Learning how to profile people has many advantages. While it is mostly used in criminal investigations, profiling has come quite in handy in everyday situations.

Not only does it allow you to gain a deeper insight into people’s actions, it also gives you an upper hand in many situations.

In this article, I’ll teach you a few simple but handy tips on how to profile people.

Tip # 1: Pay Attention to Body Language.

People say one thing but do another. By looking at a person’s body language, you’ll be able to detect if there is any discomfort or conflict in him.

A person who is lying, for example, will find it difficult to look at you in the eye. A relaxed posture, on the other hand, can be (though not completely) a sign of innocence. Tense shoulders and stuttering can mean that there is something the person isn’t saying.

Tip # 2: Watch Out for Reactions.

The way people react to certain things can also teach you more than a few things about them. For example, a person who reacts visually - those who notice the stunning view above all else - are said to respond more strongly to logic.

But what if the person is more attuned to the sound of the waves rolling? Those people are typically called Auditories and respond more to verbal communication.

Tip # 3: Observe Good Habits and Bad Habits.

If you want to know how to profile people, you’ve got to be a keen observer. One thing you can do as practice is to identify the habits of the people around you.

Even if you don’t know them personally or have only ever seen them once, it is possible for you to pick up on their mannerisms simply by studying their actions.

Tip # 4: Listen for Specific Words.

The words people use can say a lot about them and their personality.

People who use words like fabulous or fantastic are more likely to be flamboyant in nature than others. People who use highfalutin words probably had a good education or are covering for one form of insecurity or another.

From this alone, you can now hypothesize on the kind of things that the person is interested in.

Tip # 5: Clothes Make the Man (Or Woman).

Learning how to profile people is also quite fun as it exercises your mind. It trains you to become more observant and to look for things that other people may not have even thought of.

Looking at how they dress up, for example, can already tell you a lot of things. Do they dress sloppily or are they obscenely neat?

These are just some of the ways on how to profile people. The more often you practice profiling, the better you get at identifying types of people and personalities. Reading more about it won’t hurt either!