Perceivers’ long-term goals also affect their interpretations of others’ actions during first encounters. Impressions also are affected by environmental cues: For example, people perceive an ambiguous behavior differently after being primed to see a trait as “bold” versus “reckless” (Higgins, Rholes, & Jones, 1977). Such motivated processing can trigger a positivity bias in evaluating others. In the former case, perceivers engage in systematic (comprehensive) processing, whereas in the latter case, they tend to rely on heuristics that are consistent with their goal to affiliate with the given person (Chen, Shechter, & Chaiken, 1996). Adopting the mindset of a “reporter” whose goal is merely to discover the facts about a person might leave one with a completely different impression than adopting the mindset of a person on a blind date. Why does someone form an impression of another person? Research has shown that the answer to this question is critical to determining the way in which people process information about others. Thus, implicit biases can persist and affect interpersonal interactions in significant ways, even when perceivers are convinced that they have changed their impressions in light of new information. However, they still tend to classify the person as lazy in an implicit memory task. For example, after learning that the person who took the elevator up one flight on several occasions actually works out regularly, perceivers update their initial explicit judgment of her being lazy. When changes in impressions do occur, it is typically explicit, but not implicit, trait inferences that are altered (Olcaysoy Okten & Moskowitz, 2017b). Research from many labs has also consistently shown that implicit impressions are resistant to change (e.g., Gregg, Seibt, & Banaji, 2006 Mann & Ferguson, 2015). The exact relationship between implicit and explicit forms of impressions has been a controversial question in the field of social cognition (Payne, Burkley, & Stokes, 2008). While explicit measures of impressions include self-report tests such as ratings of evaluations or inferences, implicit measures include memory tests that measure the extent to which the target person is associated with a construct (such as a trait) in memory. Implicit measures aim to capture the spontaneous impressions that are typically invisible to the perceivers - impressions they have formed without any awareness or intention. Measuring Impressions: Explicit or Implicit?įirst impressions are manifested not only in perceivers’ explicit reactions but also in their spontaneous inferences. However, when a person takes an elevator up one flight only on a specific occasion, people may believe he wants to be quick in this specific situation. Considering the elevator example, having observed the same person taking an elevator up one flight on several occasions, people become more confident in their assessment of this person as lazy. Recent research from our lab has demonstrated the effect of behavior characteristics on first impressions when initially observed behaviors of others are known or believed to be consistent over time, formation of trait inferences has been observed to be more likely (Olcaysoy Okten & Moskowitz, 2017). The goals, values, and beliefs of others also have been shown to influence first impressions (Moskowitz & Olcaysoy Okten, 2016). They do this from others’ facial appearances (e.g., Willis & Todorov, 2006) and simple behaviors - for example, having observed a person taking an elevator up one flight, people may infer that she is lazy (Uleman, Blader, & Todorov, 2005). The most studied form of impression in social cognition is traits people tend to form split-second impressions with regard to others’ presumably stable characteristics, such as trustworthiness and competence. What are our first impressions about? Social cognition literature conceptualizes impressions via a number of constructs. This article will briefly discuss some critical aspects of first impressions based on existing social psychological research, including my own. First impressions have been shown to last for months (Gunaydin, Selcuk, & Zayas, 2017) and affect personal judgments even in the presence of contradictory evidence about the individual (e.g., Rydell & McConnell, 2006). Any information about a person, from her physical properties to her nonverbal and verbal behaviors, and even the environment she inhabits, influences our impressions and judgments about her (e.g., Ambady & Rosenthal, 1993 Gosling, Ko, Mannarell, & Morris, 2002). This familiar phrase indicates one of the many reasons that studying people’s first impressions is critical for social psychologists.
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