Impression Formation and Decision Making
A special issue of Behavioral Sciences (ISSN 2076-328X). This special issue belongs to the section "Social Psychology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2025 | Viewed by 200
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
As social beings, we often make quick, instinctive judgments about others, primarily based on their appearance, especially when we meet someone for the first time. These impressions influence our decisions about the person. Previous research has demonstrated that people can form an impression of someone within a few hundred milliseconds based on limited information, and these social impressions are remarkably consistent—people generally agree with one another. Furthermore, evidence suggests that first impressions significantly impact real-life outcomes in fields like politics, business, education, and science, highlighting how relying on superficial information rather than in-depth processing can lead to biased judgements. This Special Issue will advance the literature on impression formation and decision making, focusing on themes such as the mechanisms of impression formation, the impact of impressions on decision making and real-life outcomes, cultural and contextual factors, and technological advances. We invite submissions on these topics and contributions that expand our understanding of the complexities of impression formation and decision making.
Dr. Ana Gheorghiu
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- impression formation
- decision making
- first impressions
- person perception
- individual differences
- social perception
- heuristics
- dual-processing models
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Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: The relationship between face-based first impressions and perceptions of purity and compared to other moral violations
Authors: Kate McCulloch1*, Yoshi Steele2, and Ana I. Gheorghiu2
Affiliation: University of Suffolk
University of Portsmouth
Abstract: Morality is prioritised during first impressions of faces; however, immorality is not a homogenous concept. Violations of purity and autonomy are frequently distinguished due to distinct behavioural and emotional patterns, sometimes argued to stem from the physical disgust, sexual content, or “weirdness” of the impure scenarios. Our participants were asked to rate unfamiliar faces on social traits or the person’s likelihood to engage in an immoral or nonmoral behaviour. Across two studies, lower facial morality predicted perceived engagement in most moral violations, non-moral sexual and “weird” acts. Most purity violations (and physical disgust) were associated with male gender and all autonomy violations with ratings of high dominance. Our results suggest faces seemingly low in morality are perceived as more likely to engage in most immoral behaviours, but also in certain other socially relevant, nonmoral behaviours. Social judgements are also not homogeneous within or between theory-based categories of moral violations.
