First Impressions

Before an important job interview or blind date you get butterflies in the pit of your stomach and repeatedly change outfits to find the perfect look, and you do all of this for one sole purpose; to make a great first impression. But does your first encounter with someone really matter? It actually does because within 1/10 of a second someone has an opinion of you and within a second or more after that, their impression of you most likely will not be changed, they will only be more confident in their judgment.


“I feel that when people make a judgment about me right away without knowing me they are in a way judging a book by its cover and not really getting to know the real me,” said Senior Kaila Mills, so are first impressions getting in the way of really getting to know someone?

Senior Matt Kortarbinski said, “When I see someone for the first time, I try not to judge them based on their first impression, but sometimes I judge them based on how they represent themselves.”

According to most psychologists first impressions leave a "polaroid picture" in someone’s mind after they are done interacting with somebody, and that picture will be how the person remembers the other one, whether it is bad or good. Not only do clothes play a part in first impressions, facial appearances are the key factors in how others see different people. Psychologists have found that people with more mature facial features are judged more severely than baby-faced people are.

“First impressions are a huge deal and last a long time and are very important for any situation,” said Senior Cole Erickson.

Princeton psychologists Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov found that having a face that appears competent matters a lot for someone wanting to get ahead in the public office or at work. In an experiment conducted by Willis and Todorov, the two found that certain traits make a great first impression right off the bat. Trustworthiness is the most important sought out trait when someone is first meeting another person and creates a good picture of you in someone’s mind. Also, attractiveness, which is assessed more quickly, can help make someone make a better impression. The two psychologists suggest that the ability to judge trustworthiness in a person as soon as possible may have evolved as an important survival mechanism.

When preparing for your next date or job interview spend more time in preparing your good traits instead of a nice outfit, since you will make an impression in no time at all.

-Jill Schumacher