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A neural mechanism of first impressions

Nature Neuroscience volume 12, pages 508–514 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Evaluating social others requires processing complex information. Nevertheless, we can rapidly form an opinion of an individual during an initial encounter. Moreover, people can vary in these opinions, even though the same information is provided. We investigated the brain mechanisms that give rise to the impressions that are formed on meeting a new person. Neuroimaging revealed that responses in the amygdala and the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) were stronger while encoding social information that was consistent, relative to inconsistent, with subsequent evaluations. In addition, these responses scaled parametrically with the strength of evaluations. These findings provide evidence for encoding differences on the basis of subsequent evaluations, suggesting that the amygdala and PCC are important for forming first impressions.

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Figure 1: An example of a person profile.
Figure 2: Brain regions demonstrating the difference in evaluation effect out of regions broadly engaged in the impression-formation task.
Figure 3: Brain regions revealed by the evaluation-relevant versus evaluation-irrelevant contrast.
Figure 4: BOLD signal in PCC and amygdala correlates with strength of evaluation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank I. Levy and D. Amodio for fruitful discussions and comments, C. Raio for assistance with data collection, and K. Sanzenbach and the Center for Brain Imaging at New York University for technical assistance. This study was funded by a Seaver Foundation grant to the Center for Brain Imaging, a James S. McDonnell Foundation grant to E.A.P. and a Fulbright award to D.S.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, New York, USA

    Daniela Schiller & Elizabeth A Phelps

  2. Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York, USA

    Daniela Schiller, Jonathan B Freeman, James S Uleman & Elizabeth A Phelps

  3. Department of Psychology, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA

    Jonathan B Freeman

  4. Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Jason P Mitchell

Authors
  1. Daniela Schiller
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  3. Jason P Mitchell
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Contributions

D.S. designed the experiments, collected and analyzed data, interpreted the data, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. J.B.F. contributed to data collection, analysis and interpretation, and the final version of the manuscript. J.P.M., J.S.U. and E.A.P. contributed to experimental design, data interpretation and the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Daniela Schiller or Elizabeth A Phelps.

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Schiller, D., Freeman, J., Mitchell, J. et al. A neural mechanism of first impressions. Nat Neurosci 12, 508–514 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2278

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