Have you ever spilled water on yourself? Fallen in a public area? Have bitten your finger intentionally? Or have done anything that made people near you laugh like anything? But why am I asking you this? The Pratfall Effect
It is being due to the reason that in social psychology, gawky gaffes can make you famous among people near you. It may provide you more than you think calling it the “Pratfall Effect”. It has been a highly fascinating theory in social studies. Let us learn more about this theory in detail via this blog.
About the Pratfall Effect.
Out of many theatrical effects being explained in social psychology, the pratfall effect is unique of all. According to the pratfall effect, the people known to be highly competent are more likely funnier when it comes to their performance among people on the daily basis.
It is considered that such people do commit more mistakes and blunders in comparison to others who are not known to be much skilled. This effect was studied for the very first time in 1966 by social psychologist Elliot Aronson.
As per his evaluation, the people called “with higher intellect” socially among others develop into more attractive and eye-catching people committing silly pratfalls each time they perform any action.
The concept behind this fact.
A charming person with a brilliant mind is liked by everyone. In such cases, people start considering them “sharp-minded or a superhuman”. When viewed as such a personality, even a single mistake committed by that particular person is recognized by another human.
The people nearby become capable of humanizing him better resulting in increased liking of the surroundings for that person. Hence, the sharp intellect with a high catching power of an individual is the major cause behind this pratfall effect.
Several famous personalities with the Pratfall effect.
The pratfall effect has been observed in several famous personalities across the globe. One such famous individual is Jennifer Lawrence(the famous film actress). She is largely known for her great talent in acting and beauty.
But do you know, apart from her qualities she is also well-known for the small mistakes she tends to do now and then? Several gaffes including falling down the red carpet, speaking rudely while giving interviews, behaving gruffly among the fans are being observed in her.
Even after having such many gaffes and committing such a larger number of mistakes, she is considered to be “awe-inspiring”. Also, she is consistently recognized for her performance and liked by her fans so much.
The experimental outcomes of Elliot.
To get a more clear picture of the pratfall effect, Aronson carried out an experiment that comprised of questioning several people. As a result, three social truths were revealed which are as follows:
- Fallibility: As per the observation a person with high caliber, smartness has more chances of committing silly gaffes which makes them more attractive among surroundings.
- Secondly, there is no evidence of how doing small mistakes may affect the persona of a person socially.
- If a person is known to have an average IQ, he/she is more possible to be negatively impacted by the fault.
