ABC News reminds us of the importance of first impressions.
Lee Dye writes (excerpt):
If two people take an immediate liking to each other, the relationship will most likely grow over time. But if one of them is cool to the other, it’s probably not going to work.
That doesn’t mean, of course, that subsequent developments won’t alter the relationship, possibly even turning love into hate, but it does underscore the value of those first critical minutes.
“It happens so rapidly it’s amazing,” says Michael Sunnafrank, a professor of communications at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, and lead author of a report on the research published in a recent issue of the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. Sunnafrank and Artemio Ramirez Jr., assistant professor of communication at Ohio State University in Columbus, studied 164 college freshmen over a nine-week period.