{"id":7841,"date":"2011-01-21T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2011-01-21T16:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/?p=7841"},"modified":"2013-07-18T00:55:29","modified_gmt":"2013-07-18T07:55:29","slug":"changing-perception-is-difficult-after-first-impression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/changing-perception-is-difficult-after-first-impression\/","title":{"rendered":"After First Impressions, Changing Perceptions is Difficult"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s some interesting new insight into the human mind: first perceptions are even harder to overcome<\/a> than most people had realized. According to research conducted on an international scale, our first impression of a person, place or idea becomes our brain\u2019s default perception. If we later learn information that contradicts that perception, our brain categorizes it as an exception, rather than using the information to alter the rule. Specifically, we associate the exception with the context of that new information; all other contexts get the \u2018default\u2019 association. Say, for example, your first impression of a new coworker is negative, but you end up having a pleasant conversation when you run into him or her at the gym and change your mind. In the context of the gym, you\u2019ll see the person more positively, but anywhere else (be it work, or even a new environment such as a restaurant), you\u2019ll still be guided by your first impression.<\/p>\n

This insight is especially interesting for therapists and counselors who help clients overcome phobias, said lead author Bertram Gawronski. \u201cIf someone with phobic reactions to spiders is seeking help from a psychologist, the therapy will be much more successful if it occurs in multiple different contexts rather than just in the psychologist\u2019s office.\u201d A similar pattern may be relevant for people struggling with profound anxiety and even PTSD. Learning healthy coping strategies in the therapist\u2019s office can be helpful, but the idea of concept-based perception may explain why people sometimes feel less confident in their ability to apply those strategies in their daily life.<\/p>\n

Marriage and family therapists can also gain insight from this research. It\u2019s not uncommon for struggling couples to try and \u2018fix\u2019 their problems by taking a trip, moving into a new home, or adopting a new pet. It could be that by doing this, they\u2019re trying to create a new context with a new dynamic, one that will \u2018stick.\u2019 But it\u2019s still the exception, not the rule. So to really heal, we need to override and rewrite the default by dismantling it and replacing it with something healthier. It\u2019s certainly possible, but it takes more time and patience than simply trying something new does.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here?s some interesting new insight into the human mind: first perceptions are even harder to overcome than most people had realized. According to research conducted on an international scale, our first impression of a person, place or idea becomes our brain?s default perception. If we later learn information that contradicts that perception, our brain categorizes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[229,31,404,226,25,41,424],"class_list":["post-7841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-therapy-news","tag-anxiety-psychotherapy-issues-2","tag-psychotherapy-practice","tag-phobias","tag-posttraumatic-stress","tag-psychotherapy-issues","tag-marriage-counseling-relationships","tag-workplace-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7841\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}