A shocking fact about first impressions (It’s a whopper!) – SCN Encourager

Frequently our rush to judgment is kicked off by one word

Just one word.

Now this is going to be a hard pill for you and me to swallow.

After all, aren’t we school communicator types at the highest levels of personal and professional maturity?

Where our presumptions, assumptions, and all of our goofy quirks are masterfully kept in check?

Nope.

Psychologist Elizabeth Lombardo cites a study that floored me.

The fact that Lombardo is considered “the psychologist of celebrities and stars” makes me wonder how I ever came across her… but I did.

What’s done is done.

And once my steel trap brain (more like a metal trash can with a lid) latches onto something, it’ll stay in there until I wrestle with it a bit and then share it with you.

Anyway, the extensive study Lombardo cited concluded this.

When it comes to making a judgment about someone’s trustworthiness, attractiveness, and personality – and we’ve never met or seen them at all – nearly 92% of us will immediately begin formulating our impression about the person on the way he or she says “hello.”

That’s it.

One word is all we need to hear.

“Hello.”

Does this study ring true to you?

That just one word alone – delivered to our ears within its unique tone and inflection – will carry this much weight in shaping our opinion?

Well, at least this study clarifies the one word all of us who answer the phone better practice and perfect.

At first I pooh-poohed this news.

Being the consistent wise old skeptic that I am (AKA a curmudgeon).

But now I’m a true believer.

Cindy reminded me I’ve purchased a couple of cars in the past with less information.

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