottom lips indicate people who cannot reciprocate in a relationship. And full top lip and thin lower lip shows an over giving person. Caring and sensitive nature is indicated by full round lips and small lips mean a self centered personality. Lips that are curved upward indicate an optimistic person and downward curve shows a hard to please person.

Jawline
In face reading techniques, a strong jawline is indicative of a very strong value system in a person. They are quick to judge and have high stamina as well as endurance power. These people tend to be stubborn. Weak jawline indicates weak personality and weak willed person. They are easily influenced by others and tend to live life according to terms set by others. People with a wider jawline than the ear line indicate a highly competitive person. They hate loosing and do not tolerate competition.

Wrinkles
Wrinkles, something all women dread, is a useful face reading techniques. The crow's feet or wrinkles around the eyes indicate an open hearted person. They are also called as joy lines as these people tend to spread happiness wherever they go. Vertical frown lines between the eyes show a logical, hardworking and a very decisive individual. The purpose lines, that is, lines extending from the nose to the mouth are indicative of people that are walking on the right path of life.

These are just a few face reading techniques that will help you learn a bit more than you can see in a person. Face reading techniques is not an exact science. You need to learn and understand a lot before you can claim to be a face reading expert. Face reading is just like palm reading, you can never claim it to be exact and totally true, but you always tend to believe by giving it the benefit of doubt. Reading a face like an open book is not an easy task and you require a lot of talent to decipher the truth behind the mask. You can always find a kernel of truth with the help of the above free face reading techniques. Take it up as a hobby, you may never know when the face reading techniques help you out of a sticky situation.

Nose Psycology

Face Reading (personology) and Nose Shape

Big noses: If you think that your big nose makes you look bad or if you don't really like its shape then cheer up because according to face reading your big nose is giving out some great impressions!!

People with big noses hate receiving orders and like being their own bosses. They don't like doing small tasks and prefer making bigger contributions than others. That's why these people will hardly ever be your bar tenders or you receptionists. People with big noses like to move higher in ranks and may fight for them.

People with big noses get bored easily from systematic and repetitive work. If you are a manager then handing off donkey work to these people would be a great mistake.

Small noses: A person with a small nose does not have problems dealing with repetitive and systematic work. You are most likely to find secretaries and people who work in similar having small noses. Of course they may get bored of routine work but not as fast as a big nosed fellow will.

Eagle nose: The hooked nose or one that looks like the eagle's hook from the side view is one i am talking about. A person with a nose like this one has the same characteristics as that of a big-nosed person but with a bit of exaggeration. To get along with such a person make sure you respect him and make him feel important.

The helper's nose: If, from the side view, the nose is concave with a round tip, then this person has a helper's nose. He is called the helper because he has a natural tendency to help others. He may join charity groups for the satisfaction he feels upon doing these kinds of activities. The only draw back is that he is sometimes taken advantage of by his friends.

When nose tip is round : If the nose tip is round when observed from a front view then this person is nosy!! He likes to know about everything that is going on and he may try to get all information out of you If there's something that he knows little about. Don't make him feel like you are hiding something if you want to get along with him. What's pretty funny is that the word nosy here is related to the nose which shows that this word may have had a face reading origin.

Nose profile going up: When, viewed from the side, the horizontal line at the bottom of the nose can be pointing upwards. A person with this kind of nose trusts everything. He may even be the victim of scams or fall a prey to a television commercial that advertises a certain low quality product.

Take notice of the noses of small kids' and you will notice how most of them have exactly this type of nose. kids believe everything you tell them and this person thinks like them. The good point about the person with this nose type is that he's not skeptical at all.

Nose profile heading down: This type of nose is the same as the previous one but the difference is that the profile is going down instead of up so that the nose appears to be pointed downwards. This person is very skeptical and he barely believes anything new unless he gets all the proofs he asks for. When dealing with him, bear in mind that he will ask a big number of questions before he can believe you.

Nose profile is horizontal: when the same nose profile is horizontal then this person is neither a skeptic nor a person who believes in anything. This person has a balanced approach when hearing about something new.

6 Ways to Kill Creativity

Want your organisation to perform poorly? Here are six ways to kill creativity in business, or anywhere.

Many organisations claim they want to foster creativity—and so they should—but unintentionally, through their working practices, creativity is killed stone dead.

That's what Teresa Amabile, now Director of the Harvard Business School, found when looking back over decades of her research in organisations (Amabile, 1998). As part of one research program she examined seven companies in three different industries, having team members report back daily on their work.

After two years she found marked differences in how organisations dealt with creativity. Whether or not they intended to, some of the organisations seemed to know the perfect ways to kill creativity, while others set up excellent environments for their employees to be creative.

Since so many organisations seem to be aiming to kill creativity, here are the six main methods:

1. Role mismatch

One of the easiest ways of killing creativity is by giving a job to the wrong person. It could be an assignment or the whole role. Employees need to feel their abilities are stretched, but that the assignment is within their grasp.

Within many organisation the usual system is to give the most urgent work to the person who appears most eligible (i.e. is most senior/most junior/has the least work/is the next cab off the rank etc.). Managers typically fail to really look at the requirements of the job/assignment and then at the skills of the employee. Mismatches are a recipe for an unsatisfactory and creativity-free result.

2. Restrict freedom

Yes, people need specific goals set for them, but they also need freedom in how to achieve these goals. If you want to kill creativity, then simply restrict employee's freedom in how they reach their goals. Two common methods are by changing the goals too frequently or by implicitly communicating to your staff that new methods are not welcome. Employees will soon get the message and stop trying.

3. Ration resources

Creativity requires time and money; to kill it off restrict both. You can do it by setting impossibly short deadlines or by restricting resources to a minimum.

Managers tend to be obsessed with physical spaces, thinking that it's bean bags, fussball tables or funky furniture that engenders creativity. Far more important, though, is mental space. People need enough time and resources to come up with good ideas. Put people under hideous time and resource pressure, though, and you'll soon squeeze out all their creativity.

4. Reduce group diversity

Groups in which people are very similar tend to get along well. They don't disagree, they don't cause any trouble and they are frequently low in creativity. If you want to make sure that creativity is kept to a minimum then reduce the diversity in groups.

In contrast when teams are made up of people with different skills, abilities and viewpoints, their different approaches tend to combine to produce creative solutions. They may take longer and they may argue more but diverse groups breed creativity—so avoid them.

5. No encouragement

It's easier to be critical than it is to be constructive. If you want to stifle creativity then meet new ideas with endless evaluation and criticism. Also, one of the problems with new ideas is that often they don't pan out. So to discourage further creativity, make sure you really punish people whose audacious ideas don't work.

Once people know they're going to be endlessly interrogated about their new ideas—and punished if they don't work out—they'll soon stop producing them.

6. No support

Infighting. Politicking. Gossip. All can easily kill creativity. If the organisation is turned against itself, it's unlikely to produce truly creative work. Try to avoid letting information flow freely and discourage collaboration, because both are likely to boost creativity.

Without support, attempts to be creative will quickly wither and die and employees will become demotivated and cynical.

Keep it subtle

Remember that all these methods for killing creativity are best done with subtlety. You should say you provide support, freedom, resources and so on, but only do it half-heartedly. This will give you the appearance of a creative organisation but you won't produce the truly creative solutions which mark out the best.

Why People Avoid the Truth About Themselves

Knowledge may be power, but when it comes to self-knowledge, ignorance is bliss.

Sitcoms often take advantage of a very simple fact about human psychology to make us laugh. The set-up will go something like this: main character tells their partner: "I would never compromise my ethical principles for money!" Then that very same character is offered an opportunity to compromise their ethical principles for money...and they take it.

The joke is not just about hypocrisy but also about the main character's complete unawareness of his or her hypocrisy.

Watching this we might assume it isn't intended to be diagnostic of human psychology; rather it's just a way of making a joke at the expense of the main character. But really it's a perfectly realistic example of how people avoid the truth about themselves.

In a recent paper in the Review of General Psychology, Sweeny et al. (2010) outline the three main reasons that people avoid information:

1. It may demand a change in beliefs. Loads of evidence suggests people tend to seek information that confirms their beliefs rather than disproves them.
2. It may require us to take undesired actions. Telling the doctor about those weird symptoms means you might have to undergo painful testing. Sometimes it seems like it's better not to know.
3. It may cause unpleasant emotions.

You can see all three of these motivations in play in the sitcom example. Weighed against them—motivating us to find out the truth—are all the reasons you'd expect like curiosity and hope for positive information. Whether we try to find out the truth or avoid the information depends on the following:

1. Expectation. Most obvious and maybe most powerful. The more we expect bad news, the more effort we make to avoid it.
2. Lack of control. Less obvious but it explain a lot. When we feel we have less control over the consequences of information, we are more strongly motivated to avoid it. Like when you could be getting news about a life-threatening disease. Because there may be little you can do about it, it may be better not to know.
3. Lack of coping resources. When people feel they can't handle distressing information at the moment then they're more likely to avoid it.
4. When the information is difficult to understand. The harder it is to interpret information, the less we want to know about it.

So people often do their best to avoid learning about themselves and sometimes this makes perfect sense. For example genetic testing may tell you that you have an increased risk of atrial fibrillation after the age of 70. Is that useful information or just one more thing to worry about? If there's nothing you can do about it then perhaps it's information that only worsens your quality of life.

Other times we hurt ourselves by avoiding information. Like when we refuse to get that strange mole checked out and end up delaying treatment for cancer.

The trick is to know which information to avoid and which to seek out. But we can't know this without knowing what the information is. But once you've learnt the information you can't unlearn it. It's a problem.

I offer no answers, merely to point out that avoiding information is a much more rational strategy for dealing with the complexities of a frightening world than it might at first seem. There's a good reason we value the innocence of youth: when you don't know, you've got less to worry about.

When we laugh at the hypocrisies of a sitcom character, it's also a laugh of uncomfortable recognition. As much as we'd prefer to avoid the information, in our heart of hearts we know we're all hypocrites.

How to Achieve Anything

Goal-setting research on fantasising, visualisation, goal commitment, procrastination, the dark side of goal-setting and more...

We're all familiar with the nuts and bolts of goal-setting. We should set specific, challenging goals, use rewards, record progress and make public commitments (if you're not familiar with these then check out this article on how to reach life goals).

So how come we still fail?

This psychological research suggests why and what mindsets should help us reach our goals.

1. Stop fantasising

The biggest enemy of any goal is excessive positive fantasising. Research on fantasising in goal-setting shows that positive fantasies are associated with failure to get a job, find a partner, pass an exam or get through surgery. Those whose fantasies were more negative did better. Don't experience the future positively before you achieve it.

2. Start committing

The reason we don't achieve our goals is lack of commitment.

One powerful psychological technique to increase commitment is mental contrasting. This involves entertaining a positive fantasy but then pouring a bucket of cold reality over it (follow this link for the details). It's hard, but research shows people really respond to it.

3. Start starting

You can use the Zeigarnik effect to drag you on towards your goal. A Russian psychologist, Bluma Zeigarnik, noticed that waiters seemed only to remember orders which were in the process of being served. When completed, the orders evaporated from their memory.

What the Zeigarnik effect teaches is that one weapon for beating procrastination is starting somewhere...anywhere. Just taking that first step could be the difference between failure and success. Once you've started, the goal will get lodged in your mind.

4. Visualise process NOT outcome

We're all susceptible to the planning fallacy: that's thinking all will go smoothly when it won't (and hardly ever does). Visualising the process of reaching your goal, helps focus attention on the steps you need to take. It also helps reduce anxiety.

5. Avoid the what-the-hell effect

When we miss our target, we can fall foul of the what-the-hell-effect. It's best known to dieters who go over their daily calorie limit. Reasoning the target is now gone, they think 'what-the-hell', and start eating too much of all the wrong food.

Goals that are vulnerable to the what-the-hell-effect are generally short-term and inhibitional (when you're trying to stop doing something). The effect can be avoided by setting goals that are long-term and acquisitional. Find out more about the what-the-hell effect.

6. Sidestep procrastination

When goals are difficult and we wonder whether it's really worth it, procrastination can creep up on us. Under these circumstances the key is to forget about the goal and bury yourself in the details. Keep your head down and use self-imposed deadlines (read more on how to avoid procrastination).

7. Shifting focus

You can't keep your head down all the way or you'll get lost. In the long-term, the key to reaching a goal is switching between a focus on the ultimate goal and the task you are currently completing. Research suggests, when evaluating progress, especially on difficult tasks, it's best to stay task-focused. But when tasks are easy or the end is in site, it's better to focus on the ultimate goal (read more on how to shift focus).

8. Reject robotic behaviour

Often our behaviour is robotic. We do things not because we've really thought about it, but because it's a habit or we're unconsciously copying other people (e.g.Bargh et al., 2001). This type of behaviour can be an enemy of goal striving. Ask yourself whether what you are doing is really getting you closer to your goal.

9. Forget the goal, what's the aim?

Goals should always be set in the service of our overall aims. But there's a dark side to goal setting. When goals are too specific, it's easy to get stuck; when they are too many goals, unimportant, easy ones get prioritised over vital, difficult ones; when they are too short-term, they encourage short-term thinking. Badly set goals reduce motivation and may increase unethical behaviour.

Remember to keep in mind the whole point of the goal in the first place.

10. Know when to stop

Sometimes the problem isn't getting started, it's knowing when to stop. Psychologists have found that sunk costs make us do weird things (Arkes & Blumer, 1985). 'Sunk costs' refer to the effort or money we've already expended in trying to reach our goal. So, even when our plan is failing, we keep pushing on.

Research shows that the more people invest in a goal, the more they think it will succeed; irrespective of whether it actually will succeed. Know when to change tack or you'll end up flogging a dead horse.

11. If-then plans

What all these studies show is the importance of self-regulation in achieving a goal. Unfortunately, as we all know to our cost, controlling the self can be very hard.

One strategy with plenty of research to back it up is forming 'if-then' plans (Gollwitzer et al., 2006). You simply work out in advance what you're going to do in a particular situation. Although it sounds simple, we often prefer to wing it, rather than plan. With a little ingenuity, though, if-then plans can be used to surmount the obstacles described above.

10 Psychological Keys to Job Satisfaction

Do you get a pleasant satisfied feeling after a hard day at work?

If some job satisfaction surveys are to be believed then as many as a third of us are considering a change of job. Clearly many are finding it hard to get that feeling of satisfaction from work.

Job satisfaction is important not just because it boosts work performance but also because it increases our quality of life. Many people spend so much time at work that when it becomes dissatisfying, the rest of their life soon follows.

Everyone's job is different but here are 10 factors that psychologists regularly find are important in how satisfied people are with their jobs.

1. Little hassles

If you ask doctors what is the worst part of their jobs, what do you think they say? Carrying out difficult, painful procedures? Telling people they've only got months to live? No, it's something that might seem much less stressful: administration.

We tend to downplay day-to-day irritations, thinking we've got bigger fish to fry. But actually people's job satisfaction is surprisingly sensitive to daily hassles. It might not seem like much but when it happens almost every day and it's beyond our control, it hits job satisfaction hard.

This category is one of the easiest wins for boosting employee satisfaction. Managers should find out about those little daily hassles and address them—your employees will love you for it.

2. Perception of fair pay

Whatever your job, for you to be satisfied the pay should be fair. The bigger the difference between what you think you should earn and what you do earn, the less satisfied you'll be.

The important point here is it's all about perception. If you perceive that other people doing a similar job get paid about the same as you then you're more likely to be satisfied with your job than if you think they're getting more than you.

3. Achievement

People feel more satisfied with their job if they've achieved something. In some jobs achievements are obvious, but for others they're not. As smaller cogs in larger machines it may be difficult to tell what we're contributing. That's why the next factor can be so important...

4. Feedback

There's nothing worse than not knowing whether or not you're doing a good job. When it comes to job satisfaction, no news is bad news. Getting negative feedback can be painful but at least it tells you where improvements can be made. On the other hand positive feedback can make all the difference to how satisfied people feel.

5. Complexity and variety

People generally find jobs more satisfying if they are more complex and offer more variety. People seem to like complex (but not impossible) jobs, perhaps because it pushes them more. Too easy and people get bored.

To be satisfied people need to be challenged a little and they need some variety in the tasks they carry out. It sounds easy when put like that but many jobs offer neither complexity nor variety.

6. Control

You may have certain tasks you have to do, but how you do them should be up to you. The more control people perceive in how they carry out their job, the more satisfaction they experience.

If people aren't given some control, they will attempt to retake it by cutting corners, stealing small amounts or finding other ways to undermine the system. Psychologists have found that people who work in jobs where they have little latitude—at every level—find their work very stressful and consequently unsatisfying.

7. Organisational support

Workers want to know their organisation cares about them: that they are getting something back for what they are putting in. This is primarily communicated through things like how bosses treat us, the kinds of fringe benefits we get and other subtle messages. If people perceive more organisational support, they experience higher job satisfaction.

Remember: it's not just whether the organisation is actually being supportive, it's whether it appears that way. The point being that appearances are really important here. If people don't perceive it, then for them it might as well not exist. That's why great managers need a politician's touch.

8. Work-home overflow

Low job satisfaction isn't only the boss' or organisation's fault, sometimes it's down to home-life. Trouble at home breeds trouble at the office.

Some research, though, suggests that trouble at the office is more likely to spill over into the family domain compared with the other way around (Ford et al., 2007). Either way finding ways of distancing yourself from work while at home are likely to protect you against job stressors (Sonnentag et al., 2010).

9. Honeymoons and hangovers

Job honeymoons and hangovers are often forgotten by psychologists but well-known to employees. People experience honeymoon periods after a month or two in a new job when their satisfaction shoots up. But then it normally begins to tail off after six months or so.

The honeymoon period at the start of a new job tends to be stronger when people were particularly dissatisfied with their previous job (Boswell et al., 2009). So hangovers from the last job tend to produce more intense honeymoons in the next job.

10. Easily pleased?

Some of us are more easily satisfied (or dissatisfied) than others, no matter how good (or bad) the job is. To misquote a famous cliché: You can't satisfy all the people all the time.

Still, some jobs do seem better suited to certain types of people. A lot of work has been done on person-environment fit but because jobs vary so much it's difficult to summarise.

One generalisation we can make, though, is that people get more satisfied with their jobs as they get older. Perhaps this is because the older people are, the more likely they are to have found the right work for them. There's little evidence for this but I'd certainly like to think it was true.

On my darker days, though, I tend to think it's because young people have sky-high expectations (which are soon dashed) and older people have learned to live with their lot, however uninspiring it is.

Why can't we all be satisfied?

When you look at this list of what makes for a satisfying job, you might wonder why everyone can't have one. With a little thought, most of the predictors of satisfaction can be provided.

The answer is probably quite simple. Organisations pay lip-service to keeping their employees satisfied, but many don't really believe it makes a difference. What this research shows is that it can make a huge difference.

If you're a manager looking to improve satisfaction at your workplace then start with point number 1: find out about people's little hassles and address them. It might not look like much but people will really appreciate it.

10 Hidden Benefits of Smiling

Smiles are about much more than just showing pleasure. Psychological research reveals 10 ways to use them to your advantage.

People are always smiling, especially in groups, but it doesn't just signal that they're happy, far from it. We use smiles for specific social purposes because they can send out all sorts of signals that can be useful for us¹.

Here are ten ways smiles can be used to our advantage by sending out messages about our trustworthiness, attractivity, sociability and more.

1. Get others to trust you

In a world where everyone is out for themselves, who should we trust? One signal that suggests we are trustworthy is a smile. Genuine smiles send a message that other people can trust and cooperate with us. People who smile are rated higher in both generosity and extraversion and when people share with each other they tend to display genuine smiles (Mehu et al., 2007).

Economists even consider that smiles have a value. In one study by Scharlemann et al. (2001) participants were more likely to trust another person if they were smiling. This study found that a smile increased people's willingness to trust by about 10%.

2. Smile for leniency

When people do bad things they often smile when they are caught. Is this to their benefit?

According to a study conducted by LaFrance and Hecht (1995), it can be. We treat people who've broken the rules with more leniency if they smile afterwards. It doesn't matter whether it's a false smile, a miserable smile or a real felt smile, they all work to make us want to give the transgressor a break.

This seems to work because we find people who smile after breaking the rules more trustworthy than those who don't.

3. Recover from social slip-ups

Did you forget to buy your partner an anniversary present? Has an important client's name slipped your mind? Have you accidentally kicked a small child? If you've tripped on a social banana, embarrassment is your go-to emotion.

The function of embarrassment is to get us out of tight social spots (Keltner & Buswell, 1997). The embarrassed smiles we display involve looking down and sometimes we emit a silly little laugh. This is designed to elicit fellow-feeling from other people so they think less of the slip and forgive us more quickly.

So the embarrassed smile helps us get out of jail free(ish). Once again, the power of a smile.

4. Because otherwise I'll feel bad

Sometimes we smile both because it's polite and so that we can avoid feeling bad afterwards. Like when someone enthuses about how they saved a small amount of money with a coupon they found down the back of the sofa. It hardly seems to warrant a smile but you muster one anyway because it's polite.

In one study people were asked to remain stony-faced after hearing someone else's good news (LaFrance, 1997). They felt bad afterwards and thought the other person would think worse of them as a result.

So we nod and smile politely because otherwise we'll regret it afterwards. Women, though, seem to feel this pressure to smile at the happy news of others more than men.

5. Laugh off the hurt

Smiling is one way to reduce the distress caused by an upsetting situation. Psychologists call this the facial feedback hypothesis. Even forcing a smile when we don't feel like it is enough to lift our mood slightly (this is one example ofembodied cognition).

A word of warning: smiling at upsetting things may work but it doesn't look good to others. When Ansfield (2007) had participants viewing distressing videos, those who smiled felt better afterwards than those who didn't. But people who smiled at distressing images were judged less likeable by others.

6. Grin for insight

When we're nervous our attention tends to narrow. We stop noticing what's going on around the edges and only see what's right in front of us. This is true in both a literal and a metaphorical sense: when nervous or stressed we're less likely to notice ideas that are at the edge of our consciousness. But to gain insight into a problem, it's often precisely these peripheral ideas we need.

Cue a smile.

Smiling makes us feel good which also increases our attentional flexibility and our ability to think holistically. When this idea was tested by Johnson et al. (2010), the results showed that participants who smiled performed better on attentional tasks which required seeing the whole forest rather than just the trees.

So a smile really can help give us a burst of insight.

7. Smile for sex

A woman's smile has a magical effect on men, over and above eye contact. One study examined how men approached women in a bar (Walsh & Hewitt, 1985). When a woman only established eye contact with a man, she was approached 20% of the time. When the same woman added a smile, though, she was approached 60% of the time.

When men smile at women, though, the effect is less magical. While smiling increases women's attractiveness to men, it doesn't work so well the other way around. Indeed there's some evidence men look more attractive to women when displaying pride or even shame, than when they look happy (Tracy & Beall, 2011). Less smiling makes a man look more masculine.

8. Hide what you really think

Psychologists used to think that a genuine smile never lies. Fake smiles involve only the mouth, while real smiles—called Duchenne smiles by psychologists—reach up to the eyes. Recent research, though, suggests that 80% of people can fake the crinkly eyes central to a Duchenne smile (see Duchenne: Key to a Genuine Smile?).

So smiles can be used to hide what we really think, but it's still not easy to fake a real smile because they have to be timed correctly. A key to a trustworthy smile is that it has a slow onset, i.e. it takes about half a second to spread across the face. One piece of research has found that in comparison to a fast onset smile (about a tenth of a second to spread), slow onset smiles are judged more trustworthy, authentic and even more flirtatious (see: A Slow Smile Attracts).

9. Smile to make money

We've already seen that economists have calculated the value of a smile, but can a smile make us real cash-money? Apparently the broad smile of a waitress can: Tidd and Lockard (1978) found smiling waitresses made more in tips (there's no study on waiters).

More generally people in service industries, like flight attendants or those in entertainment and hospitality are effectively paid to smile at customers. But, watch out, a constant mismatch between felt and displayed emotion—called emotional labour by psychologists—can be exhausting, possibly leading to job burnout.

A smile may make money, but it can also be draining.

10. Smile and (half) the world smiles with you

One of the simple social pleasures of life, which goes almost unnoticed because it's automatic, is when you smile at someone and they smile back.

As you'll have noticed, though, not everyone does smile back. Hinsz and Tomhave (1991) wanted to see what proportion of people would respond to a smile aimed at them with their own smile. Their results suggest around 50% of people reciprocate. In comparison almost no one responds to a frown with their own frown.

Smile for longevity

If none of these studies can coax a smile out of you then consider this: people who smile more may live longer. A study of pictures taken of baseball players in 1952 suggests those smiling outlived their non-smiling counterparts by seven years (Abel & Kruger, 2010).

Now there's a reason to smile.

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¹There are also all sorts of cultural and gender differences in why and how we smile. Women generally smile more than men, although this still depends on the situation. Across cultures, Russians smile the least and Americans the most. American smiles, though, tend to be more 'fake', i.e. involving mainly the mouth rather than both the mouth and the eyes.

HOw to be creative

The mysterious connection between need for structure and creativity.

Do you like surprises? If you do, it may surprise you to learn that a lot of other people don't.

Our natural ability (or lack thereof) to deal with surprising situations and the uncertainty they generate may have an important role to play in our creativity.

Psychologists call our natural way of dealing with uncertainty 'personal need for structure'. Some people have a greater desire to know what is coming next, what to expect; whereas other people don't mind being surprised.

Take a couple of social situations as examples. Imagine you go to a restaurant with your partner, where you are met by the maitre d' and sat down, brought your menus, given the wine list and so on.

Throughout the evening the social structure of the situation is just like every other time you've visited a restaurant. The rituals of ordering food and drink; the pretending to ignore other diners, but secretly checking them out; then, when the bill arrives, briefly considering doing a runner before laying down the plastic.

The rituals are comforting.

But let's imagine we mess with this situation. Say you walk into the restaurant and there's no maitre d', you sit down wherever you can fit in. Then you are brought random foods and drinks that you didn't choose and the people sitting next to you don't ignore you, but start up conversations like you were old friends. Not only that but the waiters also sits down to eat their meals with you.

And it turns out the whole things is free, sort of: apparently everyone is coming around to your place next Saturday and expects the same treatment.

What kind of a weird restaurant has this system? Well, it's just the rules of a dinner party transported to a restaurant, but because the rules are out of place they are surprising.

The point is that those with a high personal need for structure would find the dinner-party-style restaurant highly uncomfortable. You don't know what to expect because the rules have all been changed and no one told you. Other people, though, don't mind these sorts of things so much: they are more likely to take it in their stride.

The good news for those who like surprises is that psychologists have found that they are generally more creative. Something about this ability to roll with the uncertainty inherent in some situations seems to make people's minds more open to new possibilities. It seems uncertainty breeds creativity.

A recent study, though, has added an important nuance and gives creative hope to those of us who don't like surprises.

In their study Rietzschel et al. (2010) tested both people's need for structure and their fear of being wrong. They thought that both would have an effect on creative performance. Participants were given a series of tests of creativity which included being asked to draw an alien. Those aliens which looked least like a mammal were judged most creative.

The researchers found that when participants weren't afraid of being wrong then their need for structure didn't stop them being creative. The problems came when people's anxieties destroyed their ability to be creative.

Those of us who need structure can still be highly creative as long as we don't allow our fears to get the better of us. The key is to find ways to reduce the fear of being wrong and give ourselves time to discover all the possibilities our minds have to offer.