Other people have whole worlds inside their heads, and it’s not easy to understand them. Why do they do certain things? What makes them like and dislike us? What can we learn from this individual? To have satisfying social relationships and understand other people as our friends, loved ones, customers, clients, students, teachers, or in any other way, we need to learn where to look.
How they react to the success of other people
The first thing that will tell you a lot about people is how they see the problems of other people – will they show sympathy or support? But beyond this, what helps you see the inner world of an individual is how they react to other people’s success and whether they can bear it.
Success can be difficult to bear. Even the best of us can sometimes feel envious. But the more virtuous people will acknowledge this and express their support and joy for a friend or loved one. A red flag is trying to minimize or dismiss this success, to attribute it to mere luck or make fun of the person to stop them from celebrating. A negative reaction of showing anger or envy that the person does not recognize as a problem tells you a lot about their mindset.
How they face failure
We all fail and make mistakes sometimes. That’s not a problem. However, the way we choose to face failure shows a lot about who we are. Some people will face a mistake with grace or, even if they have an emotional reaction, they can rectify it later. People will take responsibility for what happened and try to learn from the situation.
Red flags in this case include trying to blame other people, especially those who are not really at fault. It also involves not being able to accept responsibility or learn from mistakes. Seeing mistakes as a complete failure can also be a problem, as it suggests that the person is not resilient.
What content they consume
We all spend some time consuming meaningless content, like cute animal videos or life hacks we will never use. But in many cases, content can also express the person’s preferences or values.
Someone who is always looking at fringe, extremist content could have some dangerous ideas. A person who is always consuming content without much substance and not looking for anything more might show a lack of interest in self-development. The relationship is not always lineal, but how people choose to spend their time can tell you something about who they are.
How they react to small inconveniences
Being stuck in traffic or facing a long line is stressful and can cause frustration in anyone. But an important detail about a person’s character is how they might react to it.
Red flags include people becoming overly frustrated or even angry or growing entitled. Those who blame others or react in an aggressive way might show that they cannot abide the minor inconveniences of life, which is usually a bad sign. What happens if you happen to be the cause of said small inconvenience? After all, nobody is perfect. See what happens to a person when their patience is tested.
How they treat employees and servers
One of the best indications of a person’s true nature is how they treat those who have less power than them: their employees, servers, retail workers, assistants, and more, even children or animals. What happens when there might not be any consequences for being rude?
People who are unpleasant to those with less power are showing an ugly side of themselves. Those who make a habit of it are raising a lot of red flags. It suggests that people might have some nasty tendencies, which might not show with someone they want to impress.
Overall, it’s important to pay attention to the signs people give you about who they are. Even someone who is nice to you, but proves aggressive in other situations could one day turn this against you. While we don’t recommend you dump a partner just because of the TikToks they watch, it is worth looking into their patterns of behavior.
