Suffering rejection helps us spot phonies
Study: Those who've been kicked out of a clique can easily spot fake smiles
By Jeanna Bryner
Senior Writer
Oct. 17, 2008
Rejection can make a person more intuitive. New research suggests individuals who have faced the cold shoulder can more easily spot phony people.
The ability to spot a fabricated smile, exhibited by test subjects who had
suffered rejection, could be a relic of our past, the researchers said.
"This seems to be a skill we've acquired through evolution," said researcher Michael Bernstein, a doctoral student in social psychology at Miami University in Ohio. "Living in groups several hundreds of years ago was extremely important to survival. Being kicked out of the group was like death, so they became very good at reading facial expressions and social cues."