Why first impressions of people are often deceptive

• Why first impressions of people are often deceptively

Our initial judgment about another person is often to a greater extent reflect our own qualities than his.

The way we assess others - for photos, resumes, tattoo or dressy clothes, can be illustrated by an example from the ballot by using weights and marbles of different colors. We form an impression about the people in the same way as everything in general: as soon as the arrow of our scales is deflected in one direction or another, we have a intuitions, and we are starting to pick up evidence to support it, consciously suitable ball.

Sometimes, when we get used to associate something completely harmless (a font that someone used on your resume) with any known to us the qualities (Bob use this font in your application, and it turned out to be the worst candidate), we form bias, which are guided in future judgments. Because life dictates the need to rapidly assess other people, it can sometimes lead to the fact that we choose the unsuitable balls (ie, incorrect assumptions), and then mistakenly ascribe their man.

That's the whole problem - our mind is lazy, and we have a limited amount of time. When we have a large number of options, we are more superficial in their judgments.

"As a rule, we solve the problem of choice, simply ignoring most of the options that we offer," - says the researcher of decision-making Peter Todd.

Imagine what it looks like such a strategy decision-making in the context of our professional lives. Blindly sending your application to graduate school, or sending your CV by email to Human Resources manager, who we do not know, we become "victims" of this approach, hasty assessment. Not realizing how stiff the competition is, we mistakenly believe that producers, managers, promoters or agents are carefully reviewing our video portfolio or essay. But if we have a bad website, they can not even walk to the main part of our application. In cases where the notion of "best" purely subjective, often determine the winner of a simple coincidence. Because ultimately worthy candidate will still be found, it does not matter. Life - this is not ideal and virtuous meritocracy (a social system in which the top positions occupied by the most talented people), because not all services are appreciated.

Think about the hiring manager, who estimates the stack of resumes, one of which promotes fluency in the French language of the candidate. This is important if we are talking about positions Web designer? Unlikely.

"Suppose a manager has a long-standing interest in the study of the French language in order to converse with his elderly aunt from Montreal. Undoubtedly, another candidate will be delighted by the fact that he was offered a job - says Warren Torngeyt in his book "Evaluating the merits." - But how would you react to such a hasty judgment, especially if you have spent three days to prepare your resume to a vacancy, but did not bother to mention that also speak French? "

I called Torngeytu to ask, what are the consequences of such random things.

"Maybe they missed some very good candidates, but they do not care," - said an expert on the decision-making mechanisms. - It is not considered to be a gross mistake for people who make the decisions. "

Of course, there is still an interview - but they also are not completely reliable way. When our scales begin to deviate in some way, it becomes easier to collect "appropriate" balls. The presence of intuitive judgment about a person facilitates the selection of the relevant information about it. As soon as we feel that someone does not suit us, we behave intense that makes that person feel and act uncomfortable. When we like someone, our friendliness helps the man to open up with the best hand. People are more confident in their judgments when they have more information about a candidate before the interview, but this is often due to the fact that they spent more time picking up balls of the same color. Unstructured interview, the most common form of recruitment, fraught with self-fulfilling prophecy. "The problem is that all consider themselves to be good interviewers, all confident in your ability to understand people, - says researcher Christine Kuhn. - But in fact, it is obvious that this is not so. Even if they meet the person, rate it as an excellent employee and hires him, and then he did not live up to expectations, it will not shake their confidence. They can always explain that the reason is not that they do not understand the people. "

Think about it: most used methods of recruitment, dating, and other selections, never provide corrective feedback. When was the last time you thought ill of anyone, and then tried sincerely to prove that your intuition did not fail you? Improved decision making requires corrective feedback.

You have to admit once that can be completely wrong, and it is possible to take advantage of his chance to hire someone or meet someone, regardless of the first judgment. Then you need to try to figure out where does this intuitive belief, and only then begin to work towards the elimination of such biased sources of information.

It's hard work, most of us are not willing to do openly. It is easier to reject an application, ignore the message, discard nedochitannuyu manuscript, go out and live, in full satisfaction of oneself for the next fair judgment, especially when the brain interprets the error as the flaws, and the feeling of self-righteousness so damn nice. We never even think about how to check the correctness of his intuition.

We can not get rid of their bias overnight, but you can start by recognizing (and decision) of the fact that our brain tends to make wrong decisions. So the next time you find that hasty judgment rendered (at the first meeting with someone or when evaluating a candidate for the position), ask yourself if it was a reaction to the judgment of the received information, or to your own assumptions.

By doing so, you may find that when we first met overlooked quality that makes your companion is potentially a good friend or associate. After all, in the end, luck always catches us by surprise, and this can only happen when you give the other person a chance to surprise you.