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Most of us remember the first time we met the important people in our lives: from our boss to our beau to our best friend. First impressions are surprisingly enduring, particularly when they are based on specific positive behaviors or characteristics that we uniquely remember.
We all notice many of the same things initially: physical appearance, clothing, body language, tone of voice, and communication style, to name a few. Yet beyond what we see and hear is what we perceive. We feel chemistry and experience compatibility, often describing a first encounter as incredibly comfortable, “as if we had known each other for years.”
Although there may be many other reasons we are drawn to certain people, due to perceived similarity, resemblance to a loved one in our lives, or good old-fashioned personality “clicking,” there is apparently an additional dimension to the attraction analysis. In addition to the many positive qualities we notice about someone else is another category with deeper, more evolutionary roots: morality.
When Forming Impressions, Morality Matters
Savannah Adams and Oscar Ybarra investigated how morality influences first impressions.[i] They acknowledge that moral information is used to form and maintain social impressions and note that previous research on impression formation traditionally focused on communion (warmth) and agency (competence), with communion frequently linked with morality.
In their own research across three studies, Adams and Ybarra had participants evaluate social targets based on their behavior within several different moral domains. When morally relevant character traits such as generosity and kindness were compared with communion traits less related to morality such as agreeableness and sociability, morally relevant traits were weighted more heavily in forming impressions. Adams and Ybarra recognize that morally relevant traits are apparently viewed as having higher priority and are processed more quickly than traits related to agency, suggesting that morality is of unique importance in making social judgments.
Great Expectations: the Power of Positive Behavior
Related to morality research is the tendency to assume “goodness” in likable people we meet, giving them the benefit of the doubt by focusing on positive traits and behaviors. Adams and Ybarra noted this theme as well, reporting that in all three of their studies, participants attributed more positive behaviors to the social targets’ character than negative behaviors—in contradiction to research findings that negative information may be more important than positive information in forming impressions. They point out that positive moral behaviors are more significantly linked with social norms than negative behaviors, possibly resulting in “general expectations of decency” from other people.
In some instances, positive expectations of others may turn out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy, as kindness, compassion, and friendliness often prompt reciprocity. In every case, however, although we should always remain situationally aware and careful when interacting with strangers, morality is an important component of impression formation that we notice both overtly and instinctively.
