You can tell alot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jellybeans. — Ronald Reagan

You can tell alot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jellybeans.

Author: Ronald Reagan

Insight: There's something disarmingly true about judging people by small, unguarded choices. Reagan was talking about jellybeans, but he'd spotted something real: the small decisions we make when no one's watching—or when we think no one's watching—reveal what we actually value. Do you pace yourself or grab a handful? Do you sort by color first or just eat randomly? Are you the person who leaves the bowl half-full or finishes what you started? What makes this insight stick is that it works because jellybeans don't matter. Nobody's performing for jellybeans. You're not trying to impress anyone. So how you approach them shows your actual temperament, not your public persona. The same applies to how you treat service workers, what you do with a shopping cart in an empty parking lot, or how you behave in a meeting when your boss steps out for a minute. Character isn't revealed during the moments when the stakes are highest—it's revealed when the stakes are lowest and you've forgotten anyone's looking. The flip side worth considering: sometimes we judge people too quickly based on these small things, assuming one jellybean choice tells the whole story. But Reagan's point isn't that one habit defines you completely. It's that patterns of small choices matter more than we pretend they do.

Source: In New York Times, 15 Jan. 1981