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Psychologists Say the Most Likeable People Aren’t Funnier or Better Looking, They’re Doing This

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The conventional wisdom on charisma is that you either have it or you don’t, and if you’re the type of person who rehearses handshakes or conversation starters, you probably don’t.

Research has been picking that apart for years, and a 2024 study published in the British Journal of Social Psychology is the latest to do it. Researchers Martje Buss and colleagues tracked 22 behavioral cues across two group interaction experiments—one in-person, one virtual—where strangers performed tasks together while being filmed, then rated each other on perceived popularity.

What they found is that the people who came out most popular weren’t the funniest or the most attractive. They were the most extraverted, and more specifically, the most assertive and sociable. Those two traits,........

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