Are first impressions as important as we think?

Although most people see themselves as open-minded, we all tend to judge others before we truly get to know them. Prejudging people before we even properly interact with them is the norm, and the origin of the term prejudice. And yet, we can also learn to give people the benefit of the doubt and coach ourselves to suspend rapid and stereotypical evaluations of others when we want—it’s just that it requires far more effort (thinking slow rather than fast) and . . . is by no means guaranteed to work out in the end. So, while we all agree (at least in theory) that you cannot judge a book by its cover, the brutal reality is that there is often no time for a second good impression. If someone doesn’t connect with you or like you right away, the work needed to persuade them to change their mind or see you in a different vein may exceed your ability—and motivation—to change their views on you. But what do we really know about the science of first impressions? A recent meta-analytic review (which synthesized the results of hundreds of empirical studies in this field) offers five important generalizations. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompan…