Be Wary Of Your First Impressions
May 27, 2022
A few days back, a young friend of mine made a flippant remark about someone.
“There was something about that person-Something about her tone of voice, approach, and attitude that put me off completely. I felt an immediate sense of aversion.”
My feedback to this friend was– Be wary of your first impressions. They can be very misleading.
Everyone suffers from unconscious biases that color the way they look at people. The root of the bias is often completely unconscious. Naturally, you tend to like people who think and behave like you, and you tend to be wary of people who are unlike you. Don’t judge people based on first impressions. Instead, engage deeply and get to know the person well. Focus on building a relationship first instead of judging first.
We should all follow Abraham Lincoln’s famous self-instruction to manage our judgmental first impressions.
“I do not like that man; therefore, I shall get to know him better.”
Well said Pramod. Sometimes the personality on a given day may be due to deep situational contexts which cannot be gauged easily , hence patience is required before judging or if possible avoid judging . First impressions should always be questioned by the self, and should always be the first impression, never the last
True Narayanan ..