Leaving a Good Impression? You Might Be Surprised

People believe they know the affect they have on others, but academic research  suggests that people do a surprisingly poor job of guessing the impression they leave, according to Nicholas Epley, assistant professor of behavioral science. “People’s ability to intuit a specific individual’s impression is surprisingly poor,” Epley told the student-led Managerial Effectiveness Group at Hyde Park Center on January 19. “Confidence is consistently higher than accuracy. Beliefs about one’s ability to intuit another person’s impression are uncorrelated with one’s actual ability to do so.”

Epley pointed to four primary factors that impede accuracy: each person’s cognitions are unique, the medium through which impressions are gained affects the message, people rarely consider another person’s perspective—and are generally ineffective when they do—and interpreting feedback about impressions from a recipient presents several problems.

“Feedback is often ambiguous and its interpretation is therefore egocentrically biased,” he said. “Underlying intentions are often poorly conveyed and easily misinterpreted. People see what they expect to see, not necessarily what others are actually trying to convey.”

For example, people tease others with the intention of increasing social connections and making others feel good, Epley said. “But the literal interpretation of it is that this is an insult,” he said. “Whether you are intending to tease another person in a positive way or intending to actually be mean, it turns out, is really clear only to the teaser.”

What appears to be common sense for improving impression detection is often misguided, Epley said. For example, in preparing for an interview, applicants are often advised to ask themselves about their contributions to particular projects. Instead they should ask others, he said. “Think about what other people praised you for, not what you think you should be praised for,” Epley said. “Other people's evaluations of you are going to better approximate other people’s evaluations of you than your own. Your own evaluations are likely to be based on private knowledge about your performance or abilities that an interviewer will have no access to whatsoever.”

Instead, Epley recommends improving impression detection by reconceptualizing your self perception: simulate what an individual might think about you based on what you know about him or her, then find a surrogate to act as a proxy for that individual’s impressions. “The more similar your surrogate is to the person whose impression you’re trying to intuit, the better,” he said.

With interviews coming up, the Managerial Effectiveness Group chose Epley to launch a series of speakers on behavioral science, said first-year student Christopher Spikes, co-chair. “It was great to be reminded about your frame of mind, the interviewer’s frame of mind, and the message you’re sending. Interviewers only get a snapshot of you, and it’s really important to walk other people through your shoes as much as you can to let them know where you’re coming from.”

—Phil Rockrohr