Have you ever met someone for the first time and immediately thought, “I like them,” or maybe, “Something about this person feels off”?
Sometimes we form these opinions before the other person has even had a chance to properly introduce themselves. We notice their face, expression, posture, voice, clothing, and the way they carry themselves. Within a very short period of time, our brain puts all of this information together and forms an impression.
But why does this happen so quickly?
First impressions are part of a broader psychological process called social perception, during which we notice, interpret, and make sense of other people. Interestingly, research suggests that our brains can begin forming impressions with surprisingly little information.
It Can Take Less Than a Second
One of the most well-known studies on first impressions was conducted by psychologists Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov in 2006.
Participants were shown photographs of unfamiliar faces for different amounts of time. Some faces were shown for only 100 milliseconds, or one-tenth of a second. They were then asked to judge characteristics such as attractiveness, likeability, trustworthiness, competence, and aggressiveness.
The researchers found that the impressions formed after only 100 milliseconds were similar to those formed when participants had unlimited time to view those faces.
This does not mean that we can accurately understand someone’s personality in one-tenth of a second. Instead, it shows how quickly the brain begins making social judgments. Interestingly, giving people more time did not necessarily make their initial judgments more accurate. In some cases, it mainly increased their confidence in those judgments.
In other words, your brain may already be answering the question “What kind of person is this?” before you consciously realize that you are making a judgment.
What Are We Looking For?
When we meet someone new, we are not consciously analyzing every detail about them. However, psychologists have found that two broad qualities are particularly important in how we perceive people: warmth and competence.
Warmth is about whether someone appears friendly, trustworthy, approachable, and well-intentioned. Competence is more about whether someone appears capable, confident, intelligent, or effective.
This makes sense in everyday situations. When meeting someone new, we are often trying to work out two basic things: Can I trust this person, and are they capable?
These quick judgments may have evolutionary roots. Humans have always depended heavily on social relationships, so being able to rapidly assess other people would have been useful when navigating social environments.
It Is Not Just About the Face
Although facial appearance plays an important role, first impressions are not created by the face alone.
We also notice posture, facial expressions, gestures, movements, tone of voice, speech patterns, clothing, and general behavior.
Psychologists sometimes call this “thin-slice perception,” the ability to make judgments based on a very small sample of someone’s behavior.
A major meta-analysis by Nalini Ambady and Robert Rosenthal looked at research involving short observations of people’s expressive behavior. They found that brief observations could provide information related to later interpersonal outcomes. In their analysis, observations lasting less than 30 seconds were not significantly less predictive than observations lasting several minutes.
However, this does not mean that we can figure out someone’s entire personality after watching them for 30 seconds. It simply suggests that even brief behavior can contain social information that people are capable of picking up.
A Quick Impression Is Not Necessarily an Accurate One
This is perhaps the most important part of understanding first impressions.
Our brains are very efficient at making predictions, but efficiency does not always equal accuracy.
Someone who speaks quietly might seem shy, when they may simply be nervous. Someone who avoids eye contact might appear uninterested or untrustworthy, when they may actually feel uncomfortable in unfamiliar social situations.
The problem is that we do not simply observe behavior. We interpret it.
Research on judgments from faces has found that people often agree with one another about what someone appears to be like. However, this agreement does not necessarily mean that their judgments accurately reflect the person’s actual personality or behavior. Researchers have argued that the diagnostic accuracy of these facial impressions has often been overstated.
So, we can be surprisingly consistent in our first impressions without necessarily being correct.
First Impressions Can Shape What Happens Next
First impressions can also influence how we behave toward other people.
If you perceive someone as friendly and approachable, you might smile, start a conversation, or just feel comfortable around them. If you perceive someone as cold or intimidating, you may become more guarded.
And this can create an interesting cycle.
The way we treat someone can influence the way they respond to us.
If you approach someone warmly, they will most likely respond warmly in return, reinforcing your original impression. If you act distant because you believe someone dislikes you, they may become distant too, which can then feel like confirmation that your first impression was correct.
This means that first impressions are not always just passive judgments inside our heads. They can influence the interactions that follow.
So, Should We Trust Our First Impression?
There is nothing wrong with having a first impression. It is a natural part of how our brains process social information.
The important thing is not to treat that impression as a complete understanding of another person.
A useful way to think about it is to treat your first impression as an initial hypothesis rather than a final conclusion.
The next time you meet someone and immediately think, “I don’t know why, but I don’t like this person,” ask yourself:
What am I actually responding to?
Is it something they said or did? Their tone? Their body language? Or am I filling in the gaps with assumptions?
The science of first impressions does not tell us that our instincts are always wrong. Nor does it tell us that our first judgments are always right.
It shows us something much more interesting: We are remarkably quick to make sense of other people, even when we have very little information to work with.
And perhaps the most valuable lesson is that we do not have to dismiss our first impressions. We simply have to remember that they are just that—first impressions.
The person we meet in the first ten seconds may not be the person we come to know after ten conversations.
Read more articles related to social-emotional wellness and personal development on our Zealousness blog.
References:
- Ambady, Nalini, and Robert Rosenthal. 1992. “Thin Slices of Expressive Behavior as Predictors of Interpersonal Consequences: A Meta-Analysis.” Psychological Bulletin 111 (2): 256-274. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.111.2.256.
- Fiske, Susan T., Amy J. C. Cuddy, Peter Glick, and Jun Xu. 2002. “A Model of (Often Mixed) Stereotype Content: Competence and Warmth Respectively Follow from Perceived Status and Competition.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 82 (6): 878-902. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.82.6.878.
- Todorov, Alexander, Christopher Y. Olivola, Ron Dotsch, and Peter Mende-Siedlecki. 2015. “Social Attributions from Faces: Determinants, Consequences, Accuracy, and Functional Significance.” Annual Review of Psychology 66: 519-545. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143831.
- Willis, Janine, and Alexander Todorov. 2006. “First Impressions: Making Up Your Mind After a 100-Ms Exposure to a Face.” Psychological Science 17 (7): 592-598. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01750.x.
