The human brain is primitive and illogical. Our evolutionary history leaves us with social instincts that are easily manipulable. None of us make decisions, simple or complex, by precisely computing an objective function with all the information we know. We are not biologically equipped to be precise. Instead, we blend everything we know into a vague, muddy ball of impression, and proceed to wherever that points us. In more familiar modern terminology, we call this imprecise, impression and intuition based understanding “vibes”.
Vibes dictate far more of the anthroposphere than you’d think. No matter how much people try to convince you of their objectivity (sometimes via made-up pseudomathematical models), there is no logical vaccum completely insulated from vibes. Every decision we make is somewhat “vibeful”. Middle schoolers don’t logically evaluate personality traits before deciding who to bully; hiring commitees don’t objectively compute an utility function before choosing a candidate; businessmen and politicians don’t mathematically verify the worth of their relationships. Although to various extents, every one of these things nevertheless runs on vibes.
The imprecision of vibes is more than just unbiased random error. With effort, anyone can manipulate it. Invoking familiar modern terminology again, we call this vibes-influencing force “aura”. Disappointingly, our barbaric monkey brains are very suspectable to subtle social cues. Imagine person A who walks fast, always holds their chest and head high, talks confidently in a faster-than-average speed, and maintains eye contact. Now imagine person B who drags their steps, have bad posture, and does not appear the most confident in social interactions (note this doesn’t necessarily imply bad social skills). Absolutely nothing about these descriptions are predictors of competency, yet person A is almost certainly going to be more listened to, more liked, and more favored by opportunity than person B across all domains in all cultures. This is perhaps the most prevalent and most socially acceptable prejudice. With the exact same underlying traits, just by projecting different aura, people are treated vastly differently. A person projecting confident, intelligent, and humble impressions is more likely to be hired. A person projecting nervousness and meekness is more likely to be mistreated. A person projecting diligent, efficient, and independent impressions is more likely to be promoted. First-time professional interactions, like interviews, are 20% substance and 80% vibes. I want to make it very clear that I think this is utter stupidity and ridiculousness of the highest degree. However, we need to acknowledge the objective prevalence of the phenomenon because we are all living in it.
Auralogy is the craft of taking advantage of these prejudices. Decide on the impression you want to leave in the person, think about the social cues that project these impressions, then execute on them during your interaction. Smiling often and a small joke project social aptitude and friendliness. Not using filler words and speaking at a steady, non-slow rhythm project intelligence and confidence. Appreciating feedback and asking questions project humbleness and communication skills. Showing enthusiasm and a little bit of nervousness projects likeability. Some of these signals are truly useful skills in real life, others are meaningless noise that our dominance-worshipping monkey brain forced upon us. Regardless, if people judge your character with external traits, then the manufacturing of these traits lets you manipulate your own image in their heads. Carefully selected cues create aura, aura influences vibes, and vibes make the world go ‘round.
Defense against auralogy, then, is being aware of the biases in your monkey brain when evaluating people and making decisions. Know which social cues are meaningful and which are bogus, and know that some social cues are commonly used by con-men to defraud you. Defense against auralogy is also realizing when auralogy is being negatively used against you. Reflect upon your experiences and see if some of your cues cause auraloss. Practice projecting the aura you want until it becomes instinctual to your body. Finally, defense against auralogy is being understanding to other people. Don’t judge people on instinctual reads or first impressions. The signals you get may be completely different from their true person.