12 Signs You Are Very Good At Recognizing Fake People
Trust your intuition about the negative energy in your life.
PeopleImages.com - Yuri A | Shutterstock Protecting yourself from negative energy and maintaining healthy relationships is essential to live a happy, healthy, and fulfilled life. However, like many people can attest to, the practice of actually setting boundaries and crafting a healthy routine fueled by self-respect and admiration is harder than it seems.
However, certain people have perfected the art of self-preservation, in the healthiest sense of the word, by following their intuition, demanding respect in every part of their lives, and setting high standards for their relationships. When it comes to negative energy, there are certain signs you are very good at recognizing fake people, and that's the starting point for crafting your healthy routine, inner circle, and life.
Here are 12 signs you are very good at recognizing fake people
1. You're intuitive
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While everyone has innately intuitive skills, many people are better than others at truly recognizing them and acknowledging the message — from toxic people to negative energy. Trusting your gut can be difficult, especially in the face of a long-term friendship or comfortable partner, but it's also one of the signs you are very good at recognizing fake people.
We protect and cultivate our emotional health with social connection, like the National Institutes of Health argues, but that's impossible to achieve if we're being sabotaged and taken advantage of by fake friends and people in our lives. Get in touch with your intuition and adopt practices, like journaling or therapy, that help you to trust it when you're forced to reevaluate the relationships in your life.
2. You're not afraid to reassert your boundaries
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Psychologist Seth J. Gillihan argues that partners and fake people in our lives who continuously overstep boundaries, even after communication about them, are likely to continue doing so. Their actions speak loudly, and anyone who disrespects your healthy boundaries probably doesn't value your well-being as much as they preach.
The people who prioritize their own emotional well-being, demand respect, and trust their intuition about fake people in their lives will always keep better company than others. Their boundaries are their truth, not something to be debated or disrespected for attention or validation.
3. You're an empath
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Empaths, otherwise characterized as someone with great emotional intelligence skills, tend to be more cognizant of other people's body language, small micro-expressions, and emotions than others. They pick up on the little details in conversations and passing interactions that can reveal inner character traits and motivations.
While fake people might express misguided kindness and compliments, their micro-expressions tend to reveal their true nature. When someone is operating from a malicious and envious place, as a study from the journal Emotion explains, their small facial changes and expressions can clue others in on their true intentions.
4. You're confident and self-assured
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Confident people tend to share two simple traits that greatly inform the health of their relationships: their ability to listen whilst also being assertive. According to counseling professor Meg Selig, they know what they deserve, the type of company they'd like to keep, and the respect they demand — and they're not afraid to use action to remind people.
When they start to feel disrespected or dismissed by someone in their life, a skill that often requires emotional intelligence and introspection, they're not afraid to set boundaries and end toxic relationships. This innate intuition stemming from their confidence in knowing themselves is what protects them from being taken advantage of by negative and fake energy.
5. You're a good listener
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Active listening is a difficult skill to learn, according to research from the University of Southern California, as concentrating solely on what someone is saying tends to spark anxiety-inducing physical experiences in the average person. However, over time and with practice, you can learn to listen, speak, and empathize with people amid even the most uncomfortable conversations.
When you're cued into the words someone is saying, you can also grasp their body language, facial expressions, and tone, giving you a much more full picture of their intentions, mood, and demeanor. That's exactly why being great at active listening is also one of the signs you are very good at recognizing fake people — you're not distracted, but fully aware of the person you're interacting with.
6. You make space to celebrate your accomplishments
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Insecure, envious, and fake people often try to redirect attention towards themselves, dismissing the excitement or success of others to refocus energy on their own achievements. They're always "one-upping" their friends and family in conversation, trying to feed into their own ego and needs for validation rather than genuinely supporting and celebrating others.
People who have a knack for picking up on these fake behaviors and the toxic friends and family members in their lives ensure they have space to celebrate their wins — whether it means excluding them from an invite or setting clear communicative boundaries with them in person. You deserve the space to celebrate and be recognized without judgment or guilt, and you're not afraid to protect it.
7. You have healthy mindfulness practices
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People who integrate mindfulness practices into their lives, like journaling, yoga, or even therapy, to spark introspection tend to have healthier and more fulfilling relationships than their counterparts. When something bothers them or a comment hurts their feelings, resentment doesn't fester; instead, they take the time to heal and make a plan for open communication to address it.
When you're internally validated and conscious of your own strengths and weaknesses, you're better at reading people. You're not worried about their opinions of you, but rather, how you view them — opening up a kind of self-awareness that spotlights toxic energy and friends in your life.
8. You're emotionally intelligent and compassionate
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According to the book "Applications of Nonverbal Communication," there are certain groups of people more attuned to deception in relationships than others, and that skill generally revolves around social and emotional intelligence. It's not just about conversations, communication, and active listening skills, despite the influence those things have; it's also about sensitivity, compassion, and empathy.
Can you give grace to people who make mistakes? Can you pick up on toxic patterns in the people you hold most dear in life? How attuned are you to your own flaws and deceptions?
9. You're unique and true to yourself
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According to a study from Creativity Research Journal, there's a correlation between a person's social and practical intelligence and their individuality. When you're self-assured in your identity, you can focus on the curious and intellectual pieces of your life and vice versa.
If you're comfortable in your own skin, you have the energy and ability to focus on other things — whether that be social connection, school, a career, or even further personal development and emotional intelligence. That is why confidence, self-assuredness, and a unique individuality are popular signs you are very good at recognizing fake people — you have the bandwidth to pick up on their toxic traits.
10. You don't seek external validation
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Self-assured and confident people are also internally motivated. They don't feel the need to engage in attention-seeking behaviors or tolerate unhealthy relationships for the sake of external validation and appreciation. They can "fill their own cup."
Because they're not worried about appeasing other people or trying to be liked, they can recognize the small tendencies, expressions, and passing comments that other people make in conversations with them. While it might be obvious to a self-assured person that a friend is toxic or "fake," someone who's actively trying to gain their acceptance might overlook the same fact.
11. You're sensitive
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Sensitive and empathetic people, who are more attuned to the less noticeable behaviors and tendencies in others, are more likely to recognize fake people in their lives than their typical peers. They're not only emotionally sensitive and versed in communication, they tend to be energetically inclined — picking up on the negative auras of fake people.
While it takes a great deal of introspection and self-discipline to hone in on that energetic talent and intuition, people who master it and embody that sensitive nature in their everyday lives find it easier to cultivate healthy relationships and avoid fake people.
12. You're forgiving
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Even if you have the intuition or ability to pick up on the fake people in your life, you're probably not strict and rigid about immediately ending relationships with them. Just like any other healthy relationship, you introduce elements of grace by forgiving, communicating, and offering routes to grow together, rather than ending on bad terms.
You give them opportunities to grow, evolve, and reimagine the healthier version of themselves in your relationship. You're empathetic to all the additional stressors and traumas that could inform someone's toxic behaviors.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a news and entertainment writer at YourTango who focuses on health and wellness, social policy, and human interest stories.