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First Impressions Are Surprisingly Accurate
Personality traits accurately judged based on
appearance
By Caroline Wilbert
WebMD Health News
How
many times did your mother tell you: Don’t judge a
book by its cover?
All
our lives, we’ve been admonished not to jump to
conclusions when we meet people. However, a new
study shows that those early conclusions are
surprisingly accurate.
More
than 100 undergraduate students at the University of
Texas participated in a study -- either as subjects
or as personality judges. The judges were able to
accurately guess subjects’ personalities based just
on photos.
Here’s how it worked. Two pictures were taken of the
subjects. In one, they posed in a way that
researchers told them -- staring at the camera, not
smiling, feet should-width apart, hands at sides. In
the other, they were photographed in natural,
spontaneous poses. Their actual personalities were
evaluated based on a questionnaire they filled out
themselves, as well as questionnaires completed by
people who knew them well.
Judges then evaluated the subjects based on the
photographs for 10 personality traits. Even when
just looking at the posed photographs, the judges
were able to accurately guess three traits:
extroversion, self-esteem, and religiosity. When
looking at the more spontaneous photos, the judges
were able to accurately guess almost all the traits.
"We
have long known that people jump to conclusions
about others on the basis of very little
information," researcher Sam Gosling of the
University of Texas says in a written statement,
"but what's striking about these findings is how
many of the impressions have a kernel of truth to
them, even on the basis of something as simple as a
single photograph."
As
examples, extroverts tend to smile more, stand in
energetic and less tense ways, and look healthy,
neat, and stylish.
The
researchers conclude that the results “suggest that
personality is manifested through both static and
expressive channels of appearance, and observers use
this information to form accurate judgments for a
variety of traits.”
In
other words, your mother may have been wrong. Maybe
you can judge a book by its cover.
©
WebMD. All rights reserved.
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"We have long known that people
jump to conclusions about others on the basis of
very little information" |
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