First impressions

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Usually I don’t care much for reality shows on TV, but lately I have been watching one that is called ‘Style by Jury’. In this show candidates are confronted with the first impression they make on people they meet, and then coached toward presenting themselves to the world differently.
Watching this show, it has occurred to me that it shows humanity from its most superficial side: it really is just the looks that seem to make the difference. The uniformly white smile, the professional make-up, the new (no doubt expensive) hair-do, a new wardrobe, and the help of a coach ~ and voila! After a week is the ‘new’ first impression a totally different experience for the person who by now has received the make-over.

Research suggest that we indeed do form our first impressions mostly on looks ~ and we do it fast to boot! In an average of 10 seconds we decide whether we would like to get further acquainted with this person we just met, or if we would rather not.

Although our first impressions can be wrong; more often they seem to be surprisingly accurate. It makes me think whether we might just look beyond the looks at something entirely different...
That in turn makes me wonder to what extend we are really aware what is happening when we meet somebody new and form our ‘first impression’; and how we do it.

Of course there are things that can be ‘read’ from the way a person dresses, the way they carry themselves, and how they appear to take care of themselves. After all, if a person is interested in taking care of themselves, chances are they may be interested in the well-being of other people. And it always makes us feel good when we meet someone who is truly interested in us. In who we are. In what we hope to achieve...

And then there is the energy package that we are, which is totally independent from our ‘looks’, or the ‘wrapping’.

I know very few people who look at the energy package the person they meet is, and actually are aware of what that package entails. For most of us it doesn’t get a whole lot beyond ‘being comfortable with a person’, or sensing that ‘we don’t seem to have a lot in common’...
And maybe that is all we need to know.

Which brings me to another aspect of the reality show that started me thinking in the first place. Is one week really sufficient to not only change the style of a person, but also change the energy package they are? Is changing the ‘wrapper’ really enough to change the first impressions we make?
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