Strange but true.... Want to make friends and influence people? A new study from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) shows that the budding networker should always underestimate if they want to impress.

While studies show that people are happiest when they have a positive view of themselves, the CUHK study ? overseen by marketing professor Xianchi Dai ? showed that being underestimated by one?s peers is far more likely to leave a spring in the step than the opposite.

I don't think this is strange at all - in fact, I think it is the difference between confidence and arrogance. Confidence influences people - but arrogance (overestimating yourself) turns people off.

But there is also a good lesson to take away from this study, and that's the importance of gauging the reactions of others. You need to tune in to peoples' psychologies in order to influence them.