Is First Impression Really the Last Impression?

Source: Etiquette School of America 

In psychology, a first impression is an event when one person first encounters another person and forms a mental image of that person. Impression accuracy varies depending on the observer and the target being observed. The first impression that an individual presents to others influences how they are treated and viewed in many contexts of life. 

First impressions are a point of no return; you have started to form an opinion or conclusion about that person in your head. It is rather an obvious human nature. It is how our ancestors decided if they were safe or in danger. This instinct is completely valid in those dark alley moments. 

But in our everyday life, we are not in a prey or predator mindset and yet our brain feels the need to take hints about their personality from the first meeting. But in these moments we are not seeing the world as it is. We use ourselves as a frame of reference and see how this person is different or similar to me. 

Why is the First Impression Vital?

When we meet someone, whom we have never met before, they do not have any idea about who we are. As they do not have any clue about us or have never met us before and they are unaware of our personality they judge us based on what they see or hear. Everything else becomes inessential. 

Consequently, they build a foundation of our personality in their head with the little things they notice about us and how we act. Once the foundation is built, it is extremely difficult to improvise it. Thus, the first impression is vital because it creates the granite foundation for how people perceive us. It takes a long time to reconstruct once the image is framed. A good first impression can open the doors to many new opportunities in professional and/or personal life. 

Against the Motion

“Never judge a book by its cover”, it is said. It can’t stand truer than in any other situation. Like the cover of a book, first impressions are not always as appealing as the content inside. It’s not until after you start “reading”, or get acquainted with someone that you find out that what you see is not always what you get. The first impression of someone may not be very reliable as you may not know about the situation they are in. 

Differing personalities, situations, and the presentation of a person make first impressions often the worst criteria to judge people. When meeting someone for the first time, you may not know about the disappointments or adversaries they are facing, that led them to behave in a certain way. Again, the way someone presents themselves doesn’t always showcase their true personality. It’s not until you get to completely know a person, you are better equipped to understand what kind of person they are, and know the person based on their values. 

Update the First Impression

Research and social psychology suggest that we are quick to form lasting impressions based on our behaviors. We manage to do this with little effort inferring stable character traits from a single behavior like a harsh word or a clumsy step. Using our impressions as guides, we can accurately predict how people are going to behave in the future. 

Nevertheless, we can change our impression in light of new information. Behavioral researchers have identified consistent patterns that seem to guide the process of impression updating. On one hand, learning very negative highly, immoral information about someone typically has a stronger impact than learning very positive, highly moral information. So unfortunately someone’s bad behavior might outweigh his good behavior. 

Research suggests that this bias occurs because immoral behaviors are more diagnostic, revealing a person’s true character. So by this logic bad is always stronger than good. When it comes to updating, not necessarily certain types of learning don’t seem to lead to this sort of negativity bias. When learning about another person’s abilities and competencies for instance this bias flips. It’s the positive information that gets weighted more heavily.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, a first impression is not a very accurate way to form an opinion about someone. Let us take some time before we run to a conclusion about someone. We all must have encountered someone whose first impression did little but help in how we think of them today. If all the friendships were based on first impressions, we would not have the friends we have today.    

Written by: Vanshika Rathour