'As soon as one sees another person, an impression is formed,' Rule says. While we may be able to size up someone's personality from a Facebook photo, it will often be more negative impression than one formed face-to-face. And researchers say that whether a first impression occurs online versus in person is important.
'With effort, we can overcome this to some extent, but we are continually tasked with needing to correct ourselves.' The less time we have to make our judgments, the more likely we are to go with our gut, even over fact, he says.Ī series of recent studies, presented today at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) annual conference in Austin, shows that appearance shapes everything from whether we ultimately end up liking someone to our assessment of their sexual orientation or trustworthiness.
'We judge books by their covers, and we can't help but do it,' says Nicholas Rule of the University of Toronto.
