How Well Do You Read People’s Thoughts & Feelings?

It’s not rocketry

Dr. Psychology
5 min readAug 6, 2022

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thinking
Photo by Ludovic Migneault on Unsplash

Although it’s never easy to decipher people’s thoughts and feelings, it’s also not that hard that it’s perceived as a superpower. It’s not as rocketry as you think it is.

Another myth I’d like to bust before I start speaking about reading thoughts and feelings — “You have to be telepathic to read people.”

That’s not true people! It’s a lot easier and less complicated. You can do it too.

What Do I Mean When I say “Reading thoughts & Feelings”?

I certainly don’t mean magic. If you’re guessing it’s about hacking minds, well it is, but not line by line.

“Empathic Accuracy” it’s a word that refers to the extent to which people can accurately decipher other people’s feelings and thoughts.

Let me explain this with a relatable example.

EXAMPLE

A child develops criminal traits. He starts bullying his classmates, starts stealing stuff, and the parent is informed about the child’s actions. The parent now speaks to the child.

The parent only knows that the child’s actions are wrong. But he cannot provide a logical explanation. Most probably the parent would bash the kid left & right and warn him.

Now imagine if the parent had been a similar evil kid during childhood, but now is a good human being. In this scenario, the parent is empathetically accurate with the child’s feelings. They know what drives their child toward bullying & they could explain the child better without a bashing.

Example

A teenager walks up to his parent to speak about his attraction toward the opposite sex. The parent patiently explains to the child about sex education and tells him/her — “Don’t worry, it’s normal. I know exactly how you feel, happens to all of us.”

Here the parent knows the accurate thoughts and feelings of the teenage child.

On contrary, a pregnant woman goes through labor pains, she yells & cries and the husband comforts her saying — ‘It’s okay honey, I’m here for you, Stay strong. I know exactly how it feels.’

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Dr. Psychology

Set out with the goal of raising awareness and providing information about MENTAL HEALTH, SANE PARENTING, and PSYCHOLOGY.