The #1 Quality According to Science to Make the Best First Impression
Do you ever wonder why you are naturally drawn towards certain individuals over others? It is difficult to understand why, but our subconscious first impression made upon meeting someone ends up being our lasting impression of that individual. We seek to validate all their future actions based on this assumption. If we deem an individual as incompetent and ignorant, we will treat them with dismissal. However, if we are impressed by their intellect and abilities, we will be keener to strengthen our relationship with them.
Individuals should keep this in mind when interviewing, attending professional meetings, and even dating. Interviewers, like all humans, naturally judge you based on their initial perceptions. Your goal is to make this initial judgment a good one. Based on a survey conducted by Dimitrius, a jury consultant, it has been made aware that the main quality an individual should project to make a good impression is trustworthiness. Being trustworthy means being honest about your experiences.
Paul J Zak published an article in the Harvard Business Review titled the Neuroscience of Trust. He started a research program to test his hypothesis that there is a neurologic signal that indicates when we should trust someone. In rodents, there is a chemical called oxytocin that signals if they can trust someone, so Paul decided to research it in humans. He tested trust in humans based on a strategic decision task. In the investigation, a member picks a measure of cash to send to an outsider through the computer, knowing they can keep the money all for themselves or triple the money by sending it to someone else without the guarantee that they will share. To quantify oxytocin levels during the trade, the lab members drew blood from individuals’ arms before and after the experiment. They found that the more money people were trusted to receive and share, the more oxytocin their brains produced. Likewise, when the lab members injected synthetic oxytocin, the amount of oxytocin administered determined how much money they trusted to send to the receiver. To summarize, our brain naturally decides whether to like or dislike an individual based on whether they can trust them.
This research can be applied to both work and social life. Don’t fake internships and lie about your work history to boost your portfolio for interviewers. Never lie to someone you are dating or interested in because in the long term this will cause your partner to distrust you. Don’t allow yourself to be labeled as a friend who can’t keep confidential information to themselves. Trust lost once is never earned back to the same degree. Be kind, stick to your word, and tell the truth no matter how humiliating the end outcome may be.
References
- Zak, P. J. (2017, January 1). The Neuroscience of Trust. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved November 3, 2021, from https://hbr.org/2017/01/the-neuroscience-of-trust.
