We are often told not to judge someone by the way they look, however we are unable to stop ourselves from making snap judgements about people no matter how hard we try. In the article “First Impressions from Faces” by Leslie A. Zebrowitz, she describes the first impressions we make of people and why we form those certain impressions.
People are characterized by their central traits and peripheral traits. Central traits have a greater impact on impression. For example, if you have learned of someone’s central traits of either being a warm or cold person, you will perceive them as such even if their peripheral traits, such as being polite or rude, contradict your preconceived notions.
The first impressions we make of people are fast and only take 100 milliseconds. Even though we know when judging someone that we could be perceiving them as a totally different person than they actually are, we do it automatically. Even babies are shown to judge people based on facial features the same way that adults do. The impressions we make consist of 4 fundamental characteristics of warmth, trustworthiness, power, and dominance. For example, people of all ages and races with baby-faces are seen as having low power, but high …show more content…
Emotion expressions differentiate between race to race and can also determine the impression you make of them. The neutral expression of someone who is black or korean tend to look happier and less angry than someone who is white, causing someone who is white to perceive them as less hostile and more trustworthy. The neutral-expression of a woman may look more surprised and fearful than that of a man who’s neutral-expression often looks angry, which may play a part in the idea that men are the more dominant sex. Facial symmetry, youthfulness, and averageness are often associated with fitness. Averageness shows genetic diversity and the fact that you were able to develop normally, making someone assume they are healthy and