First impression
First impression is the initial footprint in interactions between people. A first impression is built from a two-sided collection of information about appearance, clothing, speech, and behavior as a whole, as well as internal components such as body language and tone of speech. However, a surprising fact is that shoes alone leave their mark.
In a study by Gillath, Bahns et al. (2012), participants were asked about personality traits based solely on photographs of shoes. Surprisingly, the participants were able to make accurate judgments about age, gender, income, and even attachment style (anxiety*) of the wearer based only on the appearance of their shoes.
Moreover, the discovery of "first impression" has accompanied us since the beginning of human evolution. In the ancient world, based on survival of the fittest, the ability to quickly identify a friend, enemy, or potential mate was significant for survival and sometimes made the difference between life and death.
The initial process of impression formation also played an especially important role within tribes and groups. The hierarchical division of group roles raised the need for an accurate understanding of the traits, skills, and motivations of others. Thus, the impression made by each group member formed the basis for deciding whether they would be the hunter or gatherer, which influenced the group's functioning as a holistic unitAmbady, N., & Skowronski, J. J. (Eds.). (2008).
Generally speaking, every meeting with a new person creates a first impression. These impressions will usually determine the continuation of the relationship that will form - whether we will be friends or lovers, whether they will hire us for our dream job or we will continue searching, whether the rest of the conversation will be accompanied by a feeling of lightness or tension.
Today, the topic of first impression in job interviews is well-known and discussed. Most job seekers have a solid idea of how to dress and behave in order to create the desired impression in an interview. However, focusing only on the appearance and behavior of the interviewee is ignoring the second part of the equation, the thoughts and behavior of the interviewer.
In a study conducted, the hypothesis that interviewers' expectations before meeting the candidate influence the conduct of the job interview and even the decision at its end was examined. The research, based on the Dipboye model (Dougherty, Turban et al. 1994), assumes that after reviewing the resume, a certain impression is formed in the interviewer's mind. This impression creates behavioral and cognitive biases that are expressed during the interview and influence the final decision - whether to hire the candidate for the job.
Behavioral biases - The interviewer changes his behavior according to the expectations built from reviewing the candidate's resume. For example - if he expects an extroverted person, he will behave in a more extroverted manner.
Cognitive biases - The interviewer changes the information given to him and uses only information that supports the first impression created before the interview through selective attention. For example - he only hears things related to managerial roles and skips when the candidate talks about additional roles.
The candidates, for their part, react according to the interviewer's behavior and thereby reinforce the first impression formed in their mind. The sequence of biases, which usually occurs unconsciously, creates the phenomenon of the "self-fulfilling prophecy", a process.
In summary, the interview process is not simple and includes many layers beyond the candidate's professional knowledge. In 85% of interviews, the interview result will be determined in its first minutes (Ambady, N., & Skowronski, J. J. (Eds.). (2008). To deal with this phenomenon, we recommend conducting the interview with a complete and clear picture of the candidates' skills, personality, and reliability, and taking the interview to places that will help us focus on what is important for success in the role, reducing biases/misconceptions of first impressions based on random and partial information, which is sometimes directed and tendentious.
By: Daniel Danino
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Ambady, N., & Skowronski, J. J. (Eds.). (2008). First impressions. Guilford Press. |
Dougherty,T. W., Turban, D. B., & Callender, J. C. (1994). Confirming first impressions in the employment interview: A field study of interviewer behavior. Journal of applied psychology, 79(5), 659.
Gillath, O., Bahns, A. J., Ge, F., & Crandall, C. S. (2012). Shoes as a source of first impressions. Journal of Research in Personality, 46(4), 423-430.
For reading about attachment styles**:
Bretherton, I., & Munholland, K. A. (2008). Internal working models in attachment relationships: Elaborating a central construct in attachment theory.
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