Do first impressions matter?

I like observing people from a distance. People in their social surroundings being themselves, without the knowledge of being watched. This mostly happens when I travel. I watch people go about doing their daily things, their micro conversations, expressions and all those little things, in places like a market, a shop, restaurants, etc. This can be when I am on buses, or while waiting at bus or railway stations, while shopping, or any other place with people.

For many years I was of the opinion that we should never judge a person based on the way he or she presents himself. The first few seconds or minutes of interactions with people don’t end up in me drawing conclusions about the person, his/her life or behaviour. If at all I cook up a mental image of that person’s character, I am always careful to not let it show or affect my interactions with that person in any way.

While, in the background, I kept comparing my initial impressions of person with what that person actually turned out to be. I’m not sure if I was not affected by confirmation bias. Maybe I was. But in my mind, I kept the two personas of the same person distinct. Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of times I was exactly correct and also many cases in which I was totally wrong.

Here’s a random example of where I went wrong with my experiments on the first impression. One day while I was waiting for my train, a person came and sat in front of me on a row of seats opposite to mine but facing me. His dress didn’t speak much, modestly dressed, an old man probably in his 50s. Suddenly, his phone rang. He took out an old tiny mobile phone the ones with the keypad and all and he started talking in some dialect. My first impression was: person still living with yesteryear tech and probably even with low levels of education. After the call, he continued to fidget around with his phone trying in vain to do something. That almost confirmed my impression. Then out of the blue, he quickly pulled out a big smartphone from his other pocket and started swiping away. Haha…I was shocked. I’m not suggesting that I was under the assumption that people can’t buy or afford to buy big phones or anything. They’re very cheap now. Just that we sometimes form wrong impressions too quickly. Different people are going through life’s different challenges and it’s likely that we could have encountered them in their worst situations - when they are hardly themselves.

Similarly, I’ve seen many instances when I was totally right. For years I didn’t have a clear answer to this problem. Should I trust my initial impression? Does it matter how I present myself before people? Are people going to judge and create the wrong impression? Are those impressions going to affect me in some way? will giving wrong first impressions to people about me, make me look unpredictable?

Recently I started doing a course in Psychology and now I know that I finally have an answer. Yes, first impressions do matter. You don’t have to take my word for it. There are many research studies that have proved this. Here’s one such paper. The way you look and the way you dress and how you speak and move all affect the first impression that you make. I’ve personally seen a sharp rise in self-confidence when I’m powerfully dressed. So all those little things matter. Presentation matters and not just the content.

Don’t forget, you never get a second chance to make a first impression!