By John Salak –
First impressions are important, but finding fault with first impressions reminds us they can also be dangerous. The snap judgments virtually everyone makes are hard to abandon, even if these assessments prove to be way off base, according to new research.
What’s perhaps more troubling is that first impressions and judgments about people and things are usually made within 30 seconds, sometimes as quick as ten seconds, reports Passivesecrets.com.
What influences first impressions, at least when it comes to people? About half report a smile is important, followed by decent manners, eye contact, being punctual, conversive and dressing well.
Duke University researchers are now advising that inaccurate judgments can be avoided by simply sleeping on personal assessments before establishing a bedrock view of people and items.
The university’s study involved a unique approach to setting up an imaginary garage sale. The researchers then asked participants to look through virtual boxes of unwanted goods for items to include in the sale. Most of the items inside each box weren’t worth much, but a few special objects, like a nice lamp or a teddy bear, were more valuable. The participants earned real cash based on the boxes they chose, so they were motivated to figure out which boxes were most valuable.
What the participants didn’t realize was that the combined total value of the 20 items in every box they checked out was the same. The only thing that differed was the sequence of the “junk” versus the “gems” that they viewed. Some boxes had all the valuable items on top, while other boxes had their valuable items in the middle or at the bottom.
Participants were asked to estimate the value of each box and choose their favorites. This is where the difference in first impressions began to emerge. Some judged the values of boxes immediately, while others “slept on it” and decided on their choices after an overnight delay. Those judging immediately tended to remember what they saw first—the first few items—rather than judging the entire content of the boxes.
“We found that people are strongly biased by first impressions,” noted lead author Allie Sinclair, who did the research as part of her Ph.D.
The participants that judged quickly repeatedly went for boxes with valuable items on top, moving to embrace the treasures they spotted first before recognizing the less valuable items lower down. Not only did these participants consistently go for these top-heavy boxes over others, but they also tended to overestimate their value, placing their worth at 10 percent more than they were, according to the Duke team.
This type of reaction is an example of a psychological phenomenon called primacy bias, Sinclair explained. It also means that when forming an overall opinion of a person or thing, people are unduly influenced by first impressions, even when new facts come to light.
In the garage sale experiment, this bias prevented participants from comparing the boxes rationally. It even led them to believe that some boxes were more valuable than they really were, the researchers reported. At the same time, participants were less able to recall specifics when asked which items in these preferred boxes were the “treasures.”
Waiting a day helped other participants make better judgments, which allowed them to avoid assessment traps and mistakes.
“They made more rational choices, equally favoring boxes with clusters of valuable items at the beginning, middle, or end,” Sinclair said.
Participants who “slept on it” no longer overwhelmingly preferred the boxes that made a good first impression. Boxes that saved the best for last were weighted equally favorably in their mental calculus.
Admittedly, there are times when making a snap judgment is advisable, the Duke team acknowledged. Judgments made, for example, on the first few pages of a book or the opening scenes of movies can help people decide whether to engage or move on and avoid wasting time.
But when the stakes are higher and involve longer-term commitments, such as dating or hiring an individual, “there’s wisdom in the idea of ‘sleeping on it’ before making a decision,” Sinclair said.
“This is an exciting first look at how our brains summarize a rewarding experience,” added Dr. Alison Adcock, M.D., Ph.D., a Duke professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. “When it’s over, our brain knits it all together in memory to help us make better choices—and that neat trick happens overnight.”
