First Impressions
Eric Wargo writes in the July 2006 Psychological Science, “A series of experiments by Princeton psychologists Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov reveal that all it takes is a tenth of a second to form an impression of a stranger from their face, and that longer exposures don’t significantly alter those impressions (although they might boost your confidence in your judgments).
“Willis and Todorov conducted separate experiments to study judgments from facial appearance, each focusing on a different trait: attractiveness, likeability, competence, trustworthiness, and aggressiveness. Participants were shown photographs of unfamiliar faces for 100 milliseconds (1/10 of a second), 500 milliseconds (half a second), or 1,000 milliseconds (a full second), and were immediately asked to judge the faces for the trait in question (e.g., “Is this person competent?”). Response time was measured. Participants were then asked to rate their confidence in making their judgments.”
Study data showed that “Response times also revealed that participants made their judgments as quickly (if not more quickly) after seeing a face for 1/10 of a second as they did if given a longer glimpse. Longer exposure times did increase confidence in judgments…”
Of the five traits: attractiveness, likeability, competence, trustworthiness, and aggressiveness. Guess which one had the highest correlation to positive first impressions?
Trustworthiness. That doesn’t surprise me. In the last 20 years of surveying my audiences that has consisitently been the most important trait. Go to my website for more information and to sign up for my free newsletter.
