First Impressions Essay Example
Research suggests that first impressions are created within the first few minutes of meeting someone. Discuss the factors that affect our perception of people and some of the elements that impact our accuracy or otherwise of first impressions, e.g. in an interview situation, first date, etc.
People take initial information about appearance, body language, what you say and more importantly how you say it and then form a judgment very quickly as to what type of person you are. First impressions are mainly based on facial features and body language as well as various generalisations and bias which affect the accuracy of those perceptions. From physical appearance to choice in clothing; from religion and race to social class and level of education; when meeting someone for the first time we look upon people that are similar to us more favourably. In every way our first impressions goes back to our most primitive survival instinct. "Is this person a threat to me?" If the person appears to be friendly we drop our guard and we allow ourselves to continue our assessment. We look at every detail to try to ascertain information, scan the person, and form judgment within 3 seconds . and it is all done subconsciously.
The first thing we look for when meeting someone is trust. If a person is able to come across as trustworthy then a first impression will most likely be favourable as this person is not a threat. Out of all the judgments we make about others solely on first impressions, our judgment of a person being trustworthy or not is the one we come to in the least amount of time, almost instantly. The results of a Princeton university experiment revealed that a person can judge another's face on whether it appears trustworthy in 100ms. This speedy judgment is only rivalled by our judgement of attractiveness (Willis & Todorov 2006). If we decide that the face we have just seen is untrustworthy a specific area of our brain, the amygdala, is triggered. This area
People take initial information about appearance, body language, what you say and more importantly how you say it and then form a judgment very quickly as to what type of person you are. First impressions are mainly based on facial features and body language as well as various generalisations and bias which affect the accuracy of those perceptions. From physical appearance to choice in clothing; from religion and race to social class and level of education; when meeting someone for the first time we look upon people that are similar to us more favourably. In every way our first impressions goes back to our most primitive survival instinct. "Is this person a threat to me?" If the person appears to be friendly we drop our guard and we allow ourselves to continue our assessment. We look at every detail to try to ascertain information, scan the person, and form judgment within 3 seconds . and it is all done subconsciously.
The first thing we look for when meeting someone is trust. If a person is able to come across as trustworthy then a first impression will most likely be favourable as this person is not a threat. Out of all the judgments we make about others solely on first impressions, our judgment of a person being trustworthy or not is the one we come to in the least amount of time, almost instantly. The results of a Princeton university experiment revealed that a person can judge another's face on whether it appears trustworthy in 100ms. This speedy judgment is only rivalled by our judgement of attractiveness (Willis & Todorov 2006). If we decide that the face we have just seen is untrustworthy a specific area of our brain, the amygdala, is triggered. This area