[neerajsi]

I once met a gate agent in the Maui airport. She looked at me and my pregnant wife and congratulated us on our upcoming baby boy. I asked her how she knew. She said it was the way we carried ourselves and looked at each other. Not sure what specifically she saw, but she told us if another couple she observed who were having a girl. She said the man looked like the type who didn't treat women that well, but who was clearly trying to be on his best behavior.

Most of the times situations are a complete cypher, but in more unisual cases when observing groups of people who know each other, you can tell how they feel from analyzing the behaviors.

This author is clearly in a privileged position in the wedding group. She's in the background with the specific job of looking at everyone and capturing their feelings. They don't try to hide their behavior or respond to her, and the usual western taboo against staring at strangers doesn't apply.

This was definitely a good read!

[gus_massa]

> congratulated us on our upcoming baby boy. I asked her how she knew. She said it was the way we carried ourselves and looked at each other.

Does she have more than a 50% succes rate?

In the wost case (null hypotesys?) that she can't tell, it's similar to the gambler falacy. She remember only the succes cases. People post online only the succes cases. Nobody remember the wrong cases.

In this case it doesn't matter, but there are evil people that use similar tricks for scams.

[IncreasePosts]

Realistically she doesn't remember any cases because no one comes back to the airport to tell the gate agent what gender their child was

[gus_massa]

At least here in Argentina, after 6+2 weeks the mother gets an echography and may know if the baby is a boy or a girl. Another afer 10+2 weeks, where it's more clear. So I expect that the prediction is checked most of the times instantly.

Also, if they go to Mali again in a few years, if they by chance meet again in the airport, if it's a prediction I expect the parents to say hello and show the little boy. But in the other case I expect the parents to avoid embarrassing her with the anecdote of he failure.

[neerajsi]

She can't make a prediction if the parents don't know.

The point is not that she predicted the gender of the child. She predicts what gender the parents expect the child to be without being explicitly told.

She didn't tell me anything about the success rate. Instead she told what factors she used to make her guess. She can tell if she was right or wrong right away because the parents can say what they are expecting.

[Esophagus4]

Fair point - I guess it would be interesting to see how accurate many “people watchers” are, empirically.

That being said, I think I’m willing to suspend disbelief a little. I do think there’s an art to being able to not only read people, but to express it in a way that conveys the underlying point.

… the same way a good comedian can make an audience say, “oh yeah, I always noticed that but never really realized until you said it.”

Is it true? Maybe, who knows? But it seems like it could be, and that’s enough for me to find it interesting :)

[gus_massa]

I'm not sure if this is what you want, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading is very interesting.

[missinglugnut]

Often when we make guesses about other people, we reveal more about ourselves than the other person.

"She said the man looked like the type who didn't treat women that well"

Maybe she was right about this man, maybe she was wrong, but in either case that judgement came about because he reminded her of someone.

I'll go a step further. She assumed happy couple => boy, and future father seeming strained => girl...that gives me a guess about a difficulty she faced in childhood.

Of course I'm susceptible too. I jumped immediately to the "opposite sex parent had issues" narrative on reading a small anecdote about this woman. Is that the truth, or am I projecting something? Could be both?

Look at how you analyze others and you'll learn a lot about yourself.

[lightning8113]

Not only does she have a privileged position, but good artists are skilled at making their art convey emotions and feelings.

Telling a complex story in a static picture requires great attention to detail, and a solid understanding of how humans express emotion.

Before you can create art that captures these emotions, you need to be able to observe them. I am not at all surprised that countless hours painting people has helped her develop this skill!

[darkerside]

It likely includes projecting emotions that may not actually exist in order to tell a great story. It doesn't make the read any less interesting though.