The Book of Tells (Peter Collett)[unlocked]

THE BOOK OF TELLS
basing our conclusions on what we observe about people,
rather than what they tell us about themselves.
When we're looking out for tells, there are several
principles that we need to follow. These form the basis of
telleology.
• LOOK FOR MULTIPLE TELLS. It's often tempting to draw
inferences about people on the basis of a single tell -
especially when you're trying to decide whether someone
is lying or telling the truth. This temptation should
always be resisted, because the strength of tells is always
in direct proportion to their number - the more tells
someone displays, the more certain you can be about
what they're thinking or feeling.
• DON'T JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS. It's also tempting to
assume that tells always reveal the same things about
people. Unfortunately, that's not always the case,
because a tell can sometimes convey quite different
meanings. For example, if you were to meet someone
with sweaty palms you'd probably conclude that they
were nervous about something. But you could be wrong
- the person might have hyperhidrosis, a genetic condition
which has nothing to do with anxiety. The moral
here is that you should always make your inferences conditional
until you've had a chance to check them out.
• COMPARE PEOPLE WITH THEMSELVES. In order to
interpret someone's tells it's sometimes necessary to compare
that person in several different settings, rather than
to compare him or her with lots of other people in one
setting. For example, if you arrived at a party and your
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