First Impression is the last impression

William Hazlitt was an English writer remembered for his humanistic essays and and far more famous for giving us the famous quote first impression is the last impression. First impressions are often the truest, as we find (not unfrequently) to our cost, when we have been wheedled out of them by plausible professions or actions...(Essay by William Hazlitt- On the knowledge of Character)

It takes only one tenth of a second for us to make up our minds about people, according to a recent research. Psychologists at Princeton University, in the US found that people made judgements about the attractiveness, likeability, trustworthiness, competence and aggressiveness of other people after looking at their faces for 100 milliseconds. 

Rather than correcting initial judgements, longer glances at the same faces caused people to become more convinced of their initial opinions, the scientists found.

There was a study published in Nature Neuroscience, led by Daniela Schiller at New York University along with other scientists from Harvard University. All these scientists concluded  that "when you meet a person, they might say something, or look a certain way, or behave a certain way, but you have very little information on which to form an opinion, but it is almost instantaneous and you can't withhold from doing it’.

Like all of you for me, the first impressions were hugely important.  I judged people based on what they appeared to me in the first or even second meeting. 

However now I can say for sure that our first impressions or first appearances can be deceptive, and sometimes even with our initial interactions with somebody we could be completely wrong about them. 

Our first impressions are made not on how the other person appears to us rather they are formed on how we are programmed in our live; what are our biases, our fears, and so on. 

I have also made first impressions about few people; however, later I have been pleasantly surprised by them. On one such occasion when I assumed somebody to be lazy; a spoiled brat & the one who deals with everything carelessly- not only turned out to be highly ambitious but also very hard working and a kind human being.

Recently I have met two young ladies who had the most challenging first impressions with even more difficult body language and facial expressions. On appearance it seemed that they were not paying any attention to what I said. 

Rather than asking me for guidance they preferred to chat and giggle with each other, which of course disturbed me. What worried me was not their behaviour but more the consequences of their attitude. 

Then I saw their work... which took me by complete amazement because those two were the ones who not only listened but also paid close attention to every single word that I spoke. While I was busy judging them they were actually working their best in trying to understand me.

In all the above situations and few other occasions people have surprised me, and to be very honest these were times when I am more than happy to be wrong. 

So can we be really sure that our first impression is our last impression?

Cheers:)

 

Sonya Syed. (Day 404)