First Impression, Initial Guess, Stereotyping, Labeling or Judging...Whatever you would personally choose to call it but you simply can't escape it. It's not only you but perhaps any other so-called less-intelligent-than-yourself creature on the planet Earth can't escape it. Forming judgement, assessment or evaluation is an inevitable part of life, especially while sharing physical space and resources with others and more specifically - strangers who you're seeing, accidentally bumping into, meeting with or interacting with for the first time.
They say that you don't get a second chance to make a first impression. Despite of the harsh reality, this famous statement has firmly imprinted the critical importance of first impression in our minds. Do you know what 'first impression' really is? What popularly known as 'first impression' is nothing but an instant evaluation or judgement formation about a previously unseen person, based upon her external appearance or looks in the first accidental bumping, encounter, interaction, introduction or meeting.
There shouldn't be any surprise to know that our limbic system or more specifically - Amygdala instantly actives upon seeing strangers as if they could be potential enemies. The so-called 'First Impression' in human world is basically a trust-based evaluation. Obviously, a friendly, trustworthy or non-threatening stranger is further evaluated, depending on the individual needs, urges or desires at the time of encounter. Of course, your own biases influence it.
The process takes place entirely at subconscious level and it takes just a few milliseconds. That's the only reason why you don't consciously realize that some parts of your own brain are silently evaluating, forming judgement or creating the 'first impression' of the person. The only moment of conscious realization is when you find yourself liking, disliking, pasting a label(s) on or using an adjective(s) for the person.
Although we tend to change our judgement or initial guess about people, our brain's default 'seeing-is-believing' mode of instant evaluation subconsciously motivates us to trust the external appearance - The person would be what her looks are quietly yet clearly giving the indications of, in a single and static snapshot, picture or photo taken by eyes. Indeed, vision plays a pivotal role in the entire process.
 |
| Exactly who has made 'Good Impression' on whom? |
That's why the 'First Impression' influence our thoughts, decisions we make, actions we take or our behavior in relation with the person who has left it, in the first glance. Some people even openly claim to quickly step back from developing a relation with the person or giving an opportunity to her just because they internally felt something wasn't right or was off. Sometimes, the first meeting ends up being the last one.
Your eyes see a person for the first time and your brain instantly pastes labels on her. Just because it instantly judges, it doesn't mean that every judgement is 100% correct. It's not at all necessary that the external appearance including physical features and attire of every person should perfectly match with her inner reality, let alone her true intentions and character. In modern human world, looks can be deceptive.
No matter how elaborately, poetically or vividly you would like to describe 'the great first impression' a specific person made, it could have been utterly bitter for you to swallow the reality of the person later on. You might choose to openly admit exactly how the same person shattered your own judgement. Personal experience would teach that a 'first impression' always doesn't reflect reality.
"A very handsome and well-dressed man with a cute smile on his face is offering you help when your car is having some problem in the middle of the road at the midnight. He may be a psychopathic serial killer, looking out for his next prey."
- Body Language Insights (Book)
- Body Language Insights (Book)
My theory (or hypothesis) about 'First Impression'
'First impression' is entirely nonverbal, based upon visual appearance only. However, a question was bothering me for years - Exactly why it can "make or break the deal", without any talking or conversation? Has it to something do with our evolutionary past or developmental history? I sincerely believe that it has to do with our remote non-human ancestors i. e. aquatic or water-dwelling ancestors, more than our immediate pre-human ancestors' i. e. primates (apes). Please let me try to explain.
Did you ever asked yourself exactly why the external appearance of a person should be enough for your brain to instantly pull a label(s) from its large label bank? What about person's body smell, speech or touch? While comparing to body smell, speech or touch; the external appearance or looks is the only aspect that can be quickly captured by eyes from a long and most importantly - a safe distance. Distance dictates personal safety.
A noise, clamor, mating call or warning call of any creature can be heard over a long distance. If a creature producing the sound hasn't been seen ever before then exactly how to visually identify it when it's not making it? Precise identification can take places only when the external appearance of a creature is saved in the memory along with the sounds it produces. It's like a vocal signature. The same rule applies to the body's smell.
When it's about increasing chances of success, predatory, stalking or ambushing creature would smartly choose to remain totally silent to avoid the remote detection. A friendly, mate seeking or accidentally bumping into creature would hardly do so. Additionally, predatory, stalking or ambushing creature could slow down or completely freeze its body movements to avoid the visual detection, especially by its targeted prey or victim.
 |
| Our remote fish-like aquatic ancestor (around 375 to 400 million years ago) |
Exactly when did forming the 'first impression' evolved in our ancestors? Exactly which group of ancestors benefited from it first? While considering the amount of time our brain takes to judge by the external appearances, it could have evolved in the kind of environment in which the survival entirely depended on the physical reaction time. For understanding it deeper and better; we need to look deep, below the surface of water.
Let's try to imagine the period on planet Earth in which our earliest fish-like ancestors lived and roamed in water. While sun-rays fall straight on the ground, they enter at an angle in the water. That's why objects below the surface of water appear differently than how they appear above it. Also, brightness of the light goes on decreasing with growing depth. Bubbles, streams, waves and algae further intensify the challenge for vision.
In this kind of physical environment, aquatic ancestors had to quickly evaluate strange creatures approaching them or even simply roaming in their close proximity. With eyes scanning only a limited visual space around their bodies at a time, instant evaluation of the threat based upon a few visual cues of any creature definitely would have given them the decisive survival and socialization advantages, over millions of years.
As our aquatic ancestors used to evaluate an approaching creature as predatory or non-friendly, they had to flee away from it as rapidly as possible. Even a fraction of a second matters for activating an appropriate physical response for survival. Greater frequency of encounters with both predatory and benevolent creatures could have led to their smaller and primitive brain to adapt 'seeing-is-believing' evaluation.
Irrespective of the habitat, all predatory and non-predatory creatures have definite visual characteristics to be able to identify them from a safe distance. Their external appearance give them identification. Hence, only the silhouette, outline or profile of the body of an approaching creature from a (safe) distance should be sufficient to identify the species, diet/food, intentions and physical abilities of the same creature.
The environment in which a predator or a hunter can approach from anywhere and is able to attack fatally within the fractions of a second then survival of its prey entirely depends upon how quickly it detects the approaching predator or hunter with optimal neural activities and make the defensive move quicker than the time predator or hunter takes to launch an attack. Both detection and reaction decide the destiny.
 |
| How you judge this upright walking creature? |
While concluding my theory (or hypothesis), I'd like to claim that the instant evaluation based in the first ever face-to-face encounter must have evolved in the same evolutionary era in which the external looks were consistent or matching with every creature's species, diet/food, intentions and physical abilities i. e. creature's look was enough to figure out exactly how it can move, behave and pose a threat.
Blind-sight in humans or an extraordinary human ability to detect visually (or through eyes) without consciously realizing the same might be strongly linked with or originated from the instant evaluation system evolved in our remote aquatic ancestors who would have spent most of their lives below the surface of shining water.
"It helped our ancestors over millions of years and our brain learned to judge people only by their looks or appearances. However, this instant (judgement formation) process can and does mislead in modern human world."
- Body Language Insights (Book)
- Body Language Insights (Book)
[#Special Note: Through this article, I'm finally making my aforementioned theory (or hypothesis) publicly available or redable - in its enhanced, finished and detailed form. In November 2014, I shared the crude and partly unfinished summary of the same, through email with 100 scientists and researchers of different fields related to brain and behavior, from some of the top universities and institutions in the world.]
Related Articles:
1) Face to Face 2) Can first impression be fully trusted? 3) First Impression and Body Language
