First Impressions In Blink By Malcolm Gladwell

Encountering new people is a constant happening for everyone. Appearance, gender, posture, and age dictates how people form first impressions. In tenth of a second, someone can elaborate a mental image of someone whom they don’t even know. The more time someone has to judge someone by their first encounter, the more confident that person is in their judgement (Boutin 1). The accuracy of first impressions are underestimated.

In the novel, blink By Malcolm Gladwell, various experiments have shown that first impressions matter. “Whenever we meet someone for the first time, whenever we interview someone for a job, whenever we react to a new idea, whenever we’re faced with making a decision quickly and under stress, we use that second part of my brain” (Gladwell 12). This idea leads into the experiment led by psychologist, Nalini Ambady, to test student’s judgements of their professors. The students were given three second videos of teachers with the sound turned off to determine the ratings of the teacher’s effectiveness. Later, the

students were given the same videos, but they were cut back to five seconds. Even after the five second video, the ratings remained the same. Ambady found that in comparison of the three second videos to evaluations of students who were in those classes for a full semester, that evaluations from both were essentially the same (12).
The “love lab” experiment tested by John Gottman is a perfect example of how quickly people can make accurate judgements(Gottman 20.) With a 90% accuracy Gottman is able to predict whether married couples will still be married in fifteen years just by using his method in fifteen minutes. His method consists of him and other people using a coding system. . His coding system consists of twenty separate categories that correspond with any emotion that a married couple might have during a conversation.
In the novel, Pride and Prejudice, there are great examples that support the idea of how significant first impressions are. When the audience first read about Mrs. Bennett, the author, Jane Austen, portrays Mrs. Bennett as a persistent and obnoxious mother that is only concerned about finding her daughters wealthy husbands. “A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls”, (Austen 1). On just the first page of the novel, the readers have a sense of Mrs, Bennett’s character. Later on in the novel, Mrs. Bennett shows the readers that she simply only cares about her social status, and lets her daughter, Elizabeth, marry the man she hates, Mr. Darcy, simply only because he has money. The impression Mrs. Bennett gave the readers on the first page reflects her true character throughout the whole novel.
Another character in the novel, Pride and Prejudice, that supports the idea of how first impressions matter is Lydia Bennett.

Since the beginning of the novel, Lydia was portrayed as an ignorant, boy obsessive teenager. Towards the end of the novel, she makes a poor decision with running away with Mr. Wickham. The audience most likely wasn’t surprised by her decision because she was thought of as a young girl who wanted a man, regardless of his morals. This quote supports the idea that Lydia doesn’t know the importance behind stability and money which supports the audience's first judgement of her, "...but you must lend us the money, for we have just spent ours at the shop out there." Then, showing her purchases: "Look here, I have bought this bonnet. I do not think it is very pretty; but I thought I might as well buy it as not. I shall pull it to pieces as soon as I get home, and see if I can make it up any better”, (Austen

148).
First impressions happen in novels and in real life. The saying about second guessing being bad is very true in regards to, “... decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately”, (Gladwell 14). The accuracy and significance behind first impressions are important to everyone. With research, it’s proven that first impressions are a critical part of life.