Brain Activity And First Impressions
(This is proving to be a bonanza day for new research.)
Scientists from NYU and Harvard devised a rather unwieldy sounding study that nevertheless produced compelling indications that there’s a lot going on in our heads when we meet someone for the first time. The team provided subjects with written profiles and pictures of fictitious individuals, each seeded with “trait” information that would commonly inspire some kind of judgment. They used neuroimaging to record what was happening in the subjects brains as they reached their first impressions about the characters.
The neuroimaging results showed significant activity in two regions of the brain: The amygdala, a small structure in the medial temporal lobe previously linked to emotional learning about inanimate objects and social evaluations based on trust or race group. And the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), linked to economic decision-making and assigning subjective value to rewards.
“Even when we only briefly encounter others, brain regions that are important in forming evaluations are engaged, resulting in a quick first impression,” said NYU’s Dr. Elizabeth Phelps.
NYU’s Dr. Daniela Schiller, the study’s lead author, concluded, “When encoding everyday social information during a social encounter, these regions sort information based on its personal and subjective significance, and summarize it into an ultimate score–a first impression.”
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