Extant research suggests that people seem deceitful and difficult to understand when their verbal behavior is inconsistent with their nonverbal behavior. Building on this literature, we examined the impact of behavioral coherence on impression formation: We expected people to be likeable to the extent that their verbal and nonverbal behavior was consistent (i.e., coherent). In two studies, part...

Individuals often receive judgements from others based on their clothing and their posture. While both of these factors have been found to influence judgements of competency independently, their relative importance in impression formation is yet to be investigated. We address this by examining interactive effects of posture and clothing on four competency measures: confidence, professionalism, ...

How does mood affect the way we learn about, judge, and remember characteristics of other people? This study looked at the effects of mood on impression formation and person memory. Realistic person descriptions containing positive and negative details were presented to subjects experiencing a manipulated happy or sad mood. Next, impression-formation judgments were obtained, and subjects' recal...

Neural correlates involved in the formation of negative impression from face were investigated using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging and a partial conditioning paradigm. Eighteen normal volunteers underwent imaging while they viewed the faces of two unfamiliar individuals: one individual's face was partially accompanied by negative emotion but the other's was not. After the ...