14 DAY TRIAL // One of the things that some humans have perfected to an art is understanding how they appear in the eyes of others. This ability to perceive oneself as others do has major implications in everyday life, as for instance when people leave a job interview. The same applies when a promoter pitches a sales idea in a meeting of investors. These people need to be able to judge the first impression they've made by seeing themselves through the eyes of others. While some are very proficient at doing this, others don't have the slightest ability in this direction, and therefore suffer the consequences.
In a new scientific study, researchers at the Washington University in St. Louis (WUSL), working together with colleagues from the Wake Forest University, sought to determine precisely what triggers this ability, or, conversely, inhibits it. They determined that the main driving factor in this case is the level of confidence that each individual has in his or her abilities. The investigation was conducted in the tightly-controlled confines of scientific labs, where scenarios were set up to imitate first impression situation. The study was led by WUSL doctoral candidate in psychology, Erika N. Carlson. She worked with assistant professor of psychology Simine Vazire, PhD, also her advisor, and with WFU expert R. Michael Furr, PhysOrg reports.
The group focused its investigations on about 280 students, divided into pairs featuring a man and a woman each. The participants, who were recruited from both universities, had to engage in 5-minute-long conversations with each other. At the end of the discussions, each of the test subjects was asked to rate their impression of their conversation partner. They also had to judge themselves through meta-perception, as in to view their behavior through the eyes of their partners. These assessments were based on 60 traits, each of them rated on a scale of 1 to 7. The students were also asked about the level of confidence they had in their assessment of how their partner viewed them.
“In the past, researchers hadn’t asked whether you know when you’re accurate in first impressions, nor your degree of confidence. We found that people who were poor at making good meta-impressions were less confident than people who made accurate ones. So, after making a first impression, if you’re confident in your judgment, you’re likely to be right,” Carlson reveals. Full details of the work appear in the latest issue of the respected scientific journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.