Imagine this. You are having a perfect interview, and then you spill some water on yourself. You think you have just ruined the opportunity to get the job: your employers, however, seem to think you’re even more charming and give you the job. So, a mistake gets you the job? Not exactly. However, the mistake following the near perfect interview made it more likely for you to get the job.
The Pratfall effect is a psychological phenomenon where people who are generally competent become more likable when they make small mistakes. Note, the key phrase is ‘generally competent’. If you are having a bad interview and you spill water on yourself on top of that, you are all but on the waitlist for the job. You just hit the nail on the coffin my friend. This only works if you are doing really well.
This phenomenon was coined by Elliot Aronson in 1966. The experiment is quite cool. The participants listened to audio recordings of a person answering quiz questions. Some recordings featured a near-perfect contestant who later spilled coffee (a small mistake), while others had a contestant who performed poorly and also spilled coffee. What they found was The competent contestant became more likable after the mistake, while the incompetent contestant became less likable after the same mistake.
So, where can you see this? A famous advertisement by Volkswagen actually used this technique. Their ‘ugly is only skin deep’ campaign intentionally pointed out their flaws to make them more likeable and relatable, unlike other supposedly percent car companies. There’s celebrities that can laugh off a mistake, and people seem to like them more after that. There’s countless examples of this.
Psychology makes you realise that humans actually don’t prefer perfectionism: they prefer humanistic traits, like making mistakes.
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