While the differences between good and bad people might seem clear, appearances can be deceiving—sometimes good people may come off the wrong way, and bad people may seem charming. To make distinctions easier for you, here are some subtle but simple ways to tell if someone is genuinely good or not.
Accountability
Being accountable is not something that a bad person will practice. Psychology Today reveals that these people often tend to minimize the harmful impact of what they are doing or rationalize their reasons. Alternatively, good people will take responsibility for their mistakes without shifting the blame to others.
Respect for Others
Respect is central to many of our relationships. Virtuous people know this all too well as they will go out of their way to treat others with respect. Their opposites, however, will disregard the feelings of others and may belittle them to make themselves feel superior.
Fairness
Decent individuals will strive for fairness in every aspect of their life. Forbes reveals that we all have unconscious bias and it doesn’t make us bad people. However, bad people will constantly and consistently be biased, showing favoritism or unfair treatment every day.
Integrity and Honesty
A good person will have integrity in every situation they are placed in as they value honest interactions. On the other hand, bad people will twist the truth in order to suit themselves. They don’t care about being truthful as they prioritize self-interest.
Empathy and Compassion
According to Psych Central, traits like empathy, compassion, and kindness are universally associated with good people. These individuals will express empathy towards other people, offering them a shoulder to lean on unlike bad people who will exploit other people in moments of vulnerability.
Reliability and Dependability
Any good person will be reliable, following through with whatever they have promised and turning up to events when they said they would. This is because they know that this builds trust with other people. Bad individuals, however, will frequently break their promises because they don’t care about others.
Kindness in Actions
Kindness is both preached and practiced by honorable individuals who will treat others with compassion without expecting anything in return. Conversely, nasty people don’t understand the importance or value of kindness and will only pretend to be kind if they can gain something.
Generosity
Generosity is not just about sharing resources with other people. Respectable individuals will also share their time and support with others, sometimes prioritizing their needs above their own. Those people who aren’t good will only pay attention to their own needs and desires.
Positive Influence
The impact that noble individuals have on the world cannot be underestimated. These people will inspire and uplift those around them, creating a positive environment. On the opposite end, bad people will seek to make other people feel small as they feel inadequate within themselves.
Respecting Boundaries
You should expect your boundaries to be crossed and disrespected if you are dealing with a bad person as they don’t value consent. However, if you are dealing with someone who has a good heart, they will recognise your boundaries and refrain from overstepping them.
Authenticity
Authenticity is synonymous with genuine people as they will always present their true selves to other people in a bid to build trust and forge bonds with those they love. However, it is common to see bad people pretend to be someone they are not to dupe other people.
Humility
Humility is something that good people believe in as they never seek to boast or gloat about their accomplishments. Those who don’t have good intentions, however, will excessively talk about their own achievements to make other people feel inadequate or bad about themselves.
Listening Skills
Actively listening is common for righteous people to do as they yearn to make every person they come across feel heard and valued. If you are in conversation with an unkind person, your experience may be very different as they will frequently interrupt and take over the conversation.
Encouragement and Support
Offering support is important to considerate individuals who will do their best to help others achieve their goals or go through difficult times. This is not on the agenda of inconsiderate people who will downplay the accomplishments of other people to put the shine back on themselves.
Adaptability
On one end of the spectrum, thoughtful individuals will be open to change and willing to adjust to accommodate others. On the other end of the spectrum, unthoughtful people will only suit themselves as they are opposed to change and unwilling to compromise.
Transparency
Transparency is practiced by every good person as they seek to avoid being deceitful to others to build better relationships with them. However, bad people will keep secrets and mask their true intentions, especially if they know they can advance in their lives by doing so.
Patience
Gracious and gentle people are patient as they regulate their emotions. What makes these people good is that they also exhibit more prosocial behaviors like empathy, and are more likely to display generosity and compassion according to The New York Times, unlike bad people who will get frustrated easily.
Gratitude
Gratitude is expressed by caring individuals who will be thankful for everything they have in life, including their relationships which they value. Being grateful does not come naturally to mean individuals as they always want more because they take a lot of things for granted.
Conflict Resolution
Conflicts are resolved by people who have honorable intentions as they will try to promote peace and fairness with other people. However, those who don’t consider the needs of other people will become aggressive or angry when they are in heated debates with them.
Positive Attitude
A positive mindset is adopted by many good people as they shun negativity, instead trying to spread cheerfulness wherever they go. Negativity will usually follow bad people, however, as they are fixated on being pessimistic, even turning something that should be positive into something bad.