whether it's a first date a job interview or just meeting a friend of a
friend first impressions are important and depending on how much of a social
butterfly you are meeting someone for the first time can also be extremely
nerve-wracking and stressful but just how important are first impressions
really after all it's not like you can glean everything there is to know about
a person just from your first encounter right after all people are complex and
multifaceted a person even so first impressions can have a much larger
impact than you might think and today we're going to unpack some of the
potential reasons why if you're new to bestie I hope this was a good enough
first impression to make you subscribe and click the notification bell that way
you can stay up to date on all of our daily videos and content so what makes a
first impression so important while people are far too complex to be
perfectly encapsulated into a single encounter our brains may try to convince
us otherwise according to Psychology Today human beings seem to be mentally
hardwired to size each other up as quickly as possible in fact a person
often makes up their mind about someone within the first seven seconds of
meeting them the reason for these snap judgments can stem from a number of
different factors but once they've been made a first impression can be hard to
move on from because of this first impressions can be an important and in
some cases your only opportunity to really sell yourself to the person
you're meeting which can be especially crucial in situations such as a job
interview where leaving someone with a good first impression can make or break
your chances at employment that being said there are ways you can ensure a
better first impression when meeting someone for the first time you can start
putting these strategies into effect once you gain a better understanding of
what goes into a first impression to start with one weird little cork in
human psychology that has a strong impact on first impressions is an
occurrence referred to as the halo effect
halo effect occurs when our initial judgment of a person ends up
unconsciously overshadowing our perception of that person as a whole
fairly or otherwise the term gets its name because when meeting someone for
the first time a positive external quality of theirs may shine over that
person like a halo glowing brightly enough to blind us from new details or
information about that person that we may learn as time goes on this can
obviously lead to some incredibly harmful effects such as some people
being subjected to unfair and biased treatment based on aspects they can't
control while others might be put on a pedestal with their strengths seemingly
overshadowing their flaws however there are ways in which people have tried to
work around the halo effect in order to be more fair and unbiased in their
judgments for example in an academic setting professors may choose to grade
papers anonymously so that preconceived notions they might have about specific
students doesn't have an adverse effect on their grades you can also shake the
halo effect simply by getting to know someone over a long period of time such
as in a long term relationship eventually the initial judgments of the
halo effect will fade away as you begin to experience a more nuanced and
realistic view of that person as new traits and information come to light of
course while true substance can eventually overcome a sub-optimal first
impression most people often don't get the chance to make up their initial
mistakes this means that if you want someone to have a high opinion of you
from the first meeting onward you should pay attention to ways in which your
behavior might be received by others such as tone posture body language
additionally now that you know this information you should also be more
mindful of ways in which your own personal prejudices might hold sway over
the way you view others on a first impression and try to break yourself of
that knee-jerk judgmental mindset and see people for who they really are
beyond your first impression of course breaking the psychology of first
impressions is easier said than done according to psychologist Leslie zebra
wits from Brandeis University the things that make or break first impressions can
be as simple and subtle as someone facial information even just seeing a
photo of someone for the first time can be enough to create an impression which
colors the thoughts and opinions you have of the person in question our
criteria when it comes to making these judgments is also fairly consistent
meaning that these judgments are probably innate as opposed to a mindset
that we learned over time according to some research children and even infants
also display tendencies to judge others based on their faces which shows us that
this behavior can potentially start incredibly early in our lives there are
a variety of different facial cues and traits that zebra wits has come to
identify as being common factors in solidifying a person's first impression
for example a person who has a baby face like large eyes a rounded head or other
facial characteristics associated with babies might be seen as friendly but not
necessarily as capable or competent because of the subconscious mental
Association others might have between that person and a literal infant in
other cases if we see people who bear facial similarities to people we already
know such as close friends and family members chances are we'll probably make
assumptions about them based on what we know about the person we think they
resemble if you see a man who looks like your curmudgeonly great-uncle you're
probably gonna make a mental assumption that this person is a grouch as well
even if it turns out to not be the case and of course if someone looks healthy
and conventionally attractive we'll probably be more inclined to like them
and give them preferential treatment over others finally we also make
assumptions about people based on the emotional expressions that their faces
seem to best exemplify for example some people's natural resting faces might
naturally look mean even in times when the person in question is currently in a
neutral or even a good mood there's a reason your parents told you not to
judge a book by its cover after all as you can see there are a number of
potential factors that go into a first impression some of which we have direct
control over and many more we don't is this a fair way to assess another person
when meeting them for the first time well the short answer is no but
unfortunately the fact of the matter seems to be that we
as a species have a natural disposition to making quick judgments about people
and holding on to those judgments for a long time afterwards at the very least
you can hopefully take what you've learned in this video to heart the next
time you judge someone poorly based on a first impression ask yourself am i
judging this person based on something that they have control over
if not then train yourself to keep a more open mind moving forward did you
enjoy this video what qualities do you find yourself paying attention to when
meeting someone for the first time share your stories and experiences in the
comment section below and help us keep the conversation going and as always
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