14 DAY TRIAL // The fact that first impressions are everything is apparently truer than anyone believed, says an international team of scientists from Canada, the United States and Belgium. The study it conducted shows that the first experience you get with someone tends to last for a lot longer than first believed.
Psychologists with the research group say that indeed “you never get a second chance to make a first impression.” They also say that the key concept in understanding first impressions is context.
For example, say someone gets the wrong opinion of you when you first meet. As new experiences involving both of you unfold, they can change that impression, but only in a very specific context.
That is to say, as soon as old contexts come into play, the dominant view is still that one that was formed during the first impression stage of the relationship. As such, whatever contradicts the first impression only functions when bound to a specific context or set of circumstances.
“Imagine you have a new colleague at work and your impression of that person is not very favorable,” says University of Western Ontario (UWO) Canada Research Chair Bertram Gawronski.
“A few weeks later, you meet your colleague at a party and you realize he is actually a very nice guy. Although you know your first impression was wrong, your gut response to your new colleague will be influenced by your new experience only in contexts that are similar to the party,” he adds.
“However, your first impression will still dominate in all other contexts,” adds the researcher. He was also the lead author of a new study detailing the findings, which was published in the latest issue of the esteemed Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
Experts Robert Rydell, Bram Vervliet, and Jan De Houwer were coauthors of the new paper. They say that our brain tends to treat expectancy-violating experiences and instances in a very specific manner.
When something that violates the first impression occurs, it is treated as an exception from the rule, rather than as an objective reality. The main implication of this is that the first opinion is considered generally-valid, except for that particular circumstance(s) in which it was proven invalid.
Even if it's difficult to change first impressions, the team leader says that this is not impossible. “What is necessary is for the first impression to be challenged in multiple different contexts,” he says.
“In that case, new experiences become decontextualized and the first impression will slowly lose its power. But, as long as a first impression is challenged only within the same context, you can do whatever you want,” the expert adds.
“The first impression will dominate regardless of how often it is contradicted by new experiences,” Gawronski concludes.