Jeff Wang Blog

Adam Grant did an experiment in his book “Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives our Success”

He asked employees of a company what % of the workers do they believe steal/have stolen from the company?

He found that people who often answered this question with high %’s, believing their colleagues were thieves, generally meant that that specific employee had a higher % of stealing from the company. Their thought process was this:

“I often steal from the company, so other people must do it!”

People project bad behavior and poor qualities onto other people when they have the similar qualities. The cynical individuals believe that other people are just as cynical.

Are most people bad people? Do people really generally suck? Or are you just project your own suckiness on other people?

Try to see the good in other people first, before you see their bad qualities–because those bad qualities might not exist.

Good Luck.