The idea being that people are open to influence and learn better from those they like. The paper (and the popular write-up) are concerned with undue influence from polarising groups (e.g. terrorist organisations). But of course, as an educator they are also applicable to me and other tutors. Not that I have much power over whether any particular individual perceives me as likeable - as the saying goes: you can't please all of the people all of the time. Still, I think it's helpful to be reminded to 'not be a jerk', because it turns out the performance of your students depends upon it.
Learning Better From People We Like
I read an interesting article last week Why We Learn Better From People We Like - Neuroscience News based on the Nature paper: Ingroup sources enhance associative inference | Communications Psychology (nature.com)
The idea being that people are open to influence and learn better from those they like. The paper (and the popular write-up) are concerned with undue influence from polarising groups (e.g. terrorist organisations). But of course, as an educator they are also applicable to me and other tutors. Not that I have much power over whether any particular individual perceives me as likeable - as the saying goes: you can't please all of the people all of the time. Still, I think it's helpful to be reminded to 'not be a jerk', because it turns out the performance of your students depends upon it.