What is Impression?

Impression formation is the process by which individuals integrate various

sources of information to develop a coherent perception or "impression" of
another person.
An idea, feeling, or opinion about something or someone, esp. one formed
without conscious thought or on the basis of little evidence. An effect
produced on someone.
impression formation
• A social psychological term referring to the way in which strangers develop
perceptions of each other. A long tradition of (largely experimental) studies
have investigated the impact of initial impressions. These have identified
phenomena such as primacy effects and halo effects.
• Importance in Social Psychology: Impressions influence our
interactions, expectations, and judgments of others, shaping social
dynamics and relationships.
• Key Concepts:
• Initial Impressions: Often formed quickly, within seconds to minutes, based
on observable traits.
• Primacy Effect: Early information about a person has a greater impact on
impression formation than information acquired later.
This breaks down into six influences on how we perceive other people:
• Self-fulfilling prophecy
• Implicit personality theory
• Perceptual accentuation
• Primacy-Recency
• Consistency
• Attribution of controllability
Self Fulfilling Prophecy
• A Prediction that Comes True Because We Make it Happen
• If We Expect a Person to Act a Certain Way, They Probably Will
• Reactions Can Either Be Positive or Negative
Barriers to SFP
• Tendency to Fulfill Own Prophecies
• Distorts Perception that You are Actually Influencing the Other
Implicit Personality Theory (PIT)
• Rules Linking Style with Other Characteristics
• "Halo Effect" - We See the Positive in People We Like
• "Reverse Halo Effect" - We See negative in People We Don't Like
Problem with Implicit Personality Theory
• Can Develop Inaccurate Personality Theories
• Can Lead to Ignoring Inconsistent Information
Perceptual Accentuation
• Tendency to See What You Expect and Want to See
• Seeking Out People You Want and Need to Be With
Potential Barriers with PA
• Distorts Perceptions of Reality
• Fail to See What You Don't Want to See
• Filter Information Damaging to Self Image
• "Pollyanna Effect"
Primacy Effect
• What We Hear First is Most Influential for General Impression
Recency Effect
• Use Later Information to Make Impressions More Specific
Potential barriers with Primacy-Recency
• Total Picture is Not Accurate
• Discount or Distort Later Perceptions
• The primacy effect describes the tendency for information that we learn first to be weighted more heavily
than is information that we learn later. One demonstration of the primacy effect was conducted by Solomon
Asch (1946). In his research, participants learned some traits about a person and then made judgments
about him. One half of the participants saw this list of traits:

• Intelligent, industrious, impulsive, critical, stubborn, envious

• The other half of the participants saw this list:

• Envious, stubborn, critical, impulsive, industrious, intelligent

• You may have noticed something interesting about these two lists—they contain exactly the same traits but
in reverse order. because the traits were the same, we might have expected that both groups would form
the same impression of the person, but this was not at all the case. Rather, Asch found that the participants
who heard the first list, in which the positive traits came first, formed much more favorable impressions than
did those who heard the second list, in which the negative traits came first.
• Recency effects, in which information that comes later is given more weight, although much less common
than primacy effects, may sometimes occur. For example, de Bruin (2005) found that in competitions such as
the Eurovision Song Contest and ice skating, higher marks were given to competitors who performed last.
Consistency theory
• Attempt to Maintain Balance in Perceptions
• Expect Certain Things Together and Others Not
• Expect Persons We Like to Have Positive Characteristics, Those We
Don't Negative Characteristics
Barriers to Consistency
• Ignore Behaviors That Are Not Consistent with Our View
• Attribute Negative Qualities To Those We Don't Like
• Fail to See Positive in Those We Dislike and Negative in Persons We
Like
Stereotyping
• A Fixed Impression of a Group
• May Racial, Sexist, Religious, Etc.
• Thus, We Categorize All People in a Group a Certain Way
Barriers to Stereotyping
• Fail to See the Individual as an Individual
• Associate Assumed Negative Group Characteristics to the Individual
• Ignore Uniqueness of Person
Attribution
• Attempt to Discover Why People Do What They Do
• Is it Because of Personality (Internal)?
• Is it Because of Situation (External)?
Consensus
• Does This Person Act Like Others?
• No? Internal Causes
• Yes? External Causes
Consistency
• High Consistency - Person Acts in a Similar Way Most of Time
• Behavior Attributed to Internal Motivation
Distinctiveness
• Person acts the same way in different situations
Controllability
• Degree to which one believes another was in control of situation
Internal cause
• Low consensus
• High consistency
• Low distinctiveness
• High controllability
External cause
• High consensus
• Low consistency
• Low distinctiveness
• High controllability
Barriers to Attribution
• Always Based in Guess
• Self-serving Biases
• Conclude That People Do What They Do Because They Are the Kind of People They Are
More Barriers
• Cultural Influences
• Overattribution
• Theories of Impression Formation
• Asch’s Configural Model:
• Central Traits vs. Peripheral Traits: Central traits (e.g., warmth, competence)
significantly impact overall impressions, while peripheral traits have less influence.
• Example: "Warm" vs. "cold" traits can alter the perception of all other traits (e.g., an
intelligent person perceived as warm is seen positively, while an intelligent person
perceived as cold may be seen negatively).
• Cognitive Algebra Theory:
• Averaging Model: Impressions are formed by averaging information about traits.
• Additive Model: Impressions are formed by summing up positive and negative
information.
• Weighted Averaging: More importance is given to certain traits based on context
(e.g., honesty may weigh more heavily in trust-building situations).
Solomon Asch
“We look at a person and immediately a certain impression of his
character forms itself in us a glance, a few spoken words are sufficient
to tell us a story about a highly complex matter.....”
• Asch’s research on central and peripheral traits
• Asch conducted many experiments in which he asked participants to
form an impression of a hypothetical person based on several
characteristics said to belong to them.
Experiment 1-variation in central quality
• Group A: intelligent-skillful-industrious- warm-determined-practical-
cautious
• Group B: intelligent-skillful-industrious- cold-determined-practical-cautious
Result
• Series A ("warm") : A person who believes certain things to be right, wants
others to see his point, would be sincere in an argument' and would like to
see his point won.
• Series B ("cold") : A very ambitious and talented person who would not let
anyone or anything stand in the way of achieving his goal. Wants his own
way, he is determined not to give in, no matter what happens.
• the halo effect, which is the influence of a global positive evaluation
of a person on perceptions of their specific traits. Put simply, if we get
an initially positive general impression of someone, we often see their
specific traits more positively. The halo effect has been demonstrated
in many social contexts, including a classic investigation by Bingham
and Moore (1931) on job interviewing and a far more recent study of
students’ evaluations of their professors
• Experiment 2- Omission of a Central Quality
• Group A: intelligent-skillful-industrious- determined-practical-
cautious
• Group B: intelligent-skillful-industrious- determined-practical-cautious
• Result Appears that a more neutral impression has formed.
• Experiment 3-Variation of a Peripheral Quality
• A. intelligent—skillful—industrious— polite—determined—practical
cautious
• B. intelligent—skillful—industrious— blunt—determined—practical—
cautious
• The changes introduced into the selection of fitting characteristics in the
transition from "polite" to "blunt" were far weaker than those found in
Experiment I (see Table 2). There is further evidence that the subjects
themselves regarded these characteristics as relatively peripheral,
especially the characteristic "polite.“
• a change in a peripheral trait produces a weaker effect on the total
impression than does a change in a central trait
• Experiment 4- reversing the order of series
• A. intelligent—skillful—industrious— determined— practical—cautious—
evasive
• B. evasive—cautious—practical— determined—industrious—skillful—
intelligent
result
• Series A He seems to be a man of very excellent character, though it is not
unusual for one person to have all of those good qualities.
• Series B This is a man who has had to work for everything he wanted—
therefore he is evasive, cautious and practical. He is naturally intelligent,
but his struggles have made him hard.
• Factors Influencing Impression Formation
• Person-Based Factors:
• Physical Appearance: Attractive individuals are often perceived more positively due to the "halo effect."
• Nonverbal Cues: Body language, eye contact, and facial expressions strongly affect perceptions.
• Social Category Information: Age, gender, ethnicity, and group memberships can lead to assumptions based on stereotypes.
• Observer-Based Factors:
• Prior Knowledge and Expectations: Pre-existing beliefs about a person or group influence how we interpret their behaviors.
• Mood and Emotions: Our emotional state can color how we perceive others (e.g., a positive mood may lead to more
favorable impressions).
• Personal Values and Attitudes: Our own beliefs and values shape the qualities we view positively or negatively in others.
• Context-Based Factors:
• Situational Context: Behavior may be interpreted differently depending on the setting (e.g., assertiveness may be viewed
positively in a job interview but negatively at a social gathering).
• Cultural Norms: Cultural background affects how behaviors are interpreted (e.g., eye contact may be seen as respectful in
one culture and aggressive in another).
• Impression Formation and Social Cognition
• Schema Theory:
• Definition: Schemas are cognitive structures that help us organize information about people,
places, and events.
• Role in Impression Formation: Schemas help us quickly interpret and categorize information,
though they can lead to stereotyping or confirmation bias.
• Examples: A “leader” schema might lead someone to assume that a person in charge is
assertive and confident.
• Heuristics in Impression Formation:
• Representativeness Heuristic: People are categorized based on how well they fit a prototype
(e.g., seeing someone with glasses as "intelligent").
• Availability Heuristic: Impressions are influenced by readily available memories or recent
encounters (e.g., recalling a previous experience with someone similar).
• Anchoring and Adjustment: Initial impressions set an “anchor” point, which is then adjusted
as more information is gathered.
Biases in Impression Formation
• Halo Effect: One positive trait (e.g., attractiveness) leads to favorable
assumptions about other traits.
• Horns Effect: One negative trait (e.g., a gruff demeanor) results in negative
assumptions about unrelated traits.
• Confirmation Bias: Tendency to seek and interpret information that confirms
existing beliefs.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Expectations about a person lead to behaviors that cause
the person to act in ways that confirm those expectations.
• Attribution Errors:
• Fundamental Attribution Error: Overestimating personal traits and underestimating
situational factors in others' behavior.
• Actor-Observer Bias: Attributing our actions to external factors but others' actions to internal
traits.
Impression formation-a cognitive perspective
• We pay attention to information about their traits and values rather
than information about their competence
Additional research Indicates that impressions of others consist of
examples of both:
1. Behaviour relating to a specific trait
2. Mental abstractions based on observations of many instances of
behavior
ask yourself
• Why do we immediately form impressions of other people on first
meeting them?
• What factors influence whether we like or dislike someone
immediately?
• In social psychology, the term person perception refers to the different
mental processes that we use to form impressions of other people. This
includes not just how we form these impressions, but the different
conclusions we make about other people based upon our impressions.
• Consider how often you make these kinds of judgments every day. When
you meet with a new co-worker, you immediately begin to develop an
initial impression of this person.
• When you visit the grocery store after work, you might draw conclusions
about the cashier who checks you out, even though you know very little
about this person. This allows us to make snap judgments and decisions,
but it can also lead to biased or stereotyped perceptions of other people.
What information do we use?
• Roles
• Physical Cues
• Salience
• From behavior to traits
• Central traits
• Categorization
• Context effects
• Roles People tend to think of others within a role context first and only
then according to personality traits
• Physical Cues Appearance and behavior are key determinants of our first
impressions
• Salience People pay attention to the figure rather than to the ground or
setting
Effects of Salience
1. Draws attention
2. Influences perceptions of causality
3. Produces evaluative extreme judgments
4. Produce more consistency of judgment
• FROM BEHAVIOR TO TRAITS We move very quickly from observable
information (appearance & behavior) to personality trait inferences Traits
are more economical to remember Trait inferences occur automatically
• Central Traits Some traits may be more central than others, that is, highly
associated with many other characteristics “Warm-Cold” appears to be
such a trait (Kelley, 1950)
• Context Effects Contrast biases judgments away from the context (sees
them as different) Assimilation biases judgments in the same direction as
the context (sees them as similar) Assimilation occurs more when people
are using category-based processing Contrast occurs more when people
are using individuated information
• Categorization In the social categorization process, we mentally
categorize people into different groups based on common
characteristics. Sometimes this process occurs consciously, but for the
most part social categorizations happens automatically and
unconsciously
Consequences of Categorization
• leads to category-based social judgments (stereotyping)
• speeds processing time can lead to errors
Integrating Impressions
• How do we combine all of these separate inferences about a person into an overall impression?
• Evaluation
• Negativity effect
• Positivity bias
• Emotional information
• The averaging principle
• Imputing meaning
• Imputing consistency
• Schemas
• Prototypes
• Exemplars
Impression Management
• The process by which individuals attempt to control the impressions others
form of them, often called "self-presentation."
• Techniques:
• Self-Enhancement: Highlighting one’s positive qualities to create a favorable
impression.
• Ingratiation: Using flattery or praise to appear likable.
• Self-Promotion: Emphasizing achievements to be seen as competent.
• Examples of Impression Management in Daily Life:
• In job interviews, people might use formal attire and prepare answers that highlight
strengths.
• On social media, people selectively post content that reflects their desired image.
Impression Formation in Social Interactions and Technology
• Impression Formation in Face-to-Face Interactions:
• Nonverbal Communication: Facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice can
convey confidence, friendliness, or defensiveness.
• Role of Empathy and Perspective-Taking: Understanding the perspective of others
can lead to more accurate impressions.
• Impression Formation in Online Contexts:
• Limited Information: Impressions online are often based on limited data (e.g.,
photos, short bio descriptions).
• Presentation Choices in Digital Profiles: People curate their online presence to align
with their desired image.
• Challenges: Online impressions may be misinterpreted or overly influenced by biases
due to lack of physical cues.
Practical Applications and Importance of Impression Formation
• Personal Relationships: First impressions can set the tone for
friendships, romantic relationships, and family dynamics.
• Professional Settings: Hiring decisions, team dynamics, and
workplace interactions are heavily influenced by impressions.
• Social Justice and Stereotyping: Understanding impression formation
can help mitigate bias, reduce stereotyping, and promote equity in
social systems.
• Discussion: Debate the accuracy and limitations of first impressions
and discuss strategies for revisiting initial judgments.