from the first instance instictivley our attention is drawn to their face, is it happy or sad? what is with his hair color? hey he's kind of cute...must have a girl friend already, wait hes kind of fat around the waist...must be a lazy slob. Our brains will try to find any clues, signals that will help us identify as many characteristcis as we can. By analysing and assimilating various things such as the persons gender, age, physical characteristics, tone of voice even they way they stand along with our own preconceptions and ideas a picture is made in the mind. First impressions last. That picture we have created of that person is our first impression of them and it will continue to color they way in which they are perceived in us.

'you cant judge a book by its cover' is a common expression and may be true to some extent, but when i read a book called tales of countless killing

For instance had your friends told you that our punk friend was actually quite nice and extremely freidly and helpful your impression would be more favorable towards him.

5th grade teachers rated childen who were physically attractive as more intelligent and successful and attibuted misbehaviors as a result of enivornmetal factors as opposed to unatractive childen as factors of thier own personality(dion, 1972).

So in restrospect how much can we accuratly learn about other people from the first impression? it would seem as if we cant learn much at all. For all accounts and purpouses our first impressions are wrought with misconceptions and ill conceived sterotypes with which are subject to countless bias beyond our control. In terms of functionality it seems as if using first impressions is completly useless. However while our first impressions may be extremly inaccurate, and in fact mr hazaki with no arms and legs is actually a black belt in jet-kun-do, we do learn a great deal from our first impressions, and as far as we are concerned they are as accurate as they can be. While it is easy to pull apart the way in which we think and show how flawed we are the fact is that these mechanisms such as sterotypes and using our own experiences are they best ways we have in making ideas about others. Mankind would not be at this point if he had to deal with others with a oblivious look on his face. The reasons why we all have our own sterotypes, have our own biases and rely external cues is because it is all we have at that time and is more effiecint than to accually walk around with a note pad and paper making psychological profiles of everyone we meet and decide wether they are suitable to study with. And what if we are actaully wrong about that person? experience teaches us with every encounter. we learn what to look for and what is important to us.

In addition, reactions and attitudes of others about a someone is extremly influential to our own attitute and reactions towards that person.

Some topics in this essay:
Modern Life, Implicit Psychology, , Anderson Hubert, Wegner Vallacher, Sandford Dornbusch, Gottesdiener Abramson, research indicates, people seen, Studies McKeachie, own experiences, Social Psychology, Psychology Modern, impressions research indicates, indicates information, impressions research, judge book, implicit psychology, impressions person, psychology modern, research indicates information, social psychology modern, psychology modern life, ones impression,