LYRICFLUENT
LYRICFLUENTShould You Trust Your First Impression? Lyrics by Addison Anderson Addison Anderson
Below, you will find the lyrics for Should You Trust Your First Impression? by Addison Anderson.
Imagine you're at a football game
When this obnoxious guy sits next to you
He's loud
He spills his drink on you
And he makes fun of your team
Days later, you're walking in the park
When suddenly it starts to pour rain
Who should show up at your side
To offer you an umbrella?
The same guy from the football game
Do you change your mind about him
Based on this second encounter
Or do you go with your first impression
And write him off?
Research in social psychology suggests
That we're quick to form lasting impressions of others
Based on their behaviors
We manage to do this with little effort
Inferring stable character traits
From a single behavior
Like a harsh word
Or a clumsy step
Using our impressions as guides
We can accurately predict
How people are going to behave in the future
Armed with the knowledge
The guy from the football game
Was a jerk the first time you met him
You might expect more of the same down the road
If so, you might choose to avoid him
The next time you see him
That said, we can change our impressions
In light of new information
Behavioral researchers have identified
Consistent patterns that seem to guide
This process of impression updating
On one hand, learning very negative
Highly immoral information about someone
Typically has a stronger impact
Than learning very positive, highly moral information
So, unfortunately for our new friend
From the football game
His bad behavior at the game
Might outweigh his good behavior at the park
Research suggests that this bias occurs
Because immoral behaviors are more diagnostic
Or revealing
Of a person's true character
Okay, so by this logic
Bad is always stronger than good
When it comes to updating
Well, not necessarily
Certain types of learning don't seem to lead
To this sort of negativity bias
When learning about another person's abilities and competencies
For instance
This bias flips
It's actually the positive information
That gets weighted more heavily
Let's go back to that football game
If a player scores a goal
It ultimately has a stronger impact
On your impression of their skills
Than if they miss the net
The two sides of the updating story
Are ultimately quite consistent
Overall, behaviors that are perceived
As being less frequent are also the ones
That people tend to weigh more heavily
When forming and updating impressions
Highly immoral actions
And highly competent actions
So, what's happening at the level of the brain
When we're updating our impressions?
Using fMRI
Or functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Researchers have identified
An extended network of brain regions
That respond to new information
That's inconsistent with initial impressions
These include areas typically associated
With social cognition
Attention
And cognitive control
Moreover, when updating impressions
Based on people's behaviors
Activity in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex
And the superior temporal sulcus
Correlates with perceptions
Of how frequently those behaviors occur in daily life
In other words, the brain seems to be tracking
Low-level, statistical properties of behavior
In order to make complex decisions
Regarding other people's character
It needs to decide
Is this person's behavior typical
Or is it out of the ordinary?
In the situation
With the obnoxious-football-fan-turned-good-samaritan
Your brain says
'Well, in my experience
Pretty much anyone would lend someone their umbrella
But the way this guy acted at the football game
That was unusual.'
And so, you decide to go with your first impression
There's a good moral in this data
Your brain, and by extension you
Might care more about
The very negative, immoral things
Another person has done
Compared to the very positive, moral things
But it's a direct result
Of the comparative rarity of those bad behaviors
We're more used to people being basically good
Like taking time to help a stranger in need
In this context, bad might be stronger than good
But only because good is more plentiful
Think about the last time you judged someone
Based on their behavior
Especially a time when you really feel
Like you changed your mind about someone
Was the behavior that caused you
To update your impression
Something you'd expect anyone to do
Or was it something totally out of the ordinary?
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