First Impression

FIRST IMPRESSION

Veli Kapcak

First impressions form the most significant part of our memory about somebody or something.  In most cases, therefore, some people will tend to be genuine about their first impression while others may likely fake it to make it.  Since habit and character of a person builds and changes over time, it would be my opinion not to judge a person's character so quickly.  

People who trust their first impression about a person believe that it is difficult to hide who we are even if we try to. On the other hand, people who do not judge a person quickly always believe that there is room for change and behavior modification. Both views are correct about human behavior. Those who use first impression to judge a person argue that the person did his/her best at the time in question and should thus be judged based on their action. For example, a person going for an interview is likely to do his best during the interview, boast of his/her knowledge about the company and the job description. Although this may be true, sometimes people who go for interviews merely memorize information and later on fail to deliver after the interview. On the other hand, people who are slow to judge a person's character take into account contextual issues that may affect a person's character. For example, while going for an interview  the interviewee may receive bad news about the death of a loved on the interviewee is likely not to deliver during the interview, but if given time the interviewee may be better at his(-sic) work than the other interviewee who boasted of  being highly knowledgeable about the company. I would, however, like to point out that the reverse is true in both case scenarios. 

There are several reasons as to why i strongly that first impressions are often wrong. One, first impressions are momentary character of a person. According to literature in behavioral psychology, human behavior is a highly complex and complicated behavior to understand and that what we see is usually what a person wants us to see. Take for example, a teenager who invites his friends over to his room for the first time and cleans his room sprays some romantic aroma and plays some soft music in the background. His friends are likely to see that he is a very responsible and tidy person, however immediately after his friends leave, his mother will always shout to him to clean his room and he will always postpone it till the next time his friends are visiting his room.  This example shows that his friends will have made a wrong conclusion about his character based on a limited, momentary impression of his character.