Why we should reject first impression

THERE are two job applicants for a management post ― Andy and Bobby. Without reading their respective curriculum vitae (CVs), who between the two would you choose? Of course, you’ll say, you’re not ready. It’s difficult, if not unwise to make a decision without a sound basis. Is it? Let’s try this true story contributed by a reader.

One morning you bumped into a tall, athletic, fine gentleman with a chisel face inside the elevator. You don’t know Andy from Adam but his overall bearing impressed you.

He was impeccably dressed wearing an old-style, long-sleeved dirty white, finely-crisp, linen barong. It turned out Andy was an applicant for a post that your company advertised. You were pleasantly surprised to meet Andy again from that first encounter in the elevator.

Your first impression was galvanized when he answered all of your difficult job interview questions with flying colors.

On a different occasion, you met Bobby for the interview. Like Andy, he answered all the killer interview questions with the same finesse and fluidity. They’re both excellent communicators and possess the right skills for the job. However, if you’ll make a decision, you would prefer to hire Andy for no apparent reason other than the first impression he created in that chance elevator meeting.

Fearing exposing your bias, you deferred making a decision and asked the human resources (HR) department to send you at least three more applicants, which they did in no time at all. After interviewing more than five candidates in one month, you were dead-set in hiring Andy who was lucky enough to meet you inside an elevator.

Primacy effect

In psychology, this kind of bias is called the primacy effect. It’s our tendency to remember the first piece of impression we got from a pleasant and positive-looking person. The bias is often bolstered when we get to know deeper the person and ignored minor inadequacies about him.

You’re now in a situation where your positive perception about Andy has quickly ruined your decision-making process.

Contrary-wise, if you meet a man who wears untidy, crumpled clothes, people in the male chauvinist movement would immediately judge that person with an uncaring, devil-may-care spouse, even if that person is unmarried. On the other hand, if that person dresses appropriately, many of us would think he has the money to spend for a laundry professional.

It’s easier to remember the person as someone who dresses appropriately or inappropriately than to talk about the overall result of the job interview process. Once an inaccurate first impression is made, it is difficult for some people to change it. You’ll need a truckload of new evidence to challenge that first impression.

Thus, the person whom we think has a poor taste for his clothes will have the difficulty of shaking off that first impression, if he continues to commit the same mistake and some of us may wonder why he has not separated from his wife.

That example, of course, tends to hook you in with a smile. But in the real world, if we are confronted with a job applicant who came in late for an interview, we tend to consider it as a mortal sin, especially these days where employers are enjoying a heyday in choosing one applicant from several hundreds.

Halo error

The primacy effect is a close cousin of “halo error” when our first impression of a job applicant is usually based on one distinct element that defines the background of all members of a management interview panel.

For example, the applicant is not a graduate of an exclusive university that wrongfully colors our perception. Halo error happens when hiring managers are not sufficiently motivated to search for the total character of an applicant. Instead, they focus on the absence or presence of that one element — as a product of exclusive schools.

And so, how do you bypass the primacy effect? The obvious answer is to reject it by consciously reducing its negative effects on our judgment. And yet, for some reason, we are often tricked by the strong argument that having a first impression lasts. Or, we may be guided by creative artist and choreographer Twyla Tharp who said:

“You only need one good reason to commit to an idea, not four hundred. But if you have four hundred reasons to say yes and one reason to say no, the answer is probably no.”