Why First Impressions Are Crucial

• Tweet
• Sharebar

• Tweet

I’m sure that at some time in your childhood or youth you heard the expression that first impressions are important but have you ever stopped to wonder why?

Whenever we take in any new information we run it through our own set of filters. We delete, generalize and distort whatever it is we are seeing, hearing and/or feeling so that it makes sense to us and fits in with our map of the world. This can be a huge benefit as it allows us to sort and group similar information phenomenally quickly (for example, if we saw a dog that was a new breed to us, we may not recognize the breed but we still know the animal is a dog) but it can also be a drawback when we attach our meaning to a given situation or person based upon our own history and viewpoint rather than reality.

As an example; take a sporting event that has 2 sides of 5 or more players. Two friends go to watch the game one of whom dislikes Player A and thinks he is really overrated and not worth his salary and one of whom loves Player A and think she is the teams star player. Already before the game has even started both friends have got their filters in place and are ready to judge the performance based on the opinions that they already hold. So whenever the player makes an error one of the friends is expecting it and all to willing to jump all over him. Similarly, the other friend is eager to point out every good passage of play that involves the same player.

In the above example it is not that both friends are being deliberately stubborn and unyielding it is that they actually do not see what they don’t want to. Their brain is reluctant to admit that it could be wrong and will do whatever it can to bridge the gap between reality and what was expected to happen even to the point of not seeing things! If there is one, think of a person that has severely let you down at some time in your life and that you now have little to do with. Does that one event color all your other opinions? Do you find it difficult to see their good side and even when you do temper that with ‘yeh but…’? This person may have many redeeming qualities but you will find it tricky to see them and even more difficult to admit that they exist because this would mean your filter was not completely accurate (nobodies is by the way) and you would need to reassess.

So now you can see why first impressions are important. Once people have made a judgment about you (either good or bad) they are usually reluctant to change it without very good reason. They will search for examples of why they were right to have that opinion in the first place with a lot more gusto and enthusiasm than they will look for reasons as to why they were wrong.