Are Your First Impressions of Others Accurate?

Have you ever met people for the first time and, within less than a minute, decided what kind of person they were or whether you liked them? Did your first impression turn out to be accurate, or did you change your perception later? Most people have had this first impression experience.

These first impressions predict all kinds of important characteristics, not just attractiveness. For example, people’s snap judgements of a politician’s competence, based solely on their appearance, can predict their success in an election — even when the audience does not know who the politician is. These impressions we make in a split second are not random; they tend to be shared by most people surveyed. But it doesn’t necessarily make them correct. People typically rely on limited and potentially misleading information about others when forming first impressions. Drawing big conclusions from such limited information can lead to poor decisions with broader implications.

Some History About First Impressions

First impressions have been part of human behavior throughout the history of our species. It has been explained at various times as an attractiveness stereotype, self-fulfilling prophecies, or “good genes,” but there have been mixed findings regarding the accuracy of these explanations.

People make subjective judgments about others regularly, consciously and subconsciously. But how much information can be gleaned from a glance at a face? The idea that internal traits can be displayed externally dates back to Aristotle, who states in Analytics, “It is possible to infer character from features.”

In the late 1700s, Johann Kaspar Lavater, a Swiss pastor, published a series of essays that described what was known as physiognomy, which gained a great following into the 19th century. Physiognomy described the shape of the nose, the set of the jaw, and the width of the forehead, which were said to be how to understand whether a person would be well-suited to a particular occupation because those physical traits were directly linked to intelligence, kindness, or perseverance. Such judgments are based on stable traits and facial characteristics, not fleeting expressions, emotions, or interactions, and a person would use those characteristics to determine a first impression.

Physiognomy fell out of favor in the late 19th century due to its association with Phrenology — the notion that one’s personality could be found by reading the bumps on his or her skull, which represented certain areas of the brain being larger or smaller. Upon opening the skull, scientists discovered that the inside is smooth — so bumps could not possibly represent areas of the brain — and thus phrenology was discredited and its cousin physiognomy along with it.

How Quickly Do We Form First Impressions?

Princeton University researchers Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov published a study in Psychological Science that found by giving one group of university students 100 milliseconds to rate the attractiveness, competence, likeability, aggressiveness, and trustworthiness of actors’ faces.

A study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science by researchers at the University of York reveals how quickly we form these first impressions. “Facial impressions are relevant given that these occur very briefly (in as little as 33 milliseconds) and are consequential, for instance, predicting government election results and influencing romantic preferences,” explained study author Jennifer K. South Palomares. The researchers showed that a single glance of a person’s face for just 33 to 100 milliseconds was sufficient to form a first impression.

Personality Traits and First Impressions

The Persistence of First Impressions. The concept that “first impressions are long-lasting” underscores the importance of studying them, as indicated by the familiar phrase. These impressions are shaped by many factors, including physical characteristics, nonverbal cues, verbal behaviors, and environmental factors. Intriguingly, research has shown that first impressions can endure for months and even influence personal judgments despite contradictory evidence about the individual in question.

James S. Uleman, Steven L. Blader and Alexander Todorov, writing a chapter in The New Unconscious: Oxford Series in Social Cognition and Social Neuroscience, argue that social cognition literature conceptualizes impressions via several constructs. Among these, personality traits are the most studied, with individuals often forming quick judgments about others’ stable characteristics such as trustworthiness, dominance, and attractiveness. Evolutionarily, this tendency makes sense, as attractiveness signals mating cues, trustworthiness suggests valuable social traits, and assessing dominance helps avoid conflict.

The goals, values, and beliefs of others also have been shown to influence first impressions.

Implicit vs Explicit First Impressions.

The differences between explicit and implicit impressions of others are:

• Explicit biases and prejudices are intentional and controllable, whereas implicit biases are less so.
• A person may even express explicit disapproval of a certain attitude or belief while still harboring similar biases on a more unconscious level.
• Explicit attitudes are deliberate and conscious, whereas implicit attitudes are automatic and unconscious.
• A person is aware of his explicit attitudes but not of his implicit attitudes.
• Explicit attitudes are more dynamic and can change over time, while implicit attitudes will likely resist change.

What Are Our First Impressions Based On?

Voice Tone. In their study published in PLOS ONE, Phil McAleer and colleagues concluded that people instantly judge others based on their voice. ”From the first word you hear a person speak, you start to form this impression of the person’s personality,” says McAleer. In his experiment, he recorded the voices of 64 men and women, reading a paragraph that included the word “hello.” He then had 320 participants listen to the different voices and rate them on ten personality traits: trustworthiness, aggressiveness, confidence, dominance and warmth. He found that the participants largely agreed on which voice matched which personality trait. The pitch of the untrustworthy male voice was much lower than that of the most trustworthy male. McAleer says this is probably because a higher-pitched male voice is closer to the natural pitch of a female, making men sound less aggressive and friendlier than lower-pitched male voices. “What makes females sound more trustworthy is whether their voices rise or fall at the end of the word,” says McAleer. “Probably the trustworthy female, when she drops her voice at the end, is showing a degree of certainty and so can be trusted.”

Smell. Research from Italian psychologist Mariella Pazzaglia suggests in her article in Current Directions in Psychological Science that our sense of smell helps us decide if someone is a friend or foe. According to the research, we determine if someone is in our family or social group by scent. If someone smells familiar, it’s a sign that they’re like us and could provide social support. But if they smell too different, we think they might not have our best interests in mind.

Dress. A study by Neil Howlett and colleagues published in the Journal of Marketing and Management had participants in their experiment. They reported that men in tailored suits were rated as more successful. “On the evidence of this study, it appears men may be advised to purchase clothing that is well‐tailored, as it can positively enhance the image they communicate to others,” the authors wrote.

Walking. In a study by John C. Thorensen and colleagues published in the journal Cognition, students were shown video clips of 26 other students walking — some with looser gaits, some tighter. Students equated looser gaits with extroversion and adventurousness, while the more clipped walkers were seen as neurotic.

Physical Appearance. While what we infer from faces has been well studied, new research from The University of Texas at Dallas suggests that people also form first impressions from body shapes. Ying Nina Hu, at the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, is the lead author of the study recently published in Psychological Science. “We found consistent, reliable trait inferences from body shapes,” Hu said. “A wide range of bodies and personality traits were included, so we’re not just saying that, for example, body weight predicts a perception of laziness. The effective body features go well beyond that, extending to more nuanced features, such as shoulder width,” says Hu. Participants consistently linked pear-shaped female models and broad-shouldered male models — which both fit the classical gender stereotypes — with extraversion and irritability, traits classified as active personalities. More rectangular male and female models were presumed to be more passive and described as trustworthy, shy and warm.

Men with shaved heads are seen as more dominant. When researchers at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, photoshopped pictures of men to appear to have shaven heads, they were judged to be “more dominant, taller, and stronger than their authentic selves.”

People make assumptions about others based on their choice of shoes. In this research, observers discerned correctly that more agreeable people tended to wear shoes that were practical and affordable (pointy toes, price and brand visibility were negatively correlated with agreeableness), that anxiously attached people tended to wear shoes that look brand new and in good repair (perhaps in an attempt to make a good impression and avoid rejection); that wealthier people wear more stylish shoes; and that women wear more expensive-looking, branded shoes.

Faster speakers are judged to be more competent. In the 70s, researchers created over fifty synthetic voices and played them to participants at various speeds. Increasing speech rate led participants to assume the voice owner was more competent. Similarly, in another study conducted during the same decade, researchers played their participants’ recordings of male interviewees, either slowed down by 30 percent or at the normal rate. The participants who played the slowed-down tapes rated the interviewees as less truthful, fluent, and persuasive. Other research has shown that people who say “um” and “ah” a lot are assumed not to know what they’re talking about.

Non-Verbal Cues. Non-verbal behaviours are particularly important to forming first impressions when meeting a business acquaintance, according to research published in The Silent Language of Leaders: How Body Language Can Help — or Hurt — How You Lead by Carol Kinsey Goman. Specifically, components of social expressivity, such as smiling, eyebrow position, emotional expression, and eye contact, are emphasized. Straightening one’s posture, leaning in slightly, and giving a firm handshake promote favourable impression formation in American business.

Handshakes can be used to determine a man’s conscientiousness. A 2011 study found that participants made many assumptions about people based on their handshake style but that the only accurate judgments concerned conscientiousness. The researchers explained that conscientiousness is a trait that reflects how successfully a person can learn any complex behaviour, be that a musical instrument or a handshake. “The ubiquitous handshake may not be as ritualized or as precise as the Japanese tea ceremony,” they said, “but it certainly requires some knowledge of the prevailing social norms and some interpersonal coordination.”

Facial Expressions. A study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science by researchers at the University of York reveals how quickly we form these first impressions. “Facial impressions are relevant given that these occur very brie[y (in as little as 33 milliseconds), and they are consequential, for instance, predicting government election results and influencing romantic preferences,” explained study lead author Jennifer K. South Palomares. The researchers also found that impressions of the traits of approachability, youthfulness/attractiveness and dominance can be formed from measurable characteristics such as the shape of and the spacing around the eyes, nose and mouth. It was found that first impressions of social traits, such as trustworthiness or dominance, are reliably perceived in faces.

Physical appearance gives us clear clues as to a person’s personality without him/her ever having to speak or move. Women tend to be better than men at judging nonverbal behavior, according to a study published in The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology by Elliot Aronson and colleagues.

Leslie Zebrowitz published a study in Psychological Science which examined first impressions from the facial information we use to judge others. She asked participants in the study to rate faces in photos on personality traits such as dominance and warmth. She found that most judged the persons in the pictures the same way — and these results hold across cultures, suggesting that the processes we use for creating first impressions are innate. She argues that there’s evidence that infants and young children judge faces similarly to adults. Zebrowitz points out that “incorrect first impressions can have significant social consequences. People with the ‘right’ kind of face are judged as more likable, knowledgeable, and capable. However, those with the ‘wrong’ kind of face are deemed unapproachable, incompetent, and untrustworthy. So, your face alone can greatly impact your social life, career success, and even legal decisions. “

In her research, Zebrowitz has identified four facial cues that people use to judge the characteristics of other people: The first facial cue is “babyfaceness” — having a baby-like face. The second facial clue is familiarity; we tend to judge people based on their facial similarity to other people we know. The third facial clue is fitness. Healthy people look attractive. We also assume they’re likable, intelligent, and capable. We think they’re good people to have as friends. The final cue is an emotional resemblance. We’re very good at reading the emotional expressions of other people. However, some people have facial features that resemble emotional expressions. For example, people with lower eyebrows may look angry even when they’re not. Likewise, those whose mouths are turned upward at the corners appear happy no matter how they feel.

The Virtual Bias. “If you want to make a good impression, it must be done in person,” says Jeremy Biesanz of the University of British Columbia. That is the bottom line of his new research that looks at how we form impressions in person versus online, by video, or by just watching.

In three studies, Biesanz and colleagues compared the accuracy and bias of impressions formed under different circumstances. The first study analyzed a series of experiments involving more than 1,000 participants who met each other through either a 3-minute speed-dating style interview or by watching a video of the person they were evaluating. They also evaluated their personalities.

“What we observe here is that the accuracy of impressions is the same when you meet someone face to face or simply watch a video of them,” Biesanz, says. “However, impressions are much more negative when you form impressions passively through watching videotapes.” So, while people could accurately attribute certain personality traits — for example, extroverted, arrogant, sociable — to others both in person or by video, the magnitude of the positive attributes was lower and negative attributes were higher via video.

The researchers found similar results in two other studies — one that used the same set-up to compare in-person impressions to those obtained through looking at Facebook photos and another that compared in-person meetings to simply watching someone as a passive observer. In all cases, the passive means of making impressions were as accurate as the active ones. “However, there is an extremely large difference in the positivity of impressions,” he says. “More passive impressions are substantially more negative.”

What Information Do We Get from First Impressions?

First Impressions and Dating

Professor Todorov emphasizes the significance of qualities like dominance and their connection to masculinity in forming initial judgments: “Qualities like dominance are closely linked to masculinity… Women who appear masculine are evaluated negatively, whereas men would be evaluated positively. This applies to both genders, so men and women [both] make negative assessments of masculine-looking women.”

In dating, first impressions of faces are often characterized as superficial, general, and potentially inaccurate. When examining the context of dating apps, it is crucial to consider the impact of how photographs are taken. Many facial research studies employ composite photos, which are computer-generated “averages” of multiple components from real faces, often resembling passport photos. These differ significantly from the curated images typically found in dating profiles.

The composition of real photographs can heavily influence first impressions. For instance, portraits taken from a low angle tend to be perceived as dominant, a positive trait for men but a negative one for women. Conversely, high-angle portraits tend to yield the opposite perception.

Individuals’ photos on dating profiles are carefully curated to present their best selves. These images are not merely chosen for attractiveness but also convey personality traits and social cues, such as adventurousness or generosity. It is common for people to feature photos of themselves engaged in charitable activities.

However, despite meticulous curation, the effectiveness of these efforts may be undermined by the sequence effect, a phenomenon prevalent in dating apps. This effect leads to “love at second sight,” where the preceding face’s attractiveness influences the rating of the subsequent face. Attractive individuals may be underrated if they follow an unattractive face, while their appeal might be inflated if the following individual is also attractive.

The camera’s position can significantly impact the impression conveyed in selfies, with a low angle often resulting in a perception of greater dominance and attractiveness, especially in men.

First impressions, although rapid, are shallow and subject to change with better information, such as when two individuals engage in conversation. According to Professor Todorov, genuine compatibility can only be assessed through meaningful communication: “The only way to tell whether two people will like each other — they have to talk. People don’t make good predictions for compatibility without talking.”

Cultural differences also play a role in dating preferences. While Westerners tend to be drawn to individualistic qualities, traits like kindness hold greater value in collectivistic cultures, such as in East Asia. Karen Wu, a California State University, Los Angeles researcher, highlights this distinction, noting that collectivistic cultures prioritize group interests over individual ones.

Interestingly, characteristics like kindness emerge as predictors of speed-dating success in Asian-American communities. Nevertheless, physical attractiveness remains a crucial factor for both men and women.

Navigating the complexities of dating, it is remarkable that individuals ever find compatibility. Factors such as the preceding conversation, mood, cultural background, gaze angle, and perceived popularity can all influence the outcome of a meeting.

Despite the challenges, some studies suggest that people can accurately assess their dates’ personalities, particularly those who report higher well-being, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. Effective self-presentation, aligned with one’s authentic personality, may facilitate more accurate impressions.

Considering this, it is a miracle that we ever find someone as attracted to us as we are to them. The conversation your potential partner had directly before meeting you, their general mood, their cultural background, the angle at which they are looking at you, whether they deem themselves to be more popular than you — all these factors could influence whether you hit it off seems endless.

There have been several marriages from these speed-dating studies, so there must be some logic in there, says Laura Sels from KU Leuven in Belgium: “Some people now have children, so it produced some nice results.”

The high stakes of first dates require would-be partners to make and interpret first impressions. But can we rely on these first impressions to assess someone’s personality accurately? According to researchers from McGill University, the answer is yes, although it may be more difficult than in more casual settings.

On average, people did see their dates’ personalities accurately, but some dates were easier to read than others. “Some people are open books whose distinctive personalities can be accurately perceived after a brief interaction, whereas others are harder to read,” says co-author Lauren Gazzard Kerr at McGill University under the supervision of Professor Lauren Human . “Strikingly, people who report higher well-being, self-esteem, and satisfaction with life tend to make the task easier,” she says.

The researchers note that some individuals engage in more effective self-presentation. “Perhaps people with greater well-being behave in ways that are more in line with their personality — being more authentic or true to themselves,” says Human. In a previous study, the researchers also found evidence of this in platonic settings.

First Impressions in the Workplace

A study by Murray R. Barrick and a team of researchers, as published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, underscores the substantial role of initial impressions in the workplace. This research reveals that first impressions significantly influence employers’ behaviors during job interviews and, consequently, their final hiring decisions.

Employers tend to rely on their initial impressions when assessing job candidates, leading them to formulate questions that align with these impressions. Their subsequent interactions with candidates reflect this initial judgment, often confirming it. When employers perceive candidates positively from the outset, they adopt a more proactive approach by providing information about the job, effectively “selling” it to the candidates rather than focusing on gathering information from them.

Intriguingly, this initial positivity in employer behavior triggers a corresponding warmth in the candidates’ responses. Candidates reciprocate with warmer behaviours when met with favourable initial impressions from employers. Consequently, this reciprocity reinforces the employers’ positive initial judgments about the candidates.

However, a noteworthy finding is that even when job candidates demonstrate behaviors that challenge or contradict the employers’ initial impressions, employers often struggle to assess their performance accurately. This difficulty in re-evaluating candidates prevents them from modifying their initial impressions accordingly.

To address this potential bias in the interview process and enhance the accuracy of candidate assessments, measures such as using scripted questions or incorporating third-party observers to evaluate the interview proceedings may prove effective. These strategies aim to foster more precise impressions and judgments of job candidates by reducing cognitive demands and introducing external perspectives.

Contrary Views

“Research has found that first impressions are surprisingly valid,” says Daniel Kahneman, psychologist, Nobel laureate and author of Thinking, Fast And Slow. “You can quickly predict whether you like a person and if others will.” However, first impressions are not perfect, and making a quick decision about someone can have consequences. “If your first impression is a mistake, it can take a while to realize this, as your expectations tend to be self-fulfilling,” says Kahneman. “When you expect a certain reaction, you are likely to perceive it even if it isn’t there.”

In his book, Face Value: The Irresistible Influence of First Impressions, Alexander Todorov pulls together all he’s learned about first impressions. His conclusion: “We find judging others based on a single glance irresistible, but the judgments we reach are usually wrong.”

Todorov reports that people can form a first impression from a person’s face in as little as 30 to 40 milliseconds. In his lab, Todorov generated faces on computers, which assembled them from features that have been shown to produce specific impressions in viewers reliably. He and his colleagues found that 11-month-old babies are more likely to crawl to “trustworthy” faces than “ untrustworthy “ ones.

Todorov explains, “We immediately form impressions from appearance, we agree on these impressions, and we act on them.”

That’s why CEOs who are deemed to look more competent get hired to lead more successful firms. And it’s why political candidates — in countries around the world — who look more competent win elections.

The problem is that although competence is a look many of us may recognize and agree upon, it only goes skin-deep. It turns out that the appearance of competence predicts higher CEO pay, not superior corporate performance. And I’ll leave you to conclude the competence of those competent-looking political candidates.

The problem of first impressions creating judgments that may be erroneous is amplified because of modern technology. Images on the screen can be altered and manipulated to create false impressions. Todorov has studied the effect that changing the shape of a mouth, the arch of an eyebrow or the height of a forehead has on first impressions. “We can do even better by building mathematical models of impressions,” he writes. “Using these models, we can increase or decrease the specific impression of a face, whether of trustworthiness or dominance or any other impression.”

“Across several domains — predicting sexual and political orientation, cheating, and aggressive behaviors — we find little evidence that our impressions are accurate,” reports Todorov.

With this knowledge, what do you think you should do? Be aware of your innate habit of forming snap judgments based on appearance, says Todorov, and look for other sources of knowledge about people. Take a cue from Billy Beane of the movie Moneyball fame, for example, and focus on performance statistics. Or institute blind auditions — a technique that led to the sudden influx of talented female musicians into the male-dominated world of philharmonic orchestras.

“The real map of the face is dynamic and constantly shifting, its interpretation rapidly changing in different situations,” concludes Todorov. “As long as we remember that, we are less likely to fall into the physiognomists’ trap of seeing the face as a source of character information.” He says: “Our results show that the mere statistical position of faces imbues them with social meaning — faces are evaluated more negatively the more they deviate from a learned central tendency, or what each person considers a typical face.”

He added that our misguided first impressions are becoming more important in the digital world, where employers choose candidates based on their LinkedIn profiles and singles pick potential dates by swiping through photos on Tinder. “Ideally, you’d post different images on LinkedIn than on Facebook,’ he says. “Different images of the same person can generate completely different impressions. The person can look attractive and competent in one image and silly and not very smart in another.”

Summary

So, there is compelling research evidence to show that most people automatically judge people by first impressions, which may be hard-wired into our brains to determine if the person is a threat. Second, most research experiments point to the relative accuracy of those instant judgments, although not 100%, and they are subject to cognitive biases. Also, the accuracy is affected by how much time we have to confirm our first quick judgment. Certainly, we must validate our first impressions by looking for more information to confirm our initial judgment.

Further Reading: You may also want to read my article, “Does Physical Attractiveness Give You an Advantage?” which details how first impressions and physical attractiveness intersect.