Whenever I fly Southwest and have to choose a seat to sit in once I board the plane, I like all people I suspect, scan who I am going to sit next to before I sit down. I mean everyone wants to sit next to someone compatible, right?
So naturally, I instinctively profile people’s personality/face.
I also love a window seat.
When I boarded my flight to Long Beach this week, I had an “A” boarding position, which was great, it meant I would have first pick at the seats –so you can imagine how socked I was when I boarded the plane and it was nearly full. Dang, I was put onto a continuation flight! My A boarding pass was really a “C” in disguise. I had few choices now and if I wanted a window, I had to act quickly!
I decided to take the first window seat I could find because there didn’t seem to be any. There was a man sitting in the isle in row 10 and it was clear someone was sitting in the vacant seat next to him as there was a backpack or something in the seat, but he looked nice so I asked if I could take the window seat. He said sure. I had no idea what his wife was going to be like, but when she came back, I was pleasantly surprised.
She was a very clean cut, honest and down-to-earth woman. She was in good shape, had honest eyes and fresh appearance. She is someone I would call “Granola” (discounting the political implication of the term) in that you could tell just by looking at her thin physique that what she ate was important to her. This was not a woman who would eat at McDonalds.
As the flight took off, I was hungry, so once we reached cruising altitude, I dug in my backpack for some beef jerky. As it is awkward to eat on a plane next to someone, I offered her a piece.
I normally would just say “Would you like some beef jerky?” But because I knew this woman was health conscious by personality profiling, I didn’t think that would fly. She’d likely think about MSG, and say no thanks!
So because I had a sense of her personality, I specifically said, “Would you like some beef jerky? This is all natural!“
To which she asked me, did you make it yourself? I said I didn’t. But I clarified I bought a clean variety.
What she did next–about 20 minutes or an hour later, blew my mind!
Guess what she brought for a snack?
A fresh bag of sugar snap peas! Sugar snap peas! Can you imagine? I about fell over!
And she shared them with me, and were they good! I learned something! At that point I told her I don’t tell all people that I bought all natural beef jerky — that I had profiled her and that’s why I said that. She laughed too. She had asked what I did for a living, so she understood.
There is nothing like behavioral evidence to support a belief!
I really enjoyed sitting next to her on my flight. She was a neat lady! And her husband was very kind, too. He helped me get my carry-on in the bin above me and even pulled it down and left for me when he departed. They were awesome people.
* Not all people are good at personality profiling so always be cautious. I tend to have a gift in this department.
