First impressions are forever going to play a role in human behavior. Anytime a person is in a situation for the first time, her or she forms an Impression of the other party. First impressions take seconds to form, but can have major implications if the wrong impression is portrayed. Very little about the other person is left untouched by our subconscious minds during the formation of the first impression. We tend to think that we have figured out who the whole person is, all within a single minute. This creates immense pressure on us to ensure that the right first impression is portrayed.
The formation of the first impression happens very quickly. As stated by Jane (n.d.), "it takes just 30 seconds after meeting to form key impressions about an individual's education level, career competence, success levels, personality, trustworthiness, social background and sense of humour" (p. 7). In just 30 short seconds, we are capable of forming an impression of someone that spans just about every aspect of their life. One of the most important situations we encounter where the first impression is emphasized is the job interview. Evans (2007) states that the hiring managers frequently use the first impression of candidates to base their hiring decisions. The author goes on to explain that this is why it is so important that we make great first impressions, because it just might be the last impression we get (Evans, 2007). There are many ways one can influence the first impression formed by the other party. One must be willing to be intentional and to think about his or her attitude, appearance, and nonverbal cues when interacting with others. In addition to the familiar job interview, we also experience first impressions in our everyday life. Helmstra (1999) points out that "we begin to form our first impression of the people around us as soon as we see them, often well before we actually meet and the first words are exchanged" (p. 71). When you first walk into a public place, your body language and facial expressions are seen by others, and people immediately begin to form an impression of you.
After reading the first scenario of John as an extrovert, I pictured him as a friendly, very social and an outgoing person. I pictured John as social and friendly because in the story he talked with people all along his journey from the office, to the stationary store and back to the office. While he was waiting for the clerk to notice him, John engaged in conversation with an acquaintance. John also stopped and conversed with a friend he ran into on his way out of the store. In addition to the two previous conversations John already had participated in, he stopped and talked with a girl he met a few nights earlier on his way back to the office. John is being depicted as knowing a lot of people and taking time to stop and chat in practically every moment of the story. According to Lakshmi (2008) extroverts have a preference to spend time with people. This is evident in the story of John the extrovert since at every opportunity John stopped to talk and interact with others.
The picture I have of John after reading the second story which portrays John as an introvert is significantly different than what I pictured of John the extrovert. I picture John in the second scenario as more reserved, soft spoken, and someone who enjoys his solitude. In the second story, rather than John actively engaging in conversations with others on his way home, we see that John seemly avoids interaction with the people around him. As Lakshmi (2008) writes "one of the main factors that differentiates introverts from extroverts is their social skills. Introverts have an explicit inhibition in interpersonal contacts and most often tend to prefer solitary pursuits as compared to extroverts" (p. 65). In the second story we see that as John walks down the street, he sees a pretty girl whom he knows, yet he decides to cross the street to go inside for a drink. We do not know from the story why he decided to cross the street to avoid talking to her. However we can see that this portrayal of John the introvert is consistent with the viewpoint that Laksmi (2008) made of introverts preferring solitary pursuits. This is in contrast to how John the extrovert was portrayed. John the introvert did not engage in conversation with people he knew, as we saw in the street scenario, and also later when John enters the bar. While in the bar, John quietly waits for the bar tender while there were people around that John was familiar with. John waited quietly for his drink, then sat down at a side table to enjoy it alone and went home. John’s actions in the second story are consistent with an introvert who prefers ”solitary pursuits,” and is not as socially outgoing as your typical extrovert.
When rereading the two scenarios in reverse order, I have a different picture of John the introvert. My image of John the extrovert has stayed the same. However previously I pictured John the introvert as reserved and soft spoken. This time around when reading the introvert story first I wasn't so quick to say he was reserved and avoided conversations. This is because I did not have the story of John the extrovert who stopped to talk to everyone to affect the way I imagined John the introvert. The part in the introvert story when John crosses the street when he sees the pretty girl still sticks out to me and is a sign of John being more introverted. However the scenarios of him in the bar are left more to speculation. The author leaves out if John talks to some of the familiar faces he sees in the bar. Only after reading about John the extrovert first, whom actively engages in conversation, did I start to picture John the introvert as purposefully avoiding all types of conversation.
There is only one chance to make a great first impression, which can have lasting and lifelong effects. Our attire, our eye contact, our attitude, and the words we choose when communicating all impact the formation of the first impression. My first impression of the character John changed after assessing the two situations in a different order. I was able to judge his personality solely on his isolated actions instead of comparing the two personality types. It goes to show that human behavior and our opinions impact the first impression we make after interpreting a situation for only seconds.
