Secret to making a good first impression

Dr Phil McAleer Voice Neurocognition Lab School of Psychology, University of Glasgow How long do you have to make a good first impression? About half a second, new research has revealed. Scientists have discovered that humans make judgements on someone's trustworthiness within the first 500 milliseconds of hearing their voice. Psychologists from universities of Glasgow, Scotland, and Princeton, US, have shown that a simple "Hello" is enough to allow most people to draw conclusions about personality type. What's more is that we are able to make these judgements without seeing the person to whom we are speaking. A study showed recordings of people saying hello and asked test subjects to rank them according to 10 pre-defined personality traits including trustworthiness, dominance, attractiveness and warmth. The study found that most of the recorded voices elicited the same response from participants and that these opinions were formed rapidly on hearing the voices for only 300-500msecs. This suggests that the tone of voice you use when saying hello directly and immediately informs the first impression of the person to whom you are speaking.