< Go Back Choose the Middle Way Posted: Mar 1, 2018In his fascinating and hard-to-put-down book ':59 Seconds Think a Little Change a Lot
Choose the Middle Way
If you want to increase your chances of making a good impression in a meeting, sit towards the middle of the table. Psychologists Priya Raghubir and Ana Valenzuela analysed episodes of the television quiz show The Weakest Link . In the show, contestants stand in a semi-circle, and each round one contestant is voted off by the other players. Contestants standing at the central positions in the semi‑circle reached the final round on average 42 per cent of the time, and won the game 45 per cent of the time. Those standing at the more extreme positions reached the final round just 17 per cent of the time, and won just 10 per cent.
In another experiment, participants were shown a group photograph of five candidates for a business internship, and asked to choose which candidate should be awarded the position. Candidates in the centre of the group were chosen more frequently than those sitting at the edges. The researchers believe that when looking at a group, people use a basic rule of thumb important people sit in the middle and label the phenomenon the centre-stage effect.
