Human mind has a tendency (or rather desire) to simplify things. A first meeting with every person will result in a first impression. Few words which will define the person and make it easy for us to put it somewhere with others, who supposedly are of the same kind. It is always easy to put people in categorical boxes .. some people might say it is demeaning and some might find it an insult to their individuality but the truth is that is how it works ... for you and for me. We categorize people. Period.
In normal situation, we can afford not to form a concrete image of the person based on first impression.With enough time and conversation we start to understand
the person.In fact, if enough time is given, it would be really difficult to find a bad person.To put it in simple words," Every person is nice, when you finally know them".
In normal situation, we can afford not to form a concrete image of the person based on first impression.With enough time and conversation we start to understand
the person.In fact, if enough time is given, it would be really difficult to find a bad person.To put it in simple words," Every person is nice, when you finally know them".
Nevertheless, this luxury of time is absent in a business scenario where we have limited time and interaction.We need to gauge the other person as quickly as possible to gain an advantage.The rules of body language and reading faces;are probably meant for such situations.These rules provides us a handy way to form a reasonably true first impression of the person.This information can be used(if inferred correctly) for making our decision making process easier.
The caveat with such rules is that they need sufficient expertise and experience before one can apply then effectively.And also one should not feel tempted to use these rules in personal life as they might hinder the way we see people, the way they need to be seen.Without a bias.Period.
The caveat with such rules is that they need sufficient expertise and experience before one can apply then effectively.And also one should not feel tempted to use these rules in personal life as they might hinder the way we see people, the way they need to be seen.Without a bias.Period.
the original tendency we have in us is **to find a pattern in things**. to categorize things is another expression of it. as you rightly said, the first impression work is also one consequence of the same tendency.
ReplyDeletebeing a navigator, i once sat down thinking how man first started star-gazing, or the astronomy.And i came to result the attempting to find a pattern of stars at any given night, and then night after night, and then from place to place, and so on and so forth..must have resulted into this most ancient art-cum-science to humans.
:-)