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The Book of Tells (Peter Collett)[unlocked]

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THE BOOK OF TELLS<br />

'place-dropping' or 'experience-dropping'. Of these<br />

three, name-dropping is the most effective means <strong>of</strong><br />

increasing one's social status because it exploits the need<br />

that all <strong>of</strong> us have to keep our opinions consistent. For<br />

example, if you like person A and you know that person<br />

A likes person B, then you are more likely to like B,<br />

because it keeps your opinions in line with each other. If<br />

you were to decide that you didn't like B your opinions<br />

would be unbalanced. <strong>The</strong> same principle applies with<br />

name-dropping. When your work colleague comes over<br />

to you and tells you about a famous person whom he's<br />

just met, he's not simply passing on a bit <strong>of</strong> news -<br />

he's actually encouraging you to like him more because<br />

someone whom you admire appears to like him.<br />

• DEFLECTORS. People who are shy or who want to avoid<br />

the attention <strong>of</strong> others <strong>of</strong>ten resort to linguistic<br />

'deflectors'. In conversation they frequently ask the other<br />

person questions about themselves, or they steer the conversation<br />

towards topics that are closer to the other<br />

person's interests. This automatically shifts the spotlight<br />

away from them and reduces the chances that they will<br />

have to reveal something about themself. <strong>The</strong> other<br />

deflecting strategy that shy or insecure people use is to<br />

talk about impersonal matters. This deflects attention<br />

from themselves and the other person, and shifts it<br />

towards less threatening topics like architecture or the<br />

weather.<br />

• CONTRASTORS. Words like 'but', 'however' and 'nevertheless'<br />

are used to set up a contrast. <strong>The</strong>y're favoured by<br />

people who like to point out that things aren't always<br />

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