A weird mental shortcut that makes us blame innocent people for a stranger’s mistake.
People tend to judge a whole group by the first person they meet from it.
It could be the first person at a company, a hotel or restaurant, or even the first person encountered from another country.
Any mistakes that first person makes are automatically applied to all the other people in the same group.
Conversely, a positive encounter with the first member leaves a lasting, favourable impression of the entire group.
It is as though the ‘first’ one becomes representative of all subsequent people from the same group.
Dr Janina Steinmetz, the study’s first author, said:
“If the first group member to do something is bad then the whole group is seen as bad, if the first group member to do something is great then the whole group is seen as great, and this is much less the case if the middle or the last member does something.”
First impressions stick
These findings stem from seven distinct studies tracking how we judge groups in real-world scenarios.
One scenario tested the effect of supermarket checkouts labelled with various numbers.
The results showed that if people had a bad experience at the checkout labelled ‘one’, they judged the whole store more harshly than if it was labelled five or six.
In another scenario, people were told that five research scientists had applied for a work visa.
When told that the scientist who received their visa first had made a serious mistake, people were more likely to judge the whole group as incompetent.
While seemingly irrational, this shortcut is deeply wired into human psychology.
Dr Steinmetz said:
“When the first one makes the big mistake, people are more likely to say that all these scientists are terrible and we don’t want them in the country.
People are more forgiving when the mistake is made by the scientist who receives their visa in the middle or last in the group and don’t make such a harsh judgment.”
Other scenarios had people judging athletes, students and even racehorses.
Dr Steinmetz said:
“If the first horse of a group that are trained together runs very slowly in its race then other members of its group are expected to be slow as well and people would be less likely to bet on them.”
Related
- 10 Startling Studies Reveal The Colossal Power Of Social Pressure (P)
- 10 Hidden Ways Social Synchrony Shapes Your Social Life (P)
The study was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Steinmetz et al., 2019).
