We are all know the phrase “You never get a second chance to make a first impression”.
There are multiple psychological mechanisms at play in this first impression but this recent research, by Hanna Keren and colleagues at the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), in the US, caught my eye because it also focused on mood rather than the impression itself — so the long-term impacts of that first impression.
What they did was contrast the primacy effect, first impression or the earliest version of an event, vs. the recency effect, the most recent impression or experience. This was done by using a game with interactions and carefully designing scenarios with different experiences at different times. They also scanned brains to see brain responses, compared adolescents with adults, and those with and without depressive symptoms.
So, is our mood more influenced by the first thing that happens or the most recent thing that happens?
Well, the answer was clear. The earliest events were the ones that influenced subsequent mood most.
Their imaging data also suggested that earlier experiences in the game ‘switched on’ parts of the frontal brain associated with moods, rather than…
