The first impression is deceiving. Human perception: truth and fiction

In everyday life, in work and non-work environments, every person has to meet new people. In many cases, circumstances develop in such a way that, based on short-term perception alone, we are forced to evaluate these people and choose what seems to us the most reasonable way of behavior and action in relation to each of them. In all such cases, we are dealing with the so-called first impression and with acts of behavior based on it.

What is a first impression if we try to reveal the content of this concept in more detail? This is a complex psychological phenomenon that includes sensory, logical and emotional components. It always includes certain features of the appearance and behavior of the person who turns out to be the object of knowledge. The first impression also contains more or less conscious and generalized value judgments. Finally, it always contains an emotional attitude towards the person who is the subject of perception and evaluation.

The first impression is formed both with the special intention to evaluate a person from some point of view, and in the absence of such intention.

Among the factors that determine the nature of the impression we form about the person we meet in our lives for the first time, the most important are the features of the external appearance and behavior of the person about whom we are forming an opinion. Just as the psyche is a reflection of reality as a whole, one of the manifestations of such a reflection is the impression we form about another person.

It is this person himself, his appearance, his behavior that first of all always determines what will be reflected in our impression of him. Therefore, the first part of our research was aimed at tracing the dependencies connecting the objective characteristics of a person’s external appearance - his physical appearance, expression, appearance - and the impression formed about him.

An equally significant influence on the formation of impressions about a person previously unknown to us is exerted by the situation under which our cognition of another person occurs; this situation is the second factor determining the nature of the impression of a person. The second goal of our research is to show the influence of the social background against which the formation of an impression unfolds on its characteristics.

Our own personal qualities, in which our mental make-up and attitude to various aspects of reality are manifested, also have an equally significant influence on the formation of impressions about a person previously unknown to us; It is clear that it is possible to separate the two above-mentioned factors that determine the impression of a person from the third - from the subject himself, who knows another person, only conditionally, in the interests of scientific analysis. It is quite obvious that in a real process these three global factors always act in the closest unity.

Let us consider the manifestation of these three factors in the formation of the first impression of another person in more detail.

Recently, a large number of studies have been carried out in psychology, which indicate that when we form an opinion about the personality traits of a person whom we see for the first time, the general aesthetic expressiveness of the appearance of this person and, in particular, the degree of correspondence to the person’s physical appearance is of considerable importance the ideal of beauty that we had in the past.

A. Miller, using the method of competent judges, selected from a large number of photographs of people faces that competent judges called beautiful, faces that seemed ordinary to them, and faces that, in their opinion, were ugly, then he showed these faces to men and women over the age of 18 up to 24 years old, who made up the group of main subjects, and asked them to speak about the inner world of each of those who were depicted in the photograph.

The subjects rated both men and women whom competent judges had previously classified as the most beautiful as more self-confident, happy, sincere, balanced, energetic, amiable, resourceful, sophisticated, and more spiritually rich than those who, according to competent judges. judges, was “declared” ugly (the differences were statistically significant). In addition, male subjects rated the “beautiful” men and women whose photos they saw as being more outgoing, caring, and attentive to them.

Nowadays, more than one study has been carried out that show that the “halo” of physical attractiveness causes a “shift” in assessments not only when the object is personality traits, but also when a specific result of a person’s activity or his individual act is assessed.

Here are the facts confirming the validity of the idea expressed.

Young people were asked to evaluate an essay written by a woman whose portrait was attached (the author of the experiment used in some groups of subjects a portrait of a woman with an attractive appearance, in others - a portrait of an “ugly woman”), and they rated this essay more highly when they believed that it was written by a beautiful woman. woman.

University students studying to become teachers were given descriptions of misdeeds committed by seven-year-old boys and girls photographed in close-up. The students had to express their attitude towards each of these kids and their behavior. And in this case, the female students also turned out to be more lenient towards those who, according to competent judges, had a more attractive appearance.

It is hardly necessary to further increase the number of examples that would further confirm the manifestation of this tendency when forming a first impression of a person. It is important to emphasize something else: psychology has collected many facts that indicate that the “beauty effect” strongly influences the content of the emerging concept of personality only at the moment of forming the first impression of a person. Subsequently, the assessment of this person by other people increasingly begins to be determined by the nature of their interaction with this person, the value in their eyes of his deeds and actions.

Features of the physique, the constitution of a person, considered as a whole, at the first moment of perception by other people also influence the impression formed about him.

In one experiment, a group of adult subjects were asked to characterize the personality traits of men who differed in body type. About a plump, round-shaped man, they insistently asserted that he was weak, old-fashioned, talkative, warm-hearted, good-natured, accommodating, trusting, emotional, open to people, loving everyday comforts and a big fan of food.

About the muscular, athletic man, the subjects said that he was strong, courageous and courageous, self-confident, energetic, daring, and proactive.

About the tall, thin and seemingly very fragile man, respondents most often said that he was tall, thin, nervous, ambitious, suspicious, sensitive to pain, fond of solitude and secretive.

When speaking about each of the three men, the subjects named their age. At the same time, they saw a plump man much older than he actually was, and a thin man, as a rule, seemed younger than his age.

That a person’s characteristic facial expression - gloomy or joyful, evil or kind - affects our impression of a person is clear to everyone. But what another person’s gaze influences our attitude towards him is less known.

In one small auditorium, a new teacher, giving a lecture for the first time, at the request of the experimenter, looked at one group of students for a long time, and immediately looked away from another, glancing at it briefly. And in the end, students from the first group rated him as a powerful and confident person, while the second group classified him as a very shy person.

In another almost similar experiment, students were asked to express their opinion about a new female teacher, who, just as in the previous case, while presenting educational material to students, at the request of the experimenter, constantly turned her gaze to one group of students, as if addressing the educational material only she, and paid no attention to the other group of students sitting in the audience. And in this case, students from the first group gave her more positive assessments as a person than students from the second group.

It is clear that the influence of gaze on the formation of the first impression of a person, revealed in the above examples, was a consequence of the idea that people had in the past that a strong-willed person by nature is not afraid to look people in the eyes and that, on the other hand, if a person detains us his gaze, which means that he is interested in us in some way.

The impression we form of a person can be influenced, as research shows, by the posture adopted by the person. Thus, in one experiment, people acting as objects of first impression formation were asked in some cases, during a conversation with those whose impressions were being assessed, to tilt their body forward, and in other cases to tilt it, on the contrary, back. It turned out that in the first case, people - both men and women - were liked more by those who perceived them than in the second. In addition, they liked women more if they sat in a relaxed position and with their arms and legs uncrossed.

Other studies have further confirmed the importance of a person's characteristic posture in forming impressions of him. At the same time, they further revealed the role of posture compared to the role of the face in conveying the true state experienced by a person. People brought up in modern society, as studies have shown, usually learn to control their face better when expressing feelings and less control over their body. Therefore, very often it is not the face, but precisely the pose that reveals people’s real experiences, their actual attitude towards us.

As significant as his facial expressions and pantomime are for forming an impression of a person, the features of his speech and voice are just as significant for this impression. Thus, research shows that low and high voices in men, on the one hand, and in women, on the other, evoke completely different associations regarding the personal qualities of the owners of the voices among those listening to them for the first time. Just as tension in a woman's voice under the same experimental conditions did not lead to the attribution of negative characteristics to her, tension in a man's voice usually led people to think that he had little self-control, low intelligence, vulnerability, etc.

Interesting data were revealed when comparing the ratings that verbose men and women received from people who perceived them for the first time. For the former, verbosity was perceived as a serious flaw in their personality, for the latter - as an almost normal condition that did not raise assumptions about any personal flaw.

At the same time, these studies of the influence of the characteristics of a person’s voice and speech on the impression formed about him revealed another very interesting fact: people who were good at distinguishing the states of other people by the shades of their speech and voice usually had a high skill in communicating to other people through their speech and voice. own emotions.

The peculiarities of a person’s appearance at first also influence the impression we form of this person. Enough facts have now been collected to support this statement. Thus, to date, many experiments of the same type have been carried out, in which the same person acted as the object of impression formation in front of different groups of subjects, equalized on the basis of age, gender, education, profession, social origin, but he came out to each new group in different clothes or his hairstyle, jewelry, etc. changed (if it was a woman), and the subjects had to give this person a characteristic.

These experiments showed that when a person appeared before each new group of subjects in a different suit - either in ordinary civilian clothes, or in training, or in overalls, or in clerical attire, or in military uniform - then the tested groups, in addition to the features noted in All groups of this person also named those qualities that they were clearly forced to point out by the suit in which the person they were assessing was wearing. For example, when a person was in military uniform, such qualities as discipline, accuracy, perseverance, openness towards other people, and freedom in expressing feelings were consistently attributed to him.

It turns out that certain relatively private details in a person’s appearance can influence the impression that is formed about him.

E. Hall presented in some groups of subjects the faces of men and women without glasses, and in other groups these same faces were wearing glasses. The subjects in both the first and second cases had to speak out about the personal characteristics of the people presented to them. And these people, when they were wearing glasses, seemed to the subjects to be more intelligent and diligent than when they were without glasses. At the same time, their lack of glasses or, conversely, their presence did not in any way affect the subjects’ judgments about the honesty, kindness, independence of the people they perceived and their inherent sense of humor.

In another experiment conducted according to the same scheme, one group of subjects talked for ten minutes with an unfamiliar woman who, in moderation and very skillfully, used cosmetics to better present herself to the audience. Another group perceived the same woman and also talked to her, but now the woman used cosmetics beyond measure. And in the second case, the subjects, who were students, attributed to this woman not only bad taste, lack of spirituality, intellectual narrow-mindedness, but also a strong desire to attract the attention of men.

The great dependence of the first impression on those signs that are best expressed in the appearance of the perceived person, revealed in the above experiment, is also noted by G. Klaus and X. Fome.

It was found that the content of people’s opinion about the personality of a person perceived for the first time is influenced not only by the strength and brightness of the manifestation in his appearance and behavior of a certain quality or the frequency with which this quality reveals itself, but also by the sequence in which people experiencing another person gain knowledge about different aspects of his personality.

The significance of the latter circumstance was especially convincingly revealed in the experiments of A. Lachins.

While studying the importance of the order of incoming information about a person in forming other people's impressions of him, Lachins gave four groups of subjects a series of descriptions of his behavior. The descriptions offered to group I characterized the person presented for assessment as an extrovert. The information reported about the same person to Group II, on the contrary, portrayed him as a pronounced introvert; Groups III and IV of subjects were given combined descriptions of the behavior and activities of the person who became the object of evaluation. From the first series of facts they contained, one group could conclude first that he was an extrovert, and in the second, that he was an introvert. Another group of subjects, based on the content of the information they received, could first think about this person that he is an introvert, and then that he is an extrovert.

After this, Lachins offered all groups of subjects samples of various situations, and they had to say how a person would behave in them, with some facts of whose behavior they had just been familiarized. It turned out that the order in which the subjects were given information about a new person determined the nature of their prediction of the type of behavior (extroverted or introverted) in various situations.

In a number of works, when clarifying the conditions that influence the nature of the impression formed about a person, there is data on the importance of the space factor in determining a number of features of this phenomenon. Thus, it has been established that for every person who is in a familiar environment, there is a distance that should separate him and a stranger so that the latter does not cause feelings of annoyance. The magnitude of this distance varies depending on the height of people, their gender, state of neuropsychic health, and the intentions they have towards the person about whom they are trying to form an opinion.

People who are accustomed to loneliness, more focused on themselves, usually have a longer personal distance in question than people who are focused on others and love to communicate; Although we do not know people who we like, we allow, as a rule, to approach us at a shorter distance and do not experience a state of psychological discomfort.

Researchers of the problem of first impression have long emphasized the role in the formation of our opinion about a person, the attitude towards him of the social background against which this process unfolds. How many people are around the person whom we must evaluate, what they are like, what their appearance is and how they behave - all this, as both the everyday experience of many people and fairly rigorous experiments show, more or less strongly influences what we will notice features in the external appearance of another person earlier and better, how we will evaluate them as a whole, and what personality traits or condition we will first of all attribute to this person and how we will treat him.

Compared to short people, a tall man seems even taller. Against the background of laughing faces, a calm face more strongly attracts the attention of the person perceiving these faces. Against the background of working people, a person languishing from idleness is also more likely to attract the attention of those observing the entire group. Against the backdrop of angry and seemingly unfair remarks from people about the mistake he made (in a public place), a kind word spoken by someone in defense of this person is not only perceived by him with gratitude, but also makes him look at the speaker with sympathy. When, during some incident, almost all the people who are witnesses to this incident show confusion and suddenly among them there is a person who behaves courageously and accomplishes a feat, we perceive his behavior in sharp contrast with the behavior of other people and not only more clearly see the things he discovered dignity, but also highly positively evaluate his entire personality.

This importance of social background in forming an impression of a person is clearly visible in experiments.

Thus, in one experiment, a man with an unassuming appearance was introduced to two groups of people he did not know, who then had to talk about the impression that this man made on them. But he was invited to one of the named groups accompanied by a woman with a bright attractive appearance, to another group he was accompanied by an ugly and sloppily dressed woman. And this difference in the appearance of the accompanying persons resulted in the difference in the perceived man’s assessment of the same personality qualities and the general attitude towards him on the part of each of the groups. The first group rated the man’s positive qualities significantly higher than the second, and the general attitude towards him on the part of the first group also turned out to be more favorable for him.

In another experiment, one group of subjects was asked to express their opinion about a man who, in a calm pose and with an equally calm face, stood in front of a group of teenagers sitting in a row opposite him at a long table. The next group of subjects, equal in all respects to the first, also had to speak out about this person. But now, in the same pose and with the same facial expression as in the first case, he stood at the bus, the doors of which, without respecting the queue, were stormed by several men and women. The subjects of the last group, compiled taking into account the age, gender and education of the persons involved in the experiment, just like the first two, assessed the same person (his posture and facial expression remained the same) without the social background in which he was “ submitted" to the subjects in the first two cases.

And in all three groups, this person, in addition to the traits noted by all groups, was assigned qualities that were clearly prompted to “see” in him by the background against which each of the groups was supposed to perceive him.

When this background was teenagers, in the personality of the person being assessed, the subjects saw a friendly attitude towards children, the ability to talk with them, and be an interesting storyteller. When the background was a bus and the passengers boarding it, the perceived person was characterized by good manners, respect for women, lack of a sense of herdism, and collectivism in everyday behavior. When a person was assessed alone, without people or any objects near him, much more judgments were made than in the previous two cases, the subjects made about his face, his eyes, their expression, the nature of his physique, the features of his appearance and did not name features , which were noted on him when he stood next to the teenagers who were sitting and when he was about to board the bus.

These studies, revealing the role of background in forming an impression of a person whom we did not know before, if carried out purposefully and in a certain system, presumably, can enrich the psychology of people’s knowledge of each other with new scientific facts.

Although the first impression of a person is primarily determined by his inherent characteristics, as well as the background against which his formation unfolds, what it will be - more generalized or more specific, complete or fragmentary, positive or negative - depends on the personality of that person. , in whom it is formed. The same pattern applies here that characterizes a person’s reflection of any object of reality: “External causes act through internal conditions... Every mental phenomenon is ultimately caused by external influences, but any external influence determines a mental phenomenon only indirectly, refracted through properties, states and the mental activity of the individual who is exposed to these influences.”

The dependence of the perception and understanding of another person on the individual qualities of the perceiver is illustrated by the following experiment we conducted.

A group of fourteen adult subjects was told that a stranger would enter the room where they were sitting several times and that they were given the task of carefully observing this person and, each time after he left, recording the impression he gave them. A 26-year-old man with pronounced acting abilities performed in front of the group as an object of perception.

For the first time, he opened the door to the auditorium where the subjects were sitting, looked for someone and, quietly saying: “Excuse me,” closed the door. The next time he entered the room, with a calm expression on his face and with his hands at his sides, he froze for one minute at the table. The third time, appearing in the audience, he walked between the tables at which the subjects were sitting, looked at one of them in the notes, shook his finger at the girl who wanted to talk to a neighbor at that moment, then looked out the window and left. Returning to the audience again, he skillfully began to read, until he was interrupted, a fable by S. Mikhalkov. The next time the young man appeared, the subjects were allowed to ask him any questions, except those that would require him to answer directly what personality traits he ascribes to himself.

In the experiment described, the subjects, having first met a new person for them, reflected his appearance and assessed him as a person in noticeably different ways.

Not only the quantitative data on the reflection of a person’s personality by other people during a short perception of his appearance and behavior were different, but also the assessments of the traits that the subjects saw in this personality. Some assessed their development more highly, others more modestly. Some, characterizing the development of traits that express their attitude towards people, noted the politeness of the perceived person. Others decided that he was sociable, others found that he was frank, etc. The attitude that arose among the subjects towards the object of observation was equally ambiguous. Six subjects noted that he was attractive, likable, and pleasant. He made an unfavorable impression on two people. One subject said that the object did not arouse sympathy for himself, but did not arouse antipathy either. The remaining subjects did not express their attitude towards him.

The above facts are, in all likelihood, sufficient to see how the formation of the image of another person, the nature of the psychological interpretation of his appearance and behavior, and the attitude that he evokes towards himself depend on the personality of the cognizing subject. The question arises: what specific factors in the subject’s personality determine the course and results of the formation of his impressions of other people?

Our employee G.V. Dyakonov tried to answer it by tracing the peculiarities of the formation of the first impression among 1,500 students in grades VIII-X and 400 adults who expressed their impression of 59 people previously unknown to them, differing in age and gender.

G.V. Dyakonov, who scientifically correctly used structural-correlation analysis of subject-object dependencies when forming a first impression of another person, managed to convincingly show that people belonging to the same gender group have more similar first impressions of a person than other people , representing different sex groups, and that when fixing a number of characteristics in the appearance of a person - the object of formation of the first impression, a noticeable difference is revealed both between men and women, and between boys and girls, expressed in unequal assessment of their significance.

In addition, this study found that schoolchildren who do well in humanities subjects and love to read fiction have a more complete and correct first impression of another person than their classmates who do poorly in humanitarian subjects and almost read fiction. don't read.

In the group of adult subjects, the first impression was more complete and correct among those with a higher education in the humanities who worked as teachers. With increasing age, the subjects also found a tendency to speak more extensively about the person who was the object of their first impression. However, this formation was not necessarily accompanied by an increase in the degree of correctness of the impression. Thus, among people who have reached retirement age, the highest completeness of the impression and a sharp decrease in its correctness were noted.

It is clear that the factors identified in G.V. Dyakonov’s research are only part of the reasons that more or less strongly influence the nature of the impression people form about a person. There are other reasons, depending on the personality of the subject, that also influence this impression.

Let us dwell on some of the specific characteristics of a person that make themselves felt when he meets a new person.

In a study by Streikland156, which was very interesting in terms of the methodological techniques used, the importance of the evaluator’s own behavior in relation to other people was revealed for him to develop a definite opinion about them during a meeting. In Strikeland's experiment, subjects observed two workers performing the same task with equal levels of success. However, if they could observe the actions of one person without interruption, then they saw the work of another only sporadically. From time to time they could express their approval or disapproval to the first person; they had no such connection with the second person. When, in the second part of the experiment, the subjects were asked to say which of the workers needed more control, supervision and care, they almost all answered that the first.

In other studies, it was found that the projection mechanism is involved in the formation of an impression of another person, which consists in the fact that the cognizing subject can “invest” his states in another person, that is, attribute to her traits that are actually inherent in himself and which the person being assessed may not have them. The phenomenon of projection is well illustrated by the works of Feshbach and Singer, Murray, Sears, Newcomb and a number of other researchers.

Thus, in a study by Feshbach and Singer, two groups of student subjects were subjected to mild electric shocks (to varying degrees in each of the two groups), which caused unpleasant sensations. At the same time, these subjects, as well as the students who made up the control group, were shown a movie in which a certain person appeared. All subjects were required to evaluate the personality traits of this person and, if possible, evaluate his condition. As a result, it turned out that the groups of subjects exposed to electric shock rated the person on the screen as more fearful, frightened than did the subjects who were part of the control group, and the stronger the electric shocks were (group 2), the more students gave such a characteristic to the person perceived on the screen .

The phenomenon of interpreting someone else’s emotional state by “approaching” one’s own was also discovered in an experiment conducted by Murray. One of his groups of subjects depicted scenes that featured highly aggressive behavior. Then the subjects of this group, as well as the subjects who were part of the control group, had to evaluate persons previously unfamiliar to them. And again it turned out that the pre-created emotional state led to the fact that the first group of subjects noted such traits as anger and aggressiveness in a stranger, while the other group did not record these traits in the same people.

Sears, in his experiments, identified a slightly different type of “projection” in the acts of people evaluating each other. According to him, a person, assessing another person, can see those negative traits that characterize him as a person. Subjects whose personalities were marked by bile, stubbornness, and suspicion rated the development of these traits in the person they proposed for evaluation much higher than did subjects who did not have these traits.

All researchers who have observed the phenomenon of projection when forming an opinion about another person note that the tendency to attribute one’s own qualities or one’s own states to other people is especially strongly expressed in individuals who are characterized by low self-criticism and poor insight into their own personality. According to Newcomb, this tendency is to a very large extent characteristic of representatives of the so-called “authoritarian” personality type and is almost not found in representatives of the “democratic” type.

In his experiments, he introduced representatives of these two extreme types to each other, and then asked each how his new acquaintance would answer certain questions (Newcombe specially selected these questions). Representatives of the “authoritarian” type, speaking about the possible answers of “non-authoritarian” individuals, attributed to them an authoritarian manner of speaking, their judgments, their own opinions on the issues that the researcher who conducted the experiment suggested to them. Representatives of the “non-authoritarian” personality type, according to Newcomb, did not go to such an extreme.

Researchers of the problem of people knowing each other have also quite convincingly established that the completeness and nature of the assessment of another person depend on such qualities of the assessor as the degree of his self-confidence, his inherent attitude towards other people and the attitude associated with this attitude that he always has (but not always conscious) “theory” of personality.

Bossom and Maslow, studying how a person's level of confidence affects his assessment of other people, found that confident people often evaluate other people as friendly and disposed towards them. At the same time, people who are not confident in themselves tend to look at other people as tending to be cold and not disposed towards them.

Speaking about the reasons for the manifestation of stable tendencies in a person when assessing other people, one cannot ignore such an important subjective reason as the system of concepts formed in a person, in which all his experience of knowing people, obtained by him both through personal contacts and through other channels - fiction, theater, television, radio, etc. A person’s general view of other people, the place they occupy - men and women, old people and children, workers and peasants, whites and blacks, etc. ... in his existing system of values, always and constantly influences the nature of the impression that a person develops about any other person.

N. Gage and L. Cronbach, who studied the effect of a person’s “personality theory” on his assessment of other people, repeatedly point out that people differ very much from each other in their tendencies to evaluate others favorably or, conversely, unfavorably. Dubain, Burke, Neal, and Chesler also found that there is a category of subjects who consistently show softness and a significant amount of leniency in their assessments of others, and that there is another category that, on the contrary, is characterized by harshness in their assessments.

The study of the effect of a person’s “personality theory” on his assessment of other people also showed that the impression he has about another person is largely determined by his ideas about the structure of personality, that is, about what traits are what qualities in must be accompanied by her. So, if, for example, we evaluate a person as aggressive, do we not also tend to evaluate him as high-energy? Or, evaluating him as kind, do we not at the same time attribute honesty to him?

Kelly's experience of introducing a previously unfamiliar lecturer to one group of students as "very cold" and to another as "very cordial" showed that the questions just proposed could well be answered in the affirmative. Students who listened to a “very warm” lecturer rated him as tactful, sociable, natural, generally charming, educated, and attractive much higher than did students who were told before their meeting with the new lecturer that he was a cold person.

This “structuring” of the personality about which an impression is formed may also be associated with the extent to which the person evaluating it is able to synthesize and generalize all the information that comes to him from this person.

E. S. Gollin showed 79 students a film, the heroine of which - a young attractive woman - appeared before them in five different situations, and in the first four she showed sharply opposite, from the point of view of moral standards, personality traits, and in the fifth it was difficult to think about her say anything new, since here she was shown just walking calmly with some other woman.

After watching the film, each of the subjects gave a description of the woman’s personality. Gollin writes that these characteristics-descriptions obtained from the subjects were clearly divided into three groups:
1. Unifying and generalizing: the final impressions in this case equally integrated all the qualities that appeared in the woman in all scenes (there were 23% of such characteristics).
2. One-sidedly simplifying: the impression that arose excluded “moral inconsistency” in the person being assessed (48%).
3. Scattered and fragmentary: the impression, side by side, without any hint of integration, included all the qualities that a woman could be expected to have by observing her behavior (29%).

Characterizing the first impression and tracing the features of its formation, one cannot avoid the question of how true and deep is the knowledge about a person that arises in the subject at his first perception. First perceptions, as a rule, give the individual knowledge about the main features of the external appearance of a previously unfamiliar person - about his gender, height, physique, approximate age, and the nature of his appearance. The first impression almost always reflects some manifestations of expression and some actions of the person who is the object of perception and evaluation. Nevertheless, the image of a person that an individual develops on the basis of his first impression always contains inaccuracies, and his assessment of the personality traits of this person may turn out to be a hasty generalization.

Even people who are specifically tasked with observing a stranger for a short time are not spared from these mistakes, then recreate his appearance as accurately as possible and psychologically correctly assess his personality. So, for example, in an experiment, the course and part of the results of which were presented at the beginning of this chapter, the age of the person who was the object of perception was determined with an accuracy of ±2 years by nine out of fourteen subjects. The remaining subjects determined the number of years lived by this person with less accuracy. We incorrectly used the existing rubric when assessing a person’s perceived height: with an accuracy of ±2 cm, five subjects “reduced” their height by five or more centimeters. Six subjects were mistaken in determining eye color. All test groups made some inaccuracies in characterizing other elements of the physical appearance of the person under observation. Thirteen people could not avoid errors when assessing the color of various items of clothing (dark blue suit, light gray shirt, blue tie with white speckles, black insulated cloth boots, gray socks).

Inaccuracies and discrepancies were revealed in this experience and when people assessed, based on their first impression, the emotional state experienced by a person at the moment of observing him. An inadequate assessment of expressive behavior and the states that manifested itself in it gave rise to a distorted idea of ​​a person’s personality traits at the first meeting with him.

If we compare the impression that the subjects have about the personality traits of a person who played the role of an object of perception with the results of a specially conducted psychological study of his personality, conditionally taking these results as the standard of objectivity, then it turns out that based on the first impression they correctly named the personality traits of the observed person that express his attitude to other people, 75% of the subjects of all those who spoke. 28% of the subjects incorrectly assessed the emotional and dynamic personality traits. 42% of the subjects were mistaken in assessing the qualities of will. There was a certain percentage of errors in the subjects' assessments of other aspects of the perceived personality. It was especially high (50% of erroneous judgments) when the subjects, analyzing the small amount of information that they were able to obtain, tried to make an assumption about the main occupation of the object of observation.

The given figures speak of the difficulties that arise in front of a person when he has to evaluate someone as a person upon first acquaintance. However, in this experiment, some subjects coped with the task more successfully than others. It is natural to ask the question: on what did this depend? We have not yet received an answer to this. In the course of developing the problem of people knowing each other, one of the main questions that attracted the attention of other researchers turned out to be a question close to the one posed above: to what extent is a person’s ability to correctly assess the mental qualities of people generalized, to what extent does it act as such a general quality in him? which characterizes his entire personality as a whole. One of the groups of scientists, based on the experimental data they obtained, came up with the statement that a person who correctly evaluates certain categories of people, as a rule, is equally successful in relation to other categories. Other scientists show with equal conviction that the ability that a person has developed to correctly evaluate a particular quality or certain categories of persons will not necessarily “work” successfully in all other cases.

Thus, V. Kline and J. Richards, who believe that this ability can act as a general personality quality, base their conclusion on the results of an experiment in which they involved 50 adult subjects. During the experiment, these subjects watched 10 voice-over films in which people they did not know acted in everyday life. Then all subjects were asked to say how the people they saw would behave in a series of situations that usually required the manifestation of different personality traits. When processing the subjects' statements, the experimenters took into account, firstly, the degree of the evaluator's ability to predict the behavior of people in general (“stereotypic accuracy”) and, secondly, the degree of his ability to predict differences between the nature of the actions of different individuals (“discriminative accuracy”). The pattern of predictions made by each subject about the actions of the top five people in the movies was correlated with predictions about the behavior of the other five people. These correlations ranged from 0.77 to 0.79. It turned out that the high ability revealed in humans to accurately evaluate certain individuals makes itself felt in all other cases.

In the experiment of Kline and Richards, subjects who correctly judged some people assessed others just as correctly, and subjects who made gross errors in the psychological interpretation of some individuals were just as much mistaken when they tried to psychologically characterize other persons who had previously not been known to them either. were known.

Indicators that characterized one type of accuracy in assessing a person as a person, which were obtained from the subjects, were in this experiment correlated with indicators that characterized another type. The resulting intercorrelations ranged from 0.30 to 0.65, and all of them, except one, turned out to be statistically significant. Based on all these data, Kline and Richards concluded that the ability to correctly evaluate others may appear in some individuals as an integral property that “works” for them when meeting with a wide variety of categories of people.

At the same time, other researchers (Guilford, Newcomb, etc.) have obtained no less convincing data suggesting that the ability to correctly evaluate other people is a human property that manifests itself only in relation to a certain category of persons, and the limits of the “work” of this properties are directly related to how similar or dissimilar the assessed person is in appearance and behavior to those people with whom the cognizing subject had to live, study, work, and rest together in the past.

Noting the existence of significant differences in the accuracy of the first impression of the same person among different people, it is apparently necessary to emphasize once again that this accuracy is associated not only with the capabilities of the person acting as the subject of cognition, but also with the characteristics of the person being assessed. a person's first impression. Pointing out the difficulties of correctly judging a person based on first impressions, it is appropriate to recall the words of F. M. Dostoevsky, who, speaking about the shortcomings of simple photography of facts, thereby warned against the danger of making categorical judgments about people only on the basis of first impressions. “Photographs,” wrote F. M. Dostoevsky, “extremely rarely look alike, and this is understandable: the original itself, that is, each of us, extremely rarely resembles itself. In only rare moments, a human face expresses its main feature, its most characteristic thought... Photography catches a person as he is, and it is quite possible that Napoleon, in another moment, would have come out stupid, and Bismarck gentle.”

There is no doubt that in the manifestations of a personality, reflected in the first impression, its essence is expressed, but in order to truly reveal and understand this essence, one must see the personality in all its main connections with reality, that is, in work, knowledge and communication. Facts show that the formation of a first impression almost always means that an individual assigns the perceived person to one of the groups of people in those “type classifications” that he developed in the past. His subsequent knowledge of this person in the normal course of the process leads to the discovery in him of such features that constitute the uniqueness of his personality and form his individuality.

The wise Talleyrand repeated more than once that the first impression is the most correct. But this was scientifically substantiated only in our days by scientists from the University of Liverpool.

During an experiment, psychologists William Doyle and Anthony Little asked participants to draw conclusions about a person based on impressions received during the first 90 seconds.

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What's happened "rule of first impression of a person" NLP (neuro-linguistic programming)? For example, any of us, meeting different people, wondered why we feel comfortable with some, neutral with others, and a negative emotional background arises with others.

Psychologist A. A. Boldarev defines the rule of first impression as a complex psychological phenomenon containing logical, psychological and emotional factors, which, in turn, include significant features of behavior, appearance, human stereotypes , which is the object of knowledge.

This phenomenon also contains more or less conscious and generalized value judgments, emotional coloring in relation to a given person, who is the subject of perception. For example, the first impression of a person can also be formed with a special intention to evaluate him from some position, as well as in the absence of such intention. Important factors when assessing an interlocutor are features of appearance and behavior.

In NLP technology, there are three rules for forming a first impression:

- rule of partner attractiveness;

- rule of superiority;

- the rule of attitude towards the interlocutor.

It is clear that in the real process of mutual perception these rules closely interact with each other. Let's look at examples of their manifestation in the formation of the first impression of a person and stereotypes of perception .

Rule of Attraction - when a person is outwardly attractive, people tend to overestimate him in other important psychological and social parameters.

“For example, psychologist A. Miller conducted research in this direction. Having selected from a large number of photographs of people with beautiful appearance, ordinary and ugly. He showed these photos to people aged 18 to 24 years old and asked them to tell about everyone’s inner world. Beautiful people, compared to others, were rated as more confident, happy, sincere, energetic, gracious, balanced, resourceful, sophisticated and spiritually rich. In addition, they were assigned qualities aimed at other people, such as caring and attentiveness.”

It is also important to emphasize something else: there are many examples that say that the “beauty effect” greatly influences the content of the emerging concept of personality only at the moment when the first impression of a person is formed. Further, in the process of evaluating a person by others, it increasingly begins to be determined by the nature of interaction with this person, the value of his deeds and actions.

Rule of Excellence - this is when a person, for example, who is superior to us in an important parameter, is rated by us much higher in other significant parameters. In other words, there is a general personal reassessment. At the same time, the more insecure we feel at the moment and in a specific situation, the less effort it will take to launch this scheme called “First impression of a person.”

The perception scheme is as follows. When we meet a person who is superior to us in some important parameter for us, we evaluate him somewhat more positively than if he were equal to us. If we are dealing with a person whom we are superior in some way, then we underestimate him. Moreover, superiority is recorded in one parameter, while overestimation (or underestimation) occurs in many parameters. This perception scheme begins to work not with every, but only with really important, significant inequality for us.

In order for the superiority factor to work, we first need to evaluate this superiority. How to do it? By what signs can we judge a person’s superiority, for example, in social status or intellectual?

To determine this parameter, we have two main sources of information at our disposal:

a person’s clothing, his external appearance, including attributes such as insignia, glasses, hairstyle, awards, jewelry, and in certain cases, elements such as a car, office interior, etc.;

a person’s behavior (how he sits, walks, talks, where he looks, etc.).

Factor of attitude towards us . This factor acts in such a way that people who treat us well are valued higher than those who treat us poorly. A sign of attitude towards us, which triggers the corresponding perception scheme, is everything that indicates the partner’s agreement or disagreement with us.

Having identified the subjects' opinions on a number of issues, psychologists introduced them to the opinions of other people and asked them to evaluate these opinions. It turned out that The closer someone else’s opinion is to your own, the higher the assessment of the person who expressed this opinion.. This rule had a retroactive effect: the higher someone was rated, the greater the similarity found in his views with their own. The conviction in this supposed “kinship of souls” was so great that the subjects simply did not notice any disagreements with the position of the attractive person. It is important that there is agreement in everything, and then the factor of attitude towards us comes into play.

Be friendly and confident. When people see these qualities, they find it much easier to communicate with such a person and are more welcoming. If you are still in school, then perhaps a handshake is not the most appropriate way to start communication, but for adults it is a good chance to show your openness. In some countries, traditions do not allow you to touch people of the opposite sex, so you may want to pay attention to this and choose a different way to greet someone. But most often it is quite appropriate to shake hands when meeting someone.

• Don't be afraid to be the first to say hello to strangers.
• Smile.

Watch your posture. Your posture can tell people around you a lot about your mood and self-confidence. Try not to slouch - this will make you seem like an introverted and insecure loser. Keep your back straight and stand with your head held high and your hand at hip level to create the impression of a strong, open and confident person.

Never fuss. Keep your arms relaxed along your body or rest them on your knees. Don't show your nervousness - don't bite your nails, tug at your hair, or wrinkle a napkin in your hands. On the other hand, don't try to appear overly self-confident - people may think that you are an arrogant and boastful person.

Relax. Of course, posture is very important, but you don't want to look like a robot. Sit up straight, but don't stiffen up. They say that animals can sense fear, so people can sense your insecurity. Just be yourself. You don't have to go out of your way to impress someone, let your personality speak for itself.

Smile. Especially when you first met a person. It is not necessary to show a Hollywood smile; a polite, friendly smile will be enough. Try to smile naturally; if the smile instantly gives way to a stony expression on your face, people get the impression of insincerity and falsehood. Try to give your interlocutor the opportunity to say something, most people get annoyed when a person talks continuously without giving the other person a chance to get a word in edgewise.

Look into the eyes of your interlocutor. Try to constantly look at the person you are talking to. Don't be distracted and don't look away, otherwise the person will feel that you are not interested in him. Sometimes, if a person has some problems, such as squint, it is better not to focus your gaze on the person's eyes. In this case, it will be more natural to look at the mouth or nose of the interlocutor.

Dress appropriately for the setting. Always be yourself and show your personality. To do this, it is not necessary to dress in accordance with the latest fashion trends. You want to impress yourself, so be yourself. Think about the acceptable skirt length and neckline depth in this situation. It is also important to take special care to keep your clothes clean and neat. Don't forget about accessories - they can say a lot about you.

Show a sense of humor. A person who tries his best to appear cheerful usually achieves exactly the opposite goal. People with a good sense of humor behave naturally and show their wit sincerely. You should not use flat jokes and ambiguous phrases.

Get the person interested. Use common sense when choosing a topic to talk about. A man is unlikely to impress a woman if he starts talking about how much beer he can drink or describing a recent fight at a bar. Likewise, most men are unlikely to want to listen to a girl talk about how cute the puppy is in her house, or how she loves buying new shoes. Remember, you are trying to get the person's attention. Intrigue him, arouse interest in yourself. Here are some good talking points:

• Interesting facts or tips.
• Music and cinema.
• Questions.
• Remember, never speak rudely about other people's beliefs or religious and ethical values.

Give your interlocutor the opportunity to talk about himself."Tell me, what do you like to do in your free time?" When talking to a woman, it would be appropriate to compliment her appearance, for example: “This color suits you so well.” If you don't know what exactly to say to a person, never give a compliment just for the sake of saying something. People will easily recognize your insincerity and it will offend them.

Find a common topic of conversation. If you are at a party, you can ask your interlocutor if he knows other guests and talk about this topic.

If you come for an interview, it is better to find information about this company in advance. In fact, the more you know about the business, the better. Try to hide tattoos if you have them. They rarely make a good impression on the company's superiors and clients. However, you shouldn't behave like that. as if you know everything in the world.

If your teeth are in bad shape, find a way to get them in order. Unhealthy teeth are disgusting. You may need to find overtime work to be able to pay for the dentist - bad teeth will ruin any good impression!

• If you have uneven teeth, you should consult an orthodontist and get braces. Remember to brush your teeth twice a day to ensure fresh breath.

Use perfume with great care. This says a lot about you. It’s important not to overdo it here. You may really like the scent of a perfume, but the scent of the perfume may be unpleasant to other people or even cause allergies in them. Taking these considerations into account, it may be better not to wear perfume at all. If you still want to apply perfume, it is better to spray it in the air and, after waiting a few seconds, pass through the fragrant cloud.

Take care of hygiene. This is very important, especially for teenagers. These tips may seem obvious, but shower daily and always wear clean, neat clothes. Remember to brush your teeth twice a day and always use antiperspirant deodorant, especially if you have an important meeting that makes you nervous.

• Girls can apply a little concealer to their face. Do not overuse cosmetics, it looks unattractive. If you are going to a special event, you can apply light makeup using lip gloss or lipstick, mascara, and sometimes eye shadow and eyeliner.

End the conversation on the right note. Let the person want to pave it. Let me understand. that you had a good time and hope you meet the person again. You can even send a short message when you get home. Even if people have a good impression of you. It is important for them to make sure that you also enjoyed communicating with them. It is important for them to receive confirmation of this. However, don't be too intrusive!

Be yourself. Don't try to pretend to be someone else, otherwise you will be forced to continue maintaining a false image. Be yourself. This advice may seem trivial. but this is the honest truth! Never lie to people about yourself and be honest. If people discover that you have deceived them, they will feel bad and are unlikely to forgive you.

A first impression is an evaluative perception of a person’s image in the first seconds of meeting someone. The role of the first impression is difficult to overestimate, because they say: “It takes a few seconds to make a first impression, and the rest of your life to correct it.”

It takes a split second for the human brain to form an opinion about the character and abilities of a stranger. As a result of brain scanning, it was found that the emergence of sympathy or antipathy for a stranger at the first impression occurs practically without the participation of the intellect. This process involves the part of the brain responsible for the sensation of fear, the cerebellar amygdala. This is an ancient segment of the brain, formed in animals much earlier than the prefrontal cortex, which contains centers of intellectual activity. That's why people always judge others based on their first impression; It is precisely this that forms the attitude towards another person or phenomenon. Of course, the initial impression may later change (especially if it was not quite what we would like), but this will require prolonged personal communication.

What aspects form the first impression? According to psychologists, the first impression of a person depends 50% on his appearance and manners, 30% on the way he speaks, and only 20% on what he says.

The first impression can be formed consciously And unconsciously. Conscious the impression is formed with the special intention to evaluate a person from some position. Unconscious Forming an impression occurs subconsciously, automatically, in the absence of special efforts in this regard.

Psychologists distinguish three main first impression factor: attractiveness factor, superiority factor And attitude factor. These factors operate in close interrelation.

Attractiveness factor means how pleasant and attractive the object of our acquaintance is to us. In relation to an outwardly attractive person, people tend to transfer pleasant external data to their inner world and character traits; although it is known that the connection between facial features and personality traits may be minimal or absent altogether.

Physical attractiveness, as numerous studies show, produces a “shift” in assessments of not only the character of its bearer. Even when a specific action or result of an activity is evaluated, beautiful people often receive an inflated assessment from others. There is a lot of evidence in psychology and fiction about how the “beauty effect” affects first impressions.

Special efforts and details of appearance that correspond to a socially approved image of a person are called " signs of attractiveness" For a first impression, they must be well thought out and organized. The result achieved will repay the efforts spent on creating signs of attractiveness.

Excellence Factor means a subconscious comparison of oneself with a new object of acquaintance. If this object surpasses the perceiver in some parameter, then its other qualities are rated significantly higher. In other words, there is a general inflated personal assessment.

Attitude factor means a person’s reaction to the attitude of the object of acquaintance towards him. People who showed sincere attention and goodwill at the first meeting are tended to be perceived better than they really are. Conversely, inattention, arrogance, and rudeness shown from the first seconds create a negative impression of the object of acquaintance.

Psychologists and image makers identify three main first impression aspect:

1. Availability, i.e. readiness, disposition to get acquainted. This is indicated by a person’s gaze, posture, manners, and mood.

2. Interest in others, i.e. consideration and kindness towards others. This is reflected in visual contact, willingness to listen and communicate, in the openness of posture, the position that a person takes in relation to potential participants in communication.

3. Sexual attractiveness or the degree of interest that a person arouses in the opposite sex (playfulness of looks, manners and poses, their passivity or aggressiveness, details of clothing, accessories, cosmetics).

Thus, a person’s external characteristics play an exceptional role in the first impression. There are also elements that image makers call information indicators(or personal attractiveness factor). The main ones: physical attractiveness, self-presentation, fashion style And emotional condition.

Physical attractiveness has already been presented above. A person with a beautiful face is considered attractive. However, this is connected not so much with the beauty of the face itself, but with its expressiveness. If a person’s facial expressions are friendly and endearing, then in the vast majority of cases he will be perceived positively by others.

Posture plays an important role in the formation of physical attractiveness. Good posture is associated with confidence and dignity, while bad posture is perceived as a manifestation of insecurity, and often dependence and subordination.

Self-presentation– this is the art of presenting yourself to others. The essence of this skill is the ability to concentrate attention on one’s strengths and away from shortcomings.

Self-presentation of attractiveness– the ability to present yourself to others in a favorable light. Psychologists note that attractiveness is associated not only and not so much with appearance, but with inner charm. After all, there are people who “shine, but do not warm”, and there are people who “attract like a magnet” - it is easy and simple to communicate with such people, they literally win hearts from the first seconds of meeting.

Self-presentation of superiority, or demonstrating one’s merits in a form that is not offensive to others. To do this, there is no need to draw parallels and comparisons, because each person is unique in some way. Self-submission should be based on objective merits and achievements (this is especially true for the managerial profession).

Self-feeding attitude– a sincere friendly and interested attitude towards the interlocutor. This position, as a rule, evokes reciprocal sympathy at the first meeting.

Fashion style is the most important component of appearance design. The choice of clothing style indicates that a person represents his self-image and his social status. Clothing should be appropriate to the occasion, position and age of the person. Any discrepancy will cause negative perception. For example, it is unacceptable to come to serious business negotiations in sportswear.

Emotional condition can greatly influence the formation of the first impression. Strong emotions provoke the so-called. “psychological contagion”, when the emotions and feelings of one person are projected onto others, causing a response (“mirror effect”). Therefore, a good mood can help create a positive first impression.

Special research by psychologists shows that people see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear. In other words, all information coming from the outside world is subjectively “sifted” by each person. Such unique “filters” depend on education, upbringing, life experience, a person’s character, his lifestyle, environment, value system, etc. Thus, reality and its perception often not only do not coincide, but also differ from each other. Depending on the personality of the perceiver, the words, concepts, texts and actions of another person are interpreted differently.

Based on the patterns of people’s perception of each other, it is possible to influence the perceiver and consciously form the desired image in his mind. This is especially true for forming a first impression.

When a first impression occurs, the following errors arise - the effects of halo, stereotype, projection, condescension, someone else's opinion, mental state, dominant need, simplification, gala effect, placebo effect, as well as deliberate deception. Below they are discussed in more detail.

Halo effect lies in the fact that the visual and auditory information received at the moment of acquaintance is superimposed on a certain image that has already been created in advance. This halo image prevents you from seeing the true traits of a new acquaintance.

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