First Impressions at Work: A Meta-Analytic Review

Research Seminar

Management & Human Resources

Speaker: Brian Swider

Warrington, University of Florida

room Bernard Ramanantsoa

First impressions are critical in shaping work-related outcomes and social judgments in organizational contexts. However, research has generated conflicting findings and left unanswered questions about their dimensional structure, antecedents, consequences, and temporal stability. We meta-analyzed 188 independent samples from 132 studies to address these ambiguities and generate a stronger foundation for future theoretical development. Results reveal that perceivers tend to form broad evaluations of displayers rather than unique, narrow impressions, as conceptually distinct impression dimensions demonstrated consistently positive and often sizable cross-dimension correlations. While perceivers rely on a range of informational cues to form first impressions, certain types (i.e., communication cues) exert a more consistent impact than others (e.g., content cues). First impressions strongly predicted both achievement-oriented and relational outcomes, and although these effects diminished somewhat over time, they remained highly durable even at longer durations (i.e., more than a month). Taken together, these findings help reconcile competing theoretical perspectives on first impressions and provide numerous insights for more coherent theorizing and precise applications in organizational settings.