Are First Impressions Everything?

[Faithkeeper]

So, I was sitting at my computer, and the thought came to me. So I decided to do a little research and make a topic of it.

Now, what is a first impression? I could give you the dictionary definition, but I don't find that to be sufficient. So I will give my own explanation of what I think to be the first impression, and why it is important. (It should be noted that these are all based off of my own experiences and logic, and I have actually done no research for this portion of my constructive, so if I say something that is wrong... please point it out.)


~~1. An Analysis of Perception and Impression~~

People base their choices, actions, and thoughts from their perception. The reason people have different opinions is not usually a difference in facts, but a difference in ones interpretations, or perception of the facts. When a person has a perception, this is what they base their choices, actions, but most importantly thoughts on. The important aspect of this for this debate is that one defends his or her perceptions. If I have the perception that the Earth is flat, this is because this is how I perceive things. When presented with contradictory evidence, my thoughts immediately defend my preconceived notion that the Earth is flat. This should be fairly self-explanatory. If it is not, please say so and I will go into more detail.

Now this is why it matters: Before a person meets you, they have a relatively blank slate in their perception of you. Their general beliefs and level of optimism/pessimism may play a role, but the greatest variable that controls a persons perception of you will inevitably be the impression you make. Once you make that impression, that impression will take the place of the blank slate in their perception. This is significant, because as mentioned earlier, you will naturally defend this perception within yourself. This is my explanation to why first impressions are so important and so hard to change.


~~2. How First Impressions Are Changed~~

According to Jerker Denrell, associate professor of organizational behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, what's key in dispelling negative images is making sure you get a second—and third and fourth—chance. Having the opportunity to show different sides of yourself to bosses and colleagues in numerous situations—both social and professional—is, in fact, critical to your career advancement.

Denrell's research shows that when someone makes a negative impression on us, we're less likely to seek out that person again, making it difficult to gather additional information that could change our first impression. If, however, external factors force further interaction, there is opportunity to soften the first negative judgment, if not reverse it altogether.

This can work conversely with changing positive impressions with bad ones, or about any other type of impression with another.

Denrell states that the most important key is to get additional chances. Why? To, in the mind of the person, present contradictory evidence to their perception or impression of you. They saw the facts and drew their perception. The two ways to change this are to either convince this individual to interpret these facts differently, (a viable option in appropriate scenarios) or to provide additional facts to change their perception. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. When the individual first meets you, they have an unbiased, blank slate. Upon the attempt to change a first impression, they already have their perception of you, and without even meaning to, they defend that perception.


~~3. The Verdict: Are First Impressions Everything?~~

While the answer will inevitably vary from case to case, I believe the most appropriate answer is "They can be." Your ability to receive the opportunity to change an individuals perception of you and your ability to either change their perception of the facts or present enough contradictory facts to change their mind are the deciding factors.

Spoiler

Looking back at my post, I think this is likely to be more of a discussion than a debate, but I personally see no real problems with that scenario, so I post it as is anyway.

EDIT:

A New Direction

Since the current debate is going nowhere, I propose a slightly new direction I just thought of.

How important should a first impression be?

Think of your own experiences. A bad first date, should you try again? New employee screws up badly on first day of work, what do you think now? Can you reliably assume he himself is not reliable? Keep in mind we must talk in terms of the majority of the people the majority of the time if we are to get anywhere.

 

[KrazyGlue]

Good topic, Faithkeeper.

Anyways, I think you're right about how people automatically defend their first impressions. I wouldn't say that they are "everything", but they are certainly very important and pretty hard to change. But the point is, they can be changed, and therefore I wouldn't say they are "everything".

 

[Darxmarth23]

Good topic, Faithkeeper.

Anyways, I think you're right about how people automatically defend their first impressions. I wouldn't say that they are "everything", but they are certainly very important and pretty hard to change. But the point is, they can be changed, and therefore I wouldn't say they are "everything".

I agree with the above quote because of the underlined reason.^^^

Nice topic. My experiences have proven to me that they aren't "everything" (which is an expandable term). But those experiences will be shared some other time....

 

[Faithkeeper]

I agree with what has been said. I'd make "everything" a little better term, but I am having trouble finding a stable way to measure how great the impact is. My initial thought was to measure it by the amount of contradictory evidence necessary to change said first impression, and we could debate on how much is actually required, yet even that is nigh unmeasurable in itself. Any suggestions?

 

[illinialex24]

I have been wrong on first impressions many times, they are important, but not everything.

 

[Airgemini]

First impressions do matter a little to me.
Most of the time it determines if I think someone is cool or not, but normally if I get to know the person a little better it'll change in time.
They do matter at first, but in the end they aren't really everything imo.

 

[:mad:]

So the general consensus here is "Oh, they matter, but first impressions are not everything"? I'll go ahead and say they're crucial in people forming opinions about you. Sure, you might say that if you get to know a person better, it'll change in time, much like Air did, but that doesn't mean they'll ever give you the chance.

If you make it clear to the other person that you're extremely annoying, weird, or rude, they might not give you a second look to begin with. First impressions greatly impact how people look at you.

 

[Lord Viper]

☆ First impression matters when it come's to getting a job from a job interview. They won't look to hire you if you make too many mistakes on your interview. But over all, first impressions can sometimes show less than 100% of what you really can do when it comes to a random person viewing your aspects. ☆

 

[Mr.Fakeman]

This is a really interesting topic acutally,

I was reading an article about this when I was bored a few months ago,
one of the common cases with this is that people attempt to guess what first impression the person their meeting wants. I was going to mention something which seems to already been mentioned, that first impression are in fact very crucial when entering the business industry (applying for a job). Considering that we a dealing with usually a large group of people/community. For instance, in job interviews; your 'status' in terms of educational records, workplace experiance and etc. are obviously important since it is going to be in your resume or whatever you need to show your employer.

So generally speaking it becomes all the more reason to shape your first impressions by the standard of your experiences. So that you'd be of course more commended in being accepted in a job, I know that this isn't always the case though.

 

[:mad:]

Without the article, simple anecdotes don't help get your point across.

 

[Lord Viper]

☆ Good topic back from the grave? There's so many ways to ruin impressions in terms of everything like making a video game look good when you sell it in the market, what will ruin that is boring presentation, and bad commercial. The only way to see if it's a good game is to play it, but how are you going to buy this game if your impression isn't strongly on that game? As I said, or wanted to say, first impressions matter when you want to grab someone's attention, but impressions alone doesn't show everything. ☆

 

[KrazyGlue]

I think we need to define what we mean by "everything" in this case. "Everything" is a very general term that could mean several different things.

 

[Lord Viper]

☆ Good point, what my saying is that performance can show how good or bad someone's impression of you. But I guess performance isn't what people call "everything" huh? ☆

 

[Miggz]

I feel that first impressions are extremely important, in both the working world and the social one. First impressions will always linger in the back of people's minds. Its extremely hard to forget what a person is like when you first meet them. Its even harder to accept that first impressions are a small piece of a person's over all personality. What I find interesting is how everyone interprets first impressions differently.

 

[Bowser King]

First impressions mean a lot. Sure they can be changed so, as everyone has already said, there not everything. However, that doesn't mean people wont remember the first time they met you and how you behaved then. That always stays with a person but can gradually be changed.

However, a lot of times, people aren't always willing to give second chances. Like a job sign-up, if you mess up once with your application, you very likely wont get the job. So in certain cases it can be extremely important to get a good first impression (actually, in almost every case, a good first impression means a lot).

 

[Faithkeeper]

However, a lot of times, people aren't always willing to give second chances. Like a job sign-up, if you mess up once with your application, you very likely wont get the job. So in certain cases it can be extremely important to get a good first impression (actually, in almost every case, a good first impression means a lot).

Well said. I believe this can also be applied socially. You are in high school. You meet someone new. They are a jerk and annoying. Do you really ever want to see them or talk to them again? I do not know if older adults would be more forgiving or not in their first impression, but my instincts tell be that is determined more on a case-by-case basis. I'm sure you can apply similar examples to many different age groups and social scenarios.

--------------------------------------​

A New Direction

Since the current debate is going nowhere, I propose a slightly new direction I just thought of.

How important should a first impression be?

Think of your own experiences. A bad first date, should you try again? New employee screws up badly on first day of work, what do you think now? Can you reliably assume he himself is not reliable? Keep in mind we must talk in terms of the majority of the people the majority of the time if we are to get anywhere.

 

[illinialex24]

A first impression is a very good regard and they have found that the unconscious brain really doesn't do any thinking in a recent study (I found it in New Scientist, I'll try to find the article) and that former studies that showed that unconscious thinking was better than conscious thinking were actually bad studies because:

By delegating tasks to people to try to force their unconscious brain to be the sole thing thinking about the task, they were actually just stopping the brain from thinking on the matter at all (as evidenced by the current study, forgot how they did it) and the results show that a first impression is much better than thinking on something or a persons qualities, judgments or the like.

Anyway, I found the article and what it showed is that there were two studies:

1 that had people look at a cars attributes, with one group solving anagrams, stopping them from conscious though. This group had the people in the anagram group better at choosing good attributes.

1 that had people memorize the attributes and then had a group do anagrams. In this, the group that was consciously thinking did much better, but that was because forcing them to memorize it took away their gut reaction.

Essentially, these two studies show that first reactions are very important, and that often you should go with your gut reaction. However, if you are in a certain way as to not really have a gut reaction, thinking the situation through is the best idea.

If anyone wants the article, here is the plain-text:

SLEEPING on a complex decision may not help you make the best choice after all. So say two studies that question the evidence for unconscious decision-making.

The "unconscious thought" theory for making complex decisions was proposed in a 2006 study by Ap Dijksterhuis at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and colleagues. The team showed volunteers a series of cars and their attributes on a screen, before asking half of them to think carefully about choosing the best car, and the other half to solve anagrams - a distraction technique to allow unconscious processing. Those in the anagram group were more likely to choose the cars with the best attributes, leading the researchers to conclude that it is best to leave tough choices to the unconscious (Science, vol 311, p 1005).

Now two teams have questioned this conclusion. Instead, they suggest that the volunteers made their decisions when they first viewed the data, based on an immediate gut instinct. Those in the anagram group simply recalled this original decision when asked to choose. Those in the "thinking" group, however, reconsidered their first impressions while the details of the cars faded from their memory, which led to poorer choices. "What Dijksterhuis ignored is that people might already decide when they first hear about the cars, and not after thinking about it or solving anagrams," says psychologist Daniel Lassiter of Ohio University in Athens.

To test this hypothesis, Lassiter and his colleagues repeated Dijksterhuis's experiment with a twist: they told the volunteers to memorise the cars' attributes while viewing them, thus distracting their attention from making an immediate decision.

The small tweak made a big difference. In contrast to Dijksterhuis's experiment, students made better choices when they spent time thinking, rather than solving anagrams (Psychological Science, vol 20, p 671). Lassiter says this is strong evidence against the idea that unconscious deliberation is superior to conscious decision-making. He questions whether unconscious thought exists at all.
This is evidence against the idea that unconscious deliberation is superior to conscious decision-making

Axel Cleeremans from the Free University of Brussels (ULB) in Belgium carried out a very similar experiment to Lassiter, but using apartments instead of cars, and came to the same conclusion. He also asked another set of volunteers to choose as soon as they had viewed the apartment information, with no time for any deliberation. The decisions made were of the same quality as those made by the volunteers he asked to solve anagrams, Cleeremans says. This is further evidence that unconscious thought does not improve decision quality. He presented his findings at the annual meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness in Berlin, Germany.

Dijksterhuis maintains that unconscious thought exists. He says that he has carried out further experiments directly comparing decisions formed after a period of unconscious thought with those based on first impressions only, and found the former to be superior. He intends to submit these for publication.

John-Dylan Haynes of the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience in Berlin says that the new results show that unconscious thought during anagram solving had no great effect on decision quality. But he says that unconscious processing could be important for gut reactions.

 

[Omis]

I base almost everything off of my first impression for a very simple reason; there is a huge amount of people in the world. Most of the arguments for giving people another chance bank on people saying "They could be a great person and you would never even know." My counterargument to that is that why waste your time on the hope that said person is good when you could be out meeting new people? With so many people out there, it is a waste of time to be clinging to one person you might like when you could go out finding people that you know you will like by your first impression.

First impressions are how I role in life. I liked nearly all of my friends right off the bat. A few of them were pretty boring at first and the only reason I stayed with them was from some outside recommendation. The cases were I ended up liking someone who had a bad first impression were little to none though.

 

[Firus]

But Omis, that brings up another point; if your bad first impressions aren't always correct, but you don't feel like trying to know them better just in case, who's to say your good first impressions will be correct? I'm not really saying you should totally change your habits, I don't have much of a problem with you judging people on their first impressions pretty consistently, but it's not entirely fair to say that you "know you will like" people that you get a good first impression of. I know I've had pretty good first impressions of people I grew to loathe. My middle school gym teacher seemed nice and funny at first, but he was really just a jerk.

In regards to the general topic (the new direction of it; in fact, maybe you should add that post to the OP, Faithkeeper?), I would have to say first impressions should be pretty important, but there's always the possibility of a lesser-known element. For example, you may look at someone who dresses in all black and be scared of them or something, or just think they're a bum, but really that's just the style of clothes they wear. I know that happened to me, I got called a devil worshiper. Of course, the more you interact with a person to get your first impression, the more reliable it is. Then again, if someone's kind of cold towards you because they were in a particularly bad mood caused by something legitimate, it's hard to judge that person based on that.

To sum up my thinking, I'd have to say that first impressions are pretty important, and should be so long as they're legitimate and you're not just looking at someone to get it...but I think giving time for a second impression is a good idea. If things haven't changed after that, there's not much of a reason to keep interacting with the person.

 

[M.K]

A New Direction

Since the current debate is going nowhere, I propose a slightly new direction I just thought of.

How important should a first impression be?

Think of your own experiences. A bad first date, should you try again? New employee screws up badly on first day of work, what do you think now? Can you reliably assume he himself is not reliable? Keep in mind we must talk in terms of the majority of the people the majority of the time if we are to get anywhere.

First impressions are incredibly important. Alot of life changing things depend on giving off good first impressions, such as job interviews and relationships.
The example of an employee screwing up on the first day is moot. Obviously the employee had to be guided through an interviewing process, and therefore, was deemed fit to hold the job. I believe that this interviewing proces builds up a sense of leniency. If the employee screws up the first day, it could be said that the employer may pardon them because they have already proven themselves capable at another point in time, or they may be fired, depending on the severity of their mistake.
Obviously the first impressions set the precedent of relationships just as opening statements and introductory paragraphs do in law and writing respectively.

 

[Lythium]

First impressions are incredibly important. Alot of life changing things depend on giving off good first impressions, such as job interviews and relationships.
The example of an employee screwing up on the first day is moot. Obviously the employee had to be guided through an interviewing process, and therefore, was deemed fit to hold the job. I believe that this interviewing proces builds up a sense of leniency. If the employee screws up the first day, it could be said that the employer may pardon them because they have already proven themselves capable at another point in time, or they may be fired, depending on the severity of their mistake.
Obviously the first impressions set the precedent of relationships just as opening statements and introductory paragraphs do in law and writing respectively.

While I have to agree with your statement that first impressions "set the precedent of relationships," I would have to disagree with your idea that a mistake cannot add to the first impression, as with your example of the employee's relationship to employer.

With an interivew, the prospective employee has a chance to establish their relationship through first impressions. The employee gets the job. However, if they screw up on their first day of the job, it reflects on first impressions yet again. From an interview, the employer attempts to determine if an employee is the right person for the job. Yet, the first impression of their work itself is crucial to determining whether or not the person is truly capable. First day of work is establishing a first impression.

 

[Miggz]

I don't think first impressions should be absolutely everything. They are important, no doubt. But I feel its extremely dangerous to assume I know the person like the back of my hand from the start. Let's say I am walking to class and I hear this pounding music coming from a car. The music was, I don't know, Linkin Park. I turn around and I see its one of my classmates, that I don't know at all, driving this car. Unfortuanelty, people associate Linkin Park (which, by the way is my favorite band) with depression. Now just because this guy was playing Linkin Park doesn't mean he's emo and has a dark view on life. It simply means he enjoys rock music. Hell, maybe he had someone in the car playing their kind of music. We just never know.

You can, however, use first impressions as a sneak preview of a small part of that person's overall personality. Its simply dangerous to base everything about a person from a brief encounter. Understand the individual more, but don't label them.

 

[Mewter]

Just like Miggz said, first impressions don't give you a good enough picture of what people are really like, but whether or not you actually find out more about the person may actually be a little dependent it.

Good first impressions usually tend to lead to a better opinion and second encounters with a person, while bad first impressions may not (there are probably exceptions to this). If you want to really know what someone is like, then you'll have to meet with them several times and get a general grasp on who that person really is, and bad first impressions may prevent this.
That's just my view on this subject.

 

[pockyD]

They 'shouldn't' be so important, but the extent to which you implement that life obviously should vary a lot depending on the relationship

For example, with a co-worker or fellow student in a class, you WILL have interaction in the future, in which case you are much better off investing more time verifying that your impressions are correct

On the other hand, with a shoddy first date or a prospective insurance agent or something, they are simply another fish in the pond; you will not encounter them again unless you choose to, and there are countless alternatives... in such cases, there's no reason to continue interacting the one who left you with negative feelings in hopes that it was a misunderstanding when it's just as likely, if not more so, that the next person that comes along IS the type of person you're looking for

In addition, in professional setting and the like, the ability to present an impressive first impression (even if it isn't your legitimate self) can itself be a crucial skill towards your position (for example, if your job would involve you representing your company to others; clients, competitors, etc.), so real or not, the ability to APPEAR awesome can be just as important as actually being awesome

 

[JustKindaBoredUKno]

First impressions aren't quite everything.

Funny story: I actually went from spitting in this kid's face the first time I met him to being best friends with him as time went on.

But those are one of the more rare incidents. Generally, first impressions tend to be a lot, just because if you didn't like the first impression, why go back for a second?

 

[Darxmarth23]

They are only as big as you think they are. If the person is human they can most likely look past them.

Unless you are picking up a blind date.

 

[:mad:]

First impressions aren't quite everything.

Funny story: I actually went from spitting in this kid's face the first time I met him to being best friends with him as time went on.

But those are one of the more rare incidents. Generally, first impressions tend to be a lot, just because if you didn't like the first impression, why go back for a second?

Same thing with me. Some kid stole my bike, he lived 2 houses down, set it on the side of the house like an idiot, and I just took it back. We became friends the next day. It's not as rare as you might think, it's pretty common when it doesn't happen in a business setting.

Some people are pretty laid back, they'll get to know you first.

 

[Bowser King]

In the case of things like friendship, first impressions can be as rough as you want them to be. It's up too you to decide whether you want to be friends with someone or not and if you want to just basing it off your first impression that's fine with me. Should it come down to that? I don't think so because you barely know the person.

Still, in things like work, you should consider the first impression just a clipping of the person. Most of the time in these things, a person can change a lot from what you think of them when you first see them. So if the first day they mess up, you should take that and see how the person progresses after a while. The person could just have been nervous.

What I'm basically saying is that first impressions aren't everything or extremely important.

 

[Evil Eye]

First impressions are definitely not everything. Most people put up a bit of a guard when they meet new people, be it through trying to conceal perceived weaknesses or highlight perceived strengths. This will break down inevitably as friendship fosters.

In the case of friendships or romantic relationships that last several years, the people themselves will change, and one's perception of them will change as such. This doesn't even have to be judged on a positive or negative scale. For example, if your best friend is a jockish athlete, but over the years they become increasingly interested in science, your perception of them changes, yet they are still your best friend. Positive and negative are almost nonfactors in this hypothetical.

First impressions also mean almost nothing when dealing with shy or introverted people. How many of you have made a friend or dated someone that has wallflower tendencies? What does that first impression tell you? Literally nothing. They're almost a piece of furniture. But, obviously, when you get to know them your impression of them will evolve.

Basically, not only do I not see first impressions as "everything", but I also consider them fleeting relics that are easily washed away as one gains a truer insight into the person in question.

 

[pacmansays]

I don't know, I've made friends that once I had bad first impressions, possibly bad impressions overall.

One of my best friends I was mean to (I have no clue why and I feel awful still for doing it) in primary school but now we are great friends

My oldest friend, my earliest memory of doing anything with her was her involving a game where I played the 'fat one'

And some of my current friends I was once scared of, found nothing in common with and got off on bad first impressions. They do matter sometimes, but I don't think its permanent

 

[FearTheMateria]

It depends on the situation.

If it is for something important like a job, a conference, or a meeting with someone of important status, then a positive first impression is one of the most significant factors for advancement.
If it's just everyday life (i.e school, walking down a street, going to the store, etc.) A first impression loses it's significance.
A first impression at a job may boost or impede you later on in life, but a bad/good first impression on an everyday basis is only for the immediate reaction. Even at school, most the people on the Middle/High school campus that aren't your true friends, you will probably NEVER see them again in life. Or, if you did, it will probably be for a brief impact.