Lack Social Confidence? Here’s What To Do

It’s not uncommon for people to be uncomfortable in social settings; especially when there’s a lack of familiarity with people in the group.

One simple way to boost your confidence is to use the “acceptance prophecy”.

What is that?

It means that when you meet someone new, if you hold the belief that you are going to like them, they are more likely to like you.

I know this sounds nice and possibly a little too good to be true, but there is hard data to back it up.

Stinson et al., (2011), in the journal Psychological Science, had test participants who labelled themselves socially insecure, complete a self-affirmation exercise. When the researchers followed up with the participants both 4 and 8 weeks later, the self-affirmation group reported feeling less nervous and more secure when compared to the control group.

Take Home Message

Simply expecting to like people before you meet them makes it more likely they will like you (the acceptance prophecy). This can even help to reverse the “rejection prophecy” (expecting people to dislike you, behaving nervously and increasing your chances of being socially rejected).

Give it a shot the next time you are out socially!