Of course, Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character and nobody can read people quite that well. We can all get better at it, though.
But where do you learn a skill like that? And I mean for real — methods backed by science.
So I called a guy who has the answers: Sam Gosling.
Sam is a personality psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin and author of the book Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You. Here’s what you’ll learn from Sam in the post below:
What really works (and doesn’t) when reading people.
How to get more accurate first impressions.
What someone’s home or office can tell you about them.
What someone’s Facebook profile really says about their personality.
How to tell when someone is faking and putting up a false front.
Okay, put on your deerstalker cap and let’s get to work.
What Sherlock Gets Wrong — And How You Can Get It Right
So what does Sam say is implausible about Sherlock Holmes?
You just can’t tell that much about someone from one little thing. Here’s Sam:
Sherlock Holmes will notice a shoe scuff mark on the side of the wall and from that he is able to completely realize this person must have fallen a certain way and done this and that and so on. But in reality there’s 20 different ways you could have had that scuff mark. That’s why we have to look for trends in behavioral residue.
via How to Read People Like Sherlock Holmes: 4 Insights From Research | TIME.
