Here’s why snap judgments tend to be wrong

First impressions or judgments when entering a new place, or just looking at a new image or picture, are often wrong due to peoples’ tendency to focus on outliers. That’s the main finding of a new study just released by Duke University that assessed the accuracy of snap decisions and observations.

“Our attention is drawn to outliers,” says lead study author Mel W. Khaw, a postdoctoral research associate at Duke. “We tend to overestimate people who stand out in a crowd.” 

Two experiments, one involving a grid of various peoples’ faces and another featuring outdoor images, produced the same results. When participants were given just a second to look at those images, they consistently made inaccurate assessments by focusing on outliers. In most cases, the number of said outliers was overestimated.

For example, the first experiment asked subjects to glance at a grid of various faces for a single second and estimate the number of men and women being shown. Whenever fewer female images were present, however, subjects would overestimate the number of women. Moreover, eye-tracking revealed that subjects tended to focus their attention on whichever group was the minority (outlier).

It makes some sense on an evolutionary level that our minds would prioritize items, people, or landscapes that stand out. After all, hundreds of years ago different, unfamiliar predators or areas were dangerous more often than not. Nowadays, though, this behavioral tendency leads to more errors than anything else.

“We should recognize that our visual system is set up to orient ourselves towards some types of information more than others,” adds study co-author and Duke psychologist Scott Huettel. “People form an initial impression very quickly, and that impression biases where we look next.”

These findings extend beyond facial and gender recognition. The second experiment included a series of images depicting either nature or an indoor setting. Once again, subjects consistently overestimated the outliers after a one-second look. If a grid of 12 images showed two pictures of a waterfall, participants would, on average, say they saw three waterfalls. 

“That fact that this occurs with indoor and outdoor scenes suggests that this doesn’t represent a social bias,” Huettel explains. “It really has to do with a fundamental feature of human perception.”

A single second is a tall order when it comes to surveying a particular scene, but these findings still tell us a lot about how our minds and eyes work on a moment-to-moment basis. All in all, study authors say we should all be a little more wary of our own snap judgments or quick assessments. It’s possible you’re not seeing everything as clearly as you think.

“When human beings walk into a social situation, we immediately try to suss out the setting,” notes study co-author and economist Rachel Kranton. “We scan to see who’s there and how we fit in – that’s a common human experience. It’s one I’ve experienced many times.”

“Snap judgments are powerful,” Huettel concludes. “But they’re not perfect.”

The full study can be found here, published in Cognition.