Summary Cues
High signal

Intent Versus Interpretation

The reminder that what a person feels and what we believe they feel can differ.

Principle
Channel
High
Reliability
Advanced
Difficulty to Read
Example

A nervous habit may look like deceit to a watcher who does not know the person. The gap between what someone feels and what we read into it is where misjudgement lives.

How to Read It

Hold your reading as a hypothesis to be tested rather than a fact to be assumed. Treat every interpretation as a question you might still answer wrongly.

A Word of Caution

Confident misreading does real harm, so favour curiosity over certainty. Being sure you have read someone correctly is exactly when you are most likely to be unfair.