The Impressionist

Impression! What does it mean?
What does it tell others about you?
Does it give glimpses of your behavior to people around you?
The adage, ‘First impression is the last impression’, is widely acknowledged, but have you ever questioned its veracity?

Not long ago, three colleagues were animatedly discussing whether first impression is indeed the last impression. One said, “I don’t believe it!” To this the other colleague replied “Well, it sounds correct in the context of an interview”. The third colleague analyzed both statements and cautiously said “I think it is impossible to judge a person in entirety after the very first meeting”. It’s quite subjective, isn’t it? This business of forming impressions! As far are interviews are concerned, most people are at their best behavior--which is often artificial. In this case your impression on the prospective employer might differ from the one impressed on people who’ve known you for quite some time.

Suppose you are a hard-working guy, but caught in a wrong job--in this case your behavior may change for the worse. This will have a domino effect, in that it will certainly lead to a change in your established impression. Adding up, impressions based on initial interactions may change in due course depending on one’s reactions to different situations that arise in life. Also impression is much more different from what you are.

Let’s delve into the mechanics of impression using some logical arguments. In mathematics / economics we often check proportionality between two events: say,“A is dependent on B”. Similarly, the quantity ‘Impression’ is dependent on several factors that influence your behavior.

Let’s say,
I=Impression
B=Behavior
r=Responsibility
p=Personality
w=Work
k=Knowledge
o=Others

If you notice, only the factors for impression and behavior are in capital, while all the other factors are in small caps. This is because behavior is the most important aspect in determining an impression; all the other factors are responsible in determining behavior.

Mathematically the relationship between these factors can be expressed as shown below:

I α B {I is dependent on B}

B is directly, as well as indirectly, dependent on r, p, w, k, o. This means any change that takes place in all/any of these factors will ultimately determine the behavior. But since I is directly related to B, the outcome, that is impression, is determined by Behavior. No one tries to see what happens behind the screens i.e. the events that shaped B.

I summary, one can only say, “Never judge someone by their behavior alone, because someone else might be judging you as well”. If at all, judge a person’s capability after analyzing situations they are going through and after interacting with them more than once.

P.S: Thanks Amit for editing the article.