"You don't get a second chance to make a first impression" - James Uleman.
And this is true! First impressions are critical- how you look and act are the first things people you are meeting will judge you on. "First impressions are so powerful that they can override what we are told about people" (Science Daily). For example- even if we are told a persons sexual orientation, we will still make our own judgements based on their appearance. Humans don't consciously judge others immediately, it just happens. Especially in person or online contexts, people tend to make different first impressions. When we are face to face with someone else, we focus more on how they make us feel (Science Daily). There are also differences between first impressions men and women make. Woman tend to care more about finance while men care about physical attractiveness. Psychologists Willis and Todorov created an experiment to test how long it takes to form first impressions at Princeton University. Willis and Todorov showed participants photographs of people for 100 milliseconds (1/10 of a second), 500 milliseconds (half a second), or 1,000 milliseconds (a full second), and then asked to judge the faces for different character traits. Another group of participants were then created who were asked to do the same- but with no time limit. For both groups, participants were also asked to rate their confidence level. While longer exposure time did increase confidence, it did not matter how long there was before a judgement was made. All together, we get judged in the first 1/10th of a second we are seen! (Psychological Science). |
People can instantly tell upon meeting us if:
|
What can we do to improve the first impression people have of us?
|
What are some stereotypes we make immediately?
|