First impressions are not only quick to form , they last forever. You owe it yourself to create powerful First Impression because your success, happiness and fulfilment depends on them.
Every first impression is contextual. It is based on a situation where a stranger in front of you is trying to maximize benefit to herself/himself company and minimizing pain. It also depends on stranger and their perceptions, knowledge and experience. It is what the stranger considers important in the given situation and the characteristics they want to see in you and the way they sees themselves. And the most important factor is “YOU“. What kind of image would you like to portray? Image is your identity, it’s you in the eyes of others.
To create a postive you need to put in extra effort as negative image or impressions are tough to correct.
The unforgiving thing about First Impression is that, once formed, they are imprinted on the brain practically forever, making them lasting Impression.
Once the first impressions are formed there are certain repercussions:
Confirmation of First Impression: Once the First Impression is formed, the person doen not take a neutral view to assess you, in fact they proceeds to validate the first impression already formed.
Self-fulfilling prophecy and lasting impression: This can be easily explained by Predicted Outcome Value Theory, introduced by Professor Michael Sunnafrank. According to him we determine the benefit of the relationship by predicting the value of future outcome, whether positive or negative. When we form positive first Impression of the person, we are more open to the person and if it’s negative we give no chance for the relationship to form.
Mirror Effect: Mirror effect brought by our brain’s Mirror Neurons. These neurons are behind our instinctive action where we mirror the mood of the person or crowd in front of us.
Comprehensive Impression: Having positive or negative impression of a person in one area influence one’s opinion or feelings in other areas.
Therefore many a times people do get carried away by thin slices of us in remotely related situations and it is for us to be more cautious about such First Impressions.
Photo Courtecy : Google
Edit : Canva
@SwatiMathur
Imagemakeover 
Thats so true. Our first impressions imprints on one’s memory. And then no matter how much we try to change it, it is very hard. So, yes we have to be careful meeting someone for the first time. We should be natural but at the same time keep in mind that how we express ourselves, or how we carry ourselves is going to go a long way.
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Yes Alpaca no body gets a second chance to make first impactful impression
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Great post on first impressions. Now actually everything falling in place like a jigsaw puzzle and can relate to it totally.
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I completely agree with you, first impressions are contextual. However, despite knowing this and all the points you have mentioned, people still end up being bias because of first impressions.
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I agree.. This generally happen when your interaction is for very limited time and you don’t get a chase to change that impression what has already been created
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Yes first impression is really important and it is the way to creat a positive image in front of others. Learning about outcome theory was an interesting and new read for me. Thanks for sharing the things that we know but didn’t realize the exact value and importance.
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This is an interesting post and made me think. Are, or should, first impressions necessarily be the last impression? In most cases that is what happens, which is not really fair.
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I agree, sometimes the first impression not only a myth but also a fully reverse nature. It takes time for a few to share how they are …
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I so agree buddy, I have learnt this after a lot of experience, I am glad you chose to do a post on this.
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Wow these are some real good insights on first impressions. Now I really get it why people say first impression is the last impression specially by the mirror effect technique.
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A couple of days ago, I read a beautiful story (which was actually a forwarded WhatsApp message) on how our impression of someone changes depending on the different situations even if those situations are just moments apart. And you have explained this in an amazing way.
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This is the beautiful insight on first impression. People says girst impression is the last impression and it’s actually true.
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Interesting! I always thought that the concept of first impressions is subjective. However, with experience and time I have understood that in the professional scenario, first impressions are very important.
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Yes first impressions are sometimes the deal makers and sometimes deal breakers. Self-Fulfilling prophecy theory is what I most believe in.
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First impressions are very important for things to go forward the in the right way .We all need help with this
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Yes first impressions lasts forever and I gained knowledge with the factors you provided in the post. Self fulfilling pointer is the most important in many cases.
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Wow! It’s nice to finally know the logical reasoning behind ‘first impression is the last impression”. Nicely summed up, Swati.
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This is so true! Specially if you are aiming for a job at corporates. Your first impression has a lasting effect always.
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