We know that our brain forms the very first impressions of both people and things very quickly. In a 2006 study it was shown that a mere 50 milliseconds were enough to form an opinion about a website. Recently, researchers have discovered that our brain forms an Impression of faces even when the exposure time is so short, that we’re consciously unaware that we saw them.

Some researchers have found that our amygdala, an area in the brain associated with emotions and decision-making, makes a judgment about the trustworthiness of a face in just about 33 milliseconds of exposure. The subjects who were tested didn’t recall seeing faces, but their amygdala’s reacted differently depending on the Facial details.

In a particular study which involves reading facial muscles, mouth and eyebrow, shapes are important. An angry-looking eyebrows and downturned mouths are untrustworthy. More trustworthy faces have slightly surprised looking eyebrows and a smiling “u” shape mouth.

There are a few things we can do to help build trust quickly. We will list a few of them for your reference –

There is a wealth of research showing that first impressions are formed in much less than a second, and are often quite durable. A first impression can even prevail over later objective evidence that conflicts with that impression. So, be sure that whatever your customer sees first supports the impression you want to form. Even a few seconds later may be too late.

While trying to use facial characteristics in recruiting staff is iffy, and changing our basic facial appearance is certainly difficult or impossible at times, one area that can be controlled readily is the imagery we use in advertising and on websites.

By choosing a face image that holds a strong trust characteristic, you could increase the trust in your company or brand. Testimonials are one area where trust can help credibility.

While face-based trust is important, it is just another element of a first impression. One of the website researches shows that our brain rapidly and subconsciously integrates a variety of visual information to determine our liking for a site and disliking.

So, you should be sure that all elements of your first impression support your desired image. An in-person impression can be altered by clothing, neatness, demeanor, smiling, environment, and more. An ad or website will have many other aspects of visual appearance that will affect both non-conscious and conscious impressions altogether. Elements like trust symbols, colors, design quality, and so on, can all be important.

Therefore, look trustworthy, but pay attention to the rest of the package too.