< 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.
