If there's no rush, take your time
By Duke University
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But according to a new study, sleeping on it can help us
avoid judging a book solely by its cover.
In research published on September 9 in the Journal
of Experimental Psychology: General, a team of researchers at Duke
University started with an age-old question: Is it better to
start strong with a good first impression, or end on a good note?
To shed some light on the issue, they did a study involving
an imaginary garage sale. In a series of experiments conducted online, the
researchers asked participants to look through virtual boxes of unwanted goods
for items to include in the sale.
Most of the items inside each box weren’t worth much – an old alarm clock, for example, or a potted plant. A few special objects, like a nice lamp or a teddy bear, were worth more.
The participants earned real cash based on the boxes they
chose, so they were motivated to figure out which boxes were most valuable.
Unbeknown to the participants, however, the combined total
value of the 20 items in each box was the same. It was the sequence of the
“junk” versus the “gems” that varied.
In some of the boxes, all the valuable items were on top, so
as the participants unpacked the box they spotted those items first. Other
boxes had their valuable items clustered in the middle or at the bottom, and in
some boxes they were intermixed.
After the participants had opened the different boxes, the
researchers asked them to estimate the value of each one and choose their
favorites. Some participants judged the boxes immediately, but others “slept on
it” and decided after an overnight delay.
A pattern quickly emerged: When the participants had to make
a decision right away, they tended to remember and judge boxes not by the
entirety of their contents, but rather by the first few items they came across.
“We found that people are strongly biased by first impressions,” said lead author Allie Sinclair, who did the research as part of her Ph.D. in the lab of Dr. Alison Adcock, a Duke professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences.
Snap Judgments vs. Deliberate Decisions
Over and over again, the participants went for boxes with
valuable items on top. When they spotted these “treasures” first before the
low-priced items, they were more likely to pick that box than if they had seen
the cheap stuff first.
Not only did the participants consistently go for the boxes
that “started strong” over the others, they also tended to overestimate their
value – guessing they were worth 10% more money than they actually were.
This is an example of a psychological phenomenon
called primacy bias, said Sinclair, who is now a
postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.
When it comes to forming an overall opinion of something, it
turns out we are unduly influenced by the first information we encounter, even
when new facts come to light.
In the case of the garage sale experiment, this bias
prevented participants from comparing the boxes rationally, and even led them
to believe that some boxes were more valuable than they really were. At the
same time, ironically, they were less able to recall specifics when asked which
items in these preferred boxes were the “treasures.”
The Benefits of “Sleeping on It”
However, participants who weren’t asked to decide until the
next day were less likely to fall into these traps.
“They made more rational choices, equally favoring boxes
with clusters of valuable items at the beginning, middle, or end,” Sinclair
said.
Participants who “slept on it” no longer overwhelmingly
preferred the boxes that made a good first impression. Boxes that saved the
best for last were weighted equally favorably in their mental calculus.
“Judging from first impressions may actually be a good thing for choices in the moment,” Adcock said. Say you’re watching the opening scene of a movie or skimming the first few pages of a book. Quick snap judgments based on these initial impressions can help us decide when it might be better to move on before we invest too much time and effort.
But when it comes to situations with longer-term stakes –
for example, going back to a restaurant, or hiring or dating, – “there’s wisdom
in the idea of ‘sleeping on it’ before making a decision,” Sinclair said.
“This is an exciting first look at how our brains summarize
a rewarding experience,” Adcock added. “When it’s over, our brain knits it all
together in memory to help us make better choices – and that neat trick happens
overnight.”
Reference: “First impressions or good endings? Preferences
depend on when you ask.” by Alyssa H. Sinclair, Yuxi C. Wang and R. Alison
Adcock, 9 September 2024, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
DOI: 10.1037/xge0001638
This research was supported by a Duke University Duke Health
Scholars Award to Alison Adcock.