Everyone wants to be liked and respected.

Whether you're meeting a new colleague, trying to impress your boss, setting up your profile on a dating app, or even just chatting with a neighbor, some part of your brain is probably thinking about how your words and actions are coming across.

Sometimes our intuitions are correct, but sometimes they're not. Today we're going to talk to

a researcher who studies impression mismanagement, the mistakes we make when we're trying to make

other people like us. So why do people so often misjudge what will make a good impression?

What are some of the most common mistakes? If you want people to like and respect you,

is it better to boast a little bit or stay quiet about your accomplishments?

And what about social media?

Are the behaviors that make a good impression online,

the same ones that work in real life?

Welcome to Speaking of Psychology,

the flagship podcast of the American Psychological Association that examines the links between psychological science and everyday life.

I'm Kim Mills.

My guest today is Dr. Oval-C. Sezer, an assistant professor at Cornell University's

SC Johnson School of Business.

Her research focuses on the mistakes we make when we want to impress others and how we can

better navigate our social world. Questions she's looked at include, how can we signal that we're

both competent and likable? How can a person brag wisely? And how can we network

less awkwardly? Her work has been published in top psychology and management journals and covered

in media outlets, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.

Dr. Sezer, thank you for joining me today. Thank you so much, Kim. It's so great to be here.

Thanks so much for having me.

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