Reading People in Business: Why Intuition Is Not Enough

We believe we can read people within seconds – a glance, an impression, a feeling. And indeed, first judgments often form almost instantly and can feel surprisingly convincing. Yet this is exactly where the challenge lies: our intuition is highly vulnerable to distortions, biases, and personal experiences that unconsciously shape our perception.

Between intuition and structured analysis lies a crucial difference – one that can determine success or failure in business contexts. In this interview, Sabine Finkmann, expert in facial microexpression analysis and business profiling, explains how professional profiling works, why first impressions can be misleading, and how true people-reading skills can be developed.

What distinguishes structured profiling from everyday intuition?

Everyday intuition – often referred to as a »gut feeling« – is based on unconscious personal experience and cognitive heuristics. It is fast, but error-prone, as it is heavily influenced by individual biases and current emotional states.

Structured profiling, on the other hand, is a systematic and methodical form of analysis. It is grounded in scientific findings from psychology, criminology, and behavioral science.

A professional profiler does not rely on vague impressions. Instead, they systematically collect data – including verbal and non-verbal signals, behavioral patterns, and biographical information – and evaluate them objectively in order to form hypotheses about personality, motives, and future behavior.

How reliable is the famous »first impression« really?

First impressions form within fractions of a second and are evolutionarily rooted in our need to quickly distinguish friend from foe. The good news: in this short time frame, genuine signals can indeed be revealed – particularly through microexpressions, the involuntary facial expressions that appear for less than 500 milliseconds. These limbic-driven reactions cannot be consciously suppressed and may reveal true emotions before a person fully adopts their »social mask.«

However, first impressions are still only partially reliable – not because of microexpressions themselves, but due to cognitive distortions in interpretation. Humans are highly susceptible to the so-called halo effect (where one dominant trait overshadows all others) and stereotyping.

A professional profiler is aware of these pitfalls and uses first impressions – especially microexpressions – only as a starting point for deeper, evidence-based analysis, rather than treating them as absolute truth.

Can people deliberately present themselves as »better« than they are – and how easy is it?

It is indeed possible to consciously present oneself in a more favorable light – a process known as impression management – and many people are quite capable of doing so in prepared situations. We can carefully choose our words, control our posture, modulate our voice, and put on a »social smile«. With preparation, people can construct a convincing external image.

However, there is a biological limit: there is no such thing as a perfect poker face.

The reason lies in neurobiology. Genuine, unfiltered emotions are processed by the limbic system in the brain and trigger involuntary facial muscle movements – known as microexpressions. These typically last between 1/25 and 1/5 of a second (under 500 ms) and occur before the prefrontal cortex – responsible for conscious control – can intervene.

Anyone attempting to lie or conceal emotions cannot fully suppress these limbic »leaks«. They are biologically uncontrollable.

A trained observer can detect these leakage signals, where true emotion briefly breaks through the controlled exterior. This is why a permanent, perfect poker face is biologically nearly impossible – and why profilers and interrogation experts are trained to recognize these subtle cues.

In which professional contexts is people-reading particularly important?

People-reading is essential in all fields involving human interaction. It becomes especially critical in high-stakes environments:

• Negotiations & Sales: Understanding true needs, pain points, and willingness to negotiate
• Healthcare: Detecting unspoken fears or pain in patients
• Leadership & HR: Identifying potential, motivation, and toxic behavior in hiring and team management
• Security & Justice: Detecting deception and assessing risk potential

Does digital communication affect our ability to read people accurately?

Unfortunately, yes. The increasing shift toward digital communication and excessive media consumption is weakening our empathic abilities and people-reading skills.

In text-based communication and even video calls, crucial non-verbal cues are missing: body language, subtle emotional shifts, scent, and especially microexpressions, which are often not visible on screens.

Studies suggest that especially among younger generations who spend significant time on social media, the ability to quickly and accurately read complex emotions in real faces is declining – a phenomenon sometimes referred to as digital empathy loss. The brain is simply less trained in direct, synchronous human interaction.

How closely is good people-reading linked to self-awareness?

Strong people-reading skills and self-awareness are inseparably connected. Anyone who is unaware of their own blind spots, triggers, biases, and emotional reactions will inevitably project them onto others.

Only those who are able to reflect on themselves can distinguish between their own emotional resonance and the actual behavior of another person. Self-awareness forms the foundation for calibrating perception filters and analyzing others objectively and without distortion.

If you could eliminate one myth about people-reading, what would it be?

The most persistent myth is that profiling and behavioral analysis are either nonsense or a form of mystical fortune-telling. In reality, the film industry has been using these principles systematically and successfully for decades – not by coincidence, but based on structured application.

We do not read thoughts. We analyze and translate observable human signals – physical and behavioral markers. Filmmakers have mastered the deliberate use of these signals to make characters instantly readable. This is not intuition – it is craft.

In fairy tales such as Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, or Cinderella, the contrast between the evil witch or queen and the princess is strongly conveyed through visual cues. Antagonists are typically characterized by facial asymmetry, sharp features, narrowed brows, and tense or hostile expressions. Their posture is often rigid, hunched, or aggressive, reinforcing their threatening presence.

In contrast, the princess is portrayed through symmetry and softness: balanced facial features, open eyes, a genuine smile, and an upright, open posture that signals trustworthiness and approachability.

This contrast is no coincidence. Asymmetry is often unconsciously associated with instability or danger, signaling »something is wrong«. Symmetry, on the other hand, is associated with trust, harmony, and safety, making the character appear inherently good and reliable.

These visual codes work because they are rooted in evolutionary biological and psychological principles. They are grounded in evolutionary psychology, behavioral science, and neurobiology.

When we judge a character within seconds, it is not magic or intuition. It happens because our brains are evolutionarily trained to process and interpret these signals rapidly – and because filmmakers deliberately use these universal codes to shape perception.