the confidence hub blog

When Easy = True

The Boston Globe recently published an article entitled “When Easy=True” which has huge relevance to those of us engaged in job search.

The article is based on the concept of “cognitive fluency” which is a way of measuring how easy it is to think about something. It turns out, perhaps not unsurprisingly, that we prefer things that are easy to think about rather than those that are hard.

So far so obvious but it turns out that this concept of fluency has a huge influence upon our lives, from what purchasing decisions we make, how we are perceived by others and even our own self confidence levels.

The theory goes that our brains are tuned to recognise situations and so provide a short cut rather than having to think afresh each time we are faced by a similar problem or event.  We like repetition and ease of recognition. According to Norbert Schwartz, a psychologist at the University of Michigan USA, the use of different fonts fool us. When we read something in a hard to read font we attribute our difficulty in reading it to the piece we are reading. One of the examples he gave was that of a recipe which people rated harder to follow in a difficult to read font than in a clearer font. Similarly, when the contrast between the font colour and the background paper was clear, making the recipe easier to read, it was considered far easier to follow .

 It turns out that people are very sensitive to the experience of ease or difficulty and this impacts on the judgements they make, even moral ones. Psychologists found that people were more likely to be forgiving of moral transgressions if they read them in a clear font than if they read them in a more difficult one. They call it disfluency. It’s one of the reasons why those who are seeking to persuade us use repetition in speech as well as keeping the message simple. That’s why the rule of KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) is so effective. 

Many of these decisions are made  quite unconsciously and at first sight seem to run counter to logic. Studies looking at fluency and self confidence discovered that it is far more effective to boost your self confidence by writing down a few reasons why you will succeed than a whole long list. This is because it is harder to come up with 12 reasons why you will succeed rather than 3. The mind finds it harder and you feel less confident. When we are asked to compile 12 reasons why we will fail, we are more confident of our abilities than when writing 3 for the same reason. The calculation of this experiment is that thinking of 12 ways to fail has the same effect as thinking of 3 ways to succeed.

To me, these studies have a direct impact on how we present our CV  because it is all about how we present ourselves and how we can make ourselves look and feel more confident, approachable and hireable.

Your CV 

Should be in a clear black font on white paper.

It should be easy to read with any bullet points going down the page where the eye can follow rather than across.

It should clearly state the benefits of hiring you but don’t go into a long list.

Make it easy for the reader to see the relevance of your experience.

Use examples that the reader can relate to the position advertised to create a feeling of ease and familiarity.

Your Cover Letter

Match your font and paper to your CV.

Persuade the reader in clear, concise terms what you can bring to the position using similar phrasing.

Read through very carefully. Spell check. Any misspellings or disjointed sentences will have an opposite effect to the fluency and ease you are trying to achieve.

And remember, when you’re fed up with listening to your inner critic list 3 reasons why you are going to get a fantastic new job at the salary you want.

The pursuit of happiness is something that we all have in common but have you stopped to think about what makes you truly happy? What could make you happy?  Are you living the life you want to lead and if not, how to do something about it?

The Happiness Project

I recently stumbled upon a great American site The Happiness Project hosted by Gretchen Rubin. There are quotes to make you think along with her Twelve Personal Commandments on happiness ( perhaps you could add to the list or create your own). She also asks us to create our own Happiness Challenge with friends and family. 

She writes of her motivation for a book and a blog

 ”A few years ago, I had an epiphany on the cross-town bus. I asked myself, “What do I want from life, anyway?” and I thought, “I want to be happy”—but I never spent any time thinking about happiness. “I should do a happiness project!” I realized. And so I have. My happiness project has convinced me that it’s possible to be happier by taking small, concrete steps in your daily life…..I’ve test-driven the wisdom of the ages, the current scientific studies, and the lessons from popular culture. Plutarch, Samuel Johnson, Benjamin Franklin, St. Thérèse, the Dalai Lama, Oprah, Martin Seligman…I cover it all. ”

Goodness knows we could all do with more happiness in our lives. Its well worth a trip to view Gretchen’s blog.