It\u2019s better to be interested than interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why is it that certain people are incredibly likable<\/a>? One of the biggest reasons is that they know how to make others feel good<\/a> about themselves. This may seem selfish, but in a world where so many seem to think only of themselves, it feels great to spend time with people<\/a> who are genuinely interested<\/a> in us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the best ways to tell someone is interested in us and enjoys our company is if they genuinely laugh and smile<\/a> when we\u2019re together. When we laugh and smile together, we\u2019re a lot more likable than if we seem distant and indifferent. In fact, Vanessa Van Edwards<\/a>, communications expert and author of Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People<\/em>, says that when you are generous with your smiles and laughter, people will like you even more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBe an easy laugher and an easy smiler,\u201d she said in an Instagram video<\/a> while looking unimpressed. \u201cDon\u2019t be too cool to laugh or smile. An easy laugher and easy smile means you\u2019re always looking for an opportunity to smile. If someone shares good news, don\u2019t say, \u2018Oh yeah, that\u2019s great news.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMake sure that you actually smile and actually laugh. Smiles are contagious,\u201d Van Edwards continued. \u201cResearch has proven that when we see someone with an authentic smile, it makes us feel happier, too. So, try to look for opportunities to laugh or smile in conversation at someone else\u2019s story, someone else\u2019s joke, or just when something makes you feel good. They are contagious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Van Edwards notes that our smiles should read as genuine, or they\u2019ll have the opposite effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOnly real smiles are contagious,\u201d she said. \u201cIn other words, if you look at a picture of someone with a fake smile, you feel nothing afterward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The key to a genuine smile is that you can see it around the eyes. If you covered a smiling mouth with a 3\u201d x 5\u201d card and couldn\u2019t tell someone was smiling from the eye area, it wouldn\u2019t be seen as genuine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Van Edwards, back in our \u201ccaveman\u201d days, if someone approached the village and flashed a smile from 300 feet away, we\u2019d know whether they were friendly. So it was important for a smile to be large enough to be seen from a distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you can\u2019t see a real smile on the top half of the face, it\u2019s not a real smile,\u201d Van Edwards said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Laughter also makes people feel great because it\u2019s believed we evolved this behavior to signal<\/a> that a person or situation is safe. It releases endorphins, which reduce stress and help people feel connected. No wonder people feel great when they laugh together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A big smile and a hearty laugh are obvious signifiers that someone is engaged in an interaction. However, some people may feel uncomfortable expressing themselves through over-the-top smiles or laughter for cultural reasons. There are still many ways to express warmth and interest through body language, such as leaning forward in a conversation, using a \u201ctriple nod\u201d<\/a> to encourage the speaker, or mirroring<\/a> their posture and tone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, it\u2019s common for people to think that if they want others to like them, they have to be impressive. However, the truth is that people just want to know you\u2019re interested in them. So before you head to your next party, instead of thinking about the amazing stories you\u2019re going to tell to the new people you\u2019ll meet, just remember to give a big smile and hearty guffaw at their jokes. That will make you more likable than the greatest anecdote you could ever tell. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s better to be interested than interesting. Why is it that certain people are incredibly likable? One of the biggest reasons is that they know how<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7220,"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-7218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/661572934_1420388713455449_3897353348531526326_n.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7218","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=7218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7221,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7218\/revisions\/7221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How to be more likable<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How to have a genuine smile<\/h2>\n\n\n\n