We live in a world of imperfect people striving for perfection. What people do not understand is that perfection is unattractive. It is robotic and fake. Think about it, would you rather be friends with a person that never does anything wrong, never has a hair out of place and always speaks with eloquence? No, you wouldn’t. Do you know why? It’s because they aren’t relatable.
There is a theory in social psychology called the Pratfall Effect, which states that minor blunders make you more human, and in turn that makes people more attracted to you. There was a study done in which an extremely put together man walked into a waiting room. On the surface, he seemed quite perfect. In one scenario, the experimenters had him sipping on a cup of coffee, and in another they had him spill a little of the coffee on himself. The results showed overwhelmingly that people liked the guy who spilled better than the one who didn’t. The little things that make your face turn red, and makes you want to crawl into a hole and contemplate becoming a hermit for the rest of your life are the exact same things that make you more attractive.
Think about it this way, if you see a celebrity on the street being their perfect selves, walking perfectly, and doing annoyingly perfect things. Chances are you are going to view them as some robotic, otherworldly thing. It might not be interpreted in your conscious mind but it sure is in your subconscious. Now imagine if you saw this celebrity trip on a crack in the sidewalk, you would think of that event as endearing and adorable. You think those things because the celebrity that was once viewed as so far above you has just come down to your level. You realize that they are not this image of the ideal human who has no flaws and floats just above all the others. No, now this is a person who makes mistakes and errs, because that is what humans do. We make mistakes and that’s ok because it relates us to one another, and allows us to relish in our imperfection
The only reason why the Pratfall Effect wouldn’t work is if you somehow forget what a minor blunder is, like oops I just killed someone on the street with a machete but it’s ok the pratfall effect says I'm cute! No, no that’s not cute, just certifiable. So, don’t do that, but do spill some mustard on your shirt, fall down the stairs, miss your mouth when you're eating food, and trip a few times. It’s okay, we’re all humans and humans are adorable. Go mess up, and live a little!
