Introduction
In this post, I want to talk about identifying your Dominant Sense and why it is useful to do so. We are traditionally taught that we humans have 5 senses - taste, touch, smell, sight and sound (This is one of those inaccurate facts that school teachers. Based on what you read, there can be up to 21 senses) - but everyone has more bias towards one.
What is the Dominant Sense?
Your Dominant Sense is the sense that you pay the most attention to or that you are most sensitive to. As humans are highly visual animals, most people's Dominant Sense is their sight, but there are some who are more sensitive to sound or touch as well. I've never met many people who says that their sense of smell or taste is their dominant sense, but hey, there are a lot of interesting people out there.
I've actually only ever met one person (pictured above) who told me their dominant sense was their sense of smell. He left a very strong impression the first time I met him. We were in a room looking for someone's pen and this guy just walks in "I smell the pen in the back pocket" and true enough it was there! Whether coincidence or dumb luck or not, he has accurately guessed who hung out with each other the whole day, what you had in previous meals or find missing items multiple times.
How to Identify Your / Other's Dominant Sense?
The only trust-worthy method is to just find it through observation and being more aware about what works for you. When listening to a lecture, what helps you remember the most? Do you like watching the Powerpoint slide full of engaging graphs and visuals? Or do you listen intently to the speaker? Maybe you much rather learn through role-play or exercises instead of sitting through a lecture? Note: Your Dominant Sense isn't your all-or-nothing sense, the other senses usually complement your Dominant Sense.
One way to identify other people's Dominant Sense is by listening to how they would usually express themselves. Whenever you propose an idea, try to keep note of your target's response. A visual person may say "The plan looks good", an auditory person may say "I like the sound of that" and a kinesthetic (sense of touch) person may say "My gut feeling is to say yes"
You can also try to observe your target while in a conversation. A visual person would look intently at the speaker and you can see their eyes following the speaker walking around the room or moving their hands. An auditory person would be looking into blank space while maybe having their ear turned towards the speaker. A kinesthetic person is harder to identify, but they may be a bit more fidgety or would like to move around a lot while talking.
Below are a few reasons why its useful to learn how to identify your Dominant Sense and also learning how to identify other people's Dominant Sense.
VAK (Visual - Auditory - Kinesthetic) Learning Styles
By identifying your Dominant Sense, you can also identify your VAK Learning Style. Being more aware about your own Learning Style will allow you to learn new things more easily. Most people will identify their own Learning Style naturally as they develop their preference for a medium. By identifying your own learning style, you will know whether you should be looking for education platforms that provide slides and videos to help you learn (Visual) or whether you should find an audiobook that will teach you something (Audio) or maybe even Youtube videos that give you step-by-step guides for you to learn by doing.
We all want to learn new things but there's just so much to learn. Doing it this way will help you increase your efficiency so much more.
Preparing Presentations
The main benefit of learning more about the VAK Learning Styles is not just for Learning, but can also be used for preparing content or presentations in general. The best speakers and presenters always ensure that their presentation addresses all types of audience. Your audience could be students, friends or even your boss/customers that you have to impress. A good presentation should have a good balance between having engaging graphics and text on the slides for the visual audience, the speaker should also speak slowly and clearly for the auditory audience and the presentation should try to engage the audience with questions or exercises to get them more involved with the presentation for the kinesthetic audience.
When preparing for your next quarterly report to your boss, or sales pitch to your customers, or even just to convince your friends that we should go to KFC for lunch because KFC is obviously more superior to McDonalds, remember to have your presentation take into account all your audience preferred Dominant Sense.
Anatomically Correct Empathizers- Inspired by Leil Lowndes
Another way you can use your new-found skill of identifying someone's Dominant Sense is to make someone like you better, or allow them to relate to you better. Now the tables have turned and your target is talking to you and you really want this person to like you. Instead of responding to the conversation with empathizers like "Yes", "I agree" or "Uh huh" and boring your partner or making yourself blend into the crowd if its the boss talking to you and your colleagues. Impress them by upping your empathizer game.
You've already identified your target's Dominant Sense. Now, try to match your empathizers with their Dominant Sense so that they think you see the world the same way they do. That you really get them. The next time your boss, supposing he is an visual person, presents the team with a new plan. Brown-nose him a bit by responding with a resounding "That looks like a great idea!". Or next time you're on a date with a cute girl who you've identified as an auditory person, put more effort into sounding sexy instead of looking sexy.
A girl I dated for awhile helped me reinforce my identity of being an auditory person. She used to sit beside me and whisper in my ears with a raspy voice - oh the goosebumps just thinking about it. TMI?
I hope this guide to your Dominant Senses will be useful to you. Our senses are our only gateway between each other, make full use of it and use it to your advantage! It's usually these small quirks and nuances that people don't pay attention to that really affects how a relationship develops.
- Are there other ways being aware about your or other people's Dominant Sense can be useful to you in your everyday life?
- Have some interesting stories to share about meeting a rare person that uses smell or taste as their Dominant Sense?
- How could you better incorporate all 3 senses into your presentations/posts/speech etc?
Drop a comment below! I'll appreciate any feedback on how I may improve my future posts as well!