First Impressions are Key

Roger is smart, intelligent proud and lazy.
Smith is lazy, proud, intelligent and smart.
So, of the two who do you think is the better person? Roger, right? Isn’t it obvious?
Well, not really. They both have the same qualities. Only difference being that in case of Roger adjectives like ‘smart’ and ‘intelligent’ were used first and for Smith they were used later. So our first impression of Roger was that of a smart person and that of Smith was of a lazy person.
So, you see. Even simple statements like the ones above can create a impact and these are not to be taken lightly. In the book – ‘Social Animal’ Elliot Aronson highlights a number of psychological experiments where the impact is clearly seen. For example, assume Roger and Smith are students in your class. Initially, Roger does well but over time Roger’s grades fall and Smith’s catches up. You are more likely to believe Roger is the true genius of the two but his mind is little diverted for the time being where as Smith is not that bright but is working hard these days.