CHAPTER 2 First Impressions Peeking at the Neural Underpinnings

The chapters in this book provide considerable insight as to the sources of information that contribute to first impressions, the cognitive and mental processes that comprise first impressions, how first impressions affect interpersonal interactions, as well the ways in which we use first impressions in our social world. In this chapter, we examine insights from social and cognitive neuroscience to address the question of the neural underpinnings of first impressions. We define first impressions as the initial perception and formation of thoughts about another. Our overarching goal is to sketch how the process of forming a first impression occurs at the neural level. We do so in a temporally linear fashion for the sake of simplicity while recognizing that some of the processes we discuss might occur concurrently. We begin with the initial perception of a person, a face, or an object from the environment. Although initial perception can occur by means of input from all five senses, it usually takes place via vision and/or hearing. We then move to the initial, most primitive, subcortical structures (e.g., the amygdala), where this information is first filtered and formed into what