\u201cEveryone wears some kind of a mask.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First impressions mean a lot. When you meet someone new, you\u2019re probably trying to get a feel for who they are\u2014and whether they\u2019re trustworthy<\/a>. It all comes down to noticing behaviors<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Human behavior expert Chase Hughes<\/a> explains how to read someone<\/a> instantly. \u201cEveryone wears some kind of a mask\u2026a persona that I put onto the world,\u201d he says in a YouTube video<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Getting underneath that mask is what truly reveals who someone is and what they\u2019re all about. Hughes explains that people build these masks to conceal shame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Hughes, there is one important question to keep in mind when trying to read someone: \u201cWhat does this person want me to feel about them, and what do they want me to notice?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hughes notes that this is the beginning of understanding why someone builds a mask based on shame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShame is \u2018I shouldn\u2019t have done that. I\u2019m a bad person for doing that. I need to hide it,\u2019\u201d he shares, explaining that shame holds power in today\u2019s culture because it has been institutionalized as a \u201cpublic weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shame creates cognitive dissonance, which Hughes notes is mental discomfort. \u201cMental discomfort says, \u2018I don\u2019t want to be this uncomfortable in front of people.\u2019 That creates a mask,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Understanding that most people wear a mask\u2014a persona they present to the world\u2014is key. From there, the task is determining how \u201cthick\u201d or \u201cthin\u201d that mask is and what it\u2019s made of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf I\u2019m seeing somebody who\u2019s acting like he\u2019s posturing all the time\u2014he\u2019s yelling, he\u2019s puffing his chest out\u2014the mask is usually the opposite of what it\u2019s concealing,\u201d says Hughes. \u201cSo I\u2019m seeing a fearful little boy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hughes gives another example of how to read someone\u2019s mask by comparing it to a car covered in bumper stickers. He tells a story about pulling up behind a car with various bumper stickers that signal aspects of the driver\u2019s identity, from \u201cI Did Yosemite\u201d to marathon stickers to ones that say \u201cI Go Fishing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He asks his kids what the stickers say about the driver, and his daughter replies that the person is adventurous. Hughes then asks what else it might mean, and she says it means the person can be trusted and would make a good friend. Hughes then gets to the point: if someone is a good friend, it means they need friends. In other words, that person is lonely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe better you get at understanding humans, the more that you\u2019re going to see loneliness, shame, and suffering,\u201d says Hughes. \u201cThe way that I deal with loneliness, conceal shame, and anesthetize myself from suffering equals human behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, Hughes notes that another thing to look for when reading a person is their level of self-control, which comes down to whether they are disciplined or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To spot it, Hughes says that even if someone is a stranger, they will appear \u201cmore predictable in a good way. They\u2019re more likely to be trustworthy because they already discipline themselves. They have self-control.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He notes that this is important in many areas where relationships matter, including business. If someone lacks self-control, Hughes says he tends to be more cautious around them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cEveryone wears some kind of a mask.\u201d First impressions mean a lot. When you meet someone new, you\u2019re probably trying to get a feel for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/656424257_1408920534602267_763706421435035204_n.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6816"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6820,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6816\/revisions\/6820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The #1 question to instantly read someone<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The power of shame<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bumper-sticker alliteration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Reading for self-control<\/h2>\n\n\n\n