Want to Make a Great First Impression? A Princeton Psychologist Says Be Aware of 3 Snap Judgments People Make
We often tell clients that it’s not just what you say, but how you say it. And first impressions do count.
Here’s what Scott Mautz, writing for Inc., had to say on the subject.
Impressions make quite an impression on us as we’re so eager to manage them. I’ve written about how to overcome a bad first impression and how science says you can improve them by, of all things, making sure your counterpart is holding a warm cup of coffee/tea. But now let’s tackle first impressions right on the frontline, in the instant they’re formed. And they’re being forged astonishingly fast, on things that count.
Princeton University psychologist Alex Todorov found that people make judgments on whether or not someone is trustworthy, competent, and likeable within one second of seeing someone’s face (trustworthiness clocking in at an incredible 100 milliseconds).
As Todorov put it:
The link between facial features and character may be tenuous at best, but that doesn’t stop our minds from sizing other people up at a glance. We decide very quickly whether a person possesses many of the traits we feel are important, such as likeability and competence, even though we haven’t exchanged a single word with them.
For the rest, click here.