Do you worry about first impressions?

People tend to get conscious about first impressions; some over think about it. A study has pointed out that after we have conversations with new people, our conversation partners like us and enjoy our company more than we think they did.

There’s a “liking gap” of sorts, and can hinder our ability to develop new relationships. The researchers paired participants who had not met before and tasked them with having a five-minute chat featuring ice-breaker questions. The results showed that participants liked their partner more than they thought their partner liked them. Since it can’t logically be the case that both people in a conversation like their partner more than their partner likes them, this disparity suggests that participants tended to make an estimation error, like not accounting for their partner’s behavioural signals indicating interest and enjoyment.

In a separate study, participants reflected on the conversations they had just had. According to their ratings, they believed that the salient moments that shaped their partner’s thoughts about them were more negative than the moments that shaped their own thoughts about their partner.

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK