Should you trust your first impression? - Peter Mende-Siedlecki
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/should-you-trust-your-first-impression-peter-mende-siedlecki You can't help it; sometimes, you just get a bad feeling about someone that's hard...
========== Imagine you're at a football game when this obnoxious guy sits next to you. He's loud, he spills his drink on you, and he makes fun of your team. Days later, you're walking in the park when suddenly it starts to pour rain. Who should show up at your side to offer you an umbrella? The same guy from the football game. Do you change your mind about him based on this second encounter, or do you go with your first impression and write him off? Research in social psychology suggests that we're quick to form lasting impressions of others based on their behaviors. We manage to do this with little effort, inferring stable character traits from a single behavior, like a harsh word or a clumsy step. Using our impressions as guides, we can ac...