113 - impression formation

Understanding Impression Formation: The Role of Configuration Model, Primacy and Recency Effects, and Social Schemas

• Configuration model argues that some attributes are more important than others in forming impressions of others.
• Central Trait disproportionally influences the impression of others, while Peripheral Trait might tell you how someone goes about what they are going to do rather than what/why they are going to do.
• Primacy counterbalances the order of words, while Recency provides post-hoc information.
• Positivity and Negativity Bias are common in impression formation, where humans assume the best of people but attenuate more to negative information.
• Physical appearance, stereotypes, and social rules dictate when we are allowed to make judgments, all contribute to biases in impression formation.
• Social schemas are cognitive structures that represent knowledge about a concept or stimulus, including attributes and the relations among those attributes.
• The dimensions of the face (intentions, ability, and attractiveness) can tell us a lot about a person, and we can judge a person's emotion in less than 50 ms by just seeing their face with no distractions.
• Impressions can also be formed from other attributes such as a firm handshake, tone/pitch of voice, and the context of the conversation.
• The extended self, which includes shoes, glasses, tattoos, outfit, and watches, can also influence impression formation.
• Wearing a watch is associated with higher conscientiousness and lower extroversion and openness, while glasses are associated with less extraversion and less openness to experience.
• Personality may influence the willingness to wear glasses, and visual acuity may co-occur with personality.
• Impression formation is a complex process influenced by various factors, including cognitive processes, biases, and contextual information.