Salience: the first impression is what counts

The salience of the stimulus is the ability to “get the attention” of the subject.. Intensity is one of the characteristics of salience. What happens is that, normally, we neutralize the other variables that determine salience and only vary the intensity. You stayed as you were, right? Keep reading and we will explain what saliency really consists of.

“You call my attention”

Surely you have ever met someone and said “I don’t know why but you catch my attention” or “that person catches my attention a lot”. Here we are not going to talk about first impressions, which possibly all readers will know are, firstly, difficult to change and, secondly but not least, based on certain indications that stand out above the rest.

This second point is where salience and the popular saying that “The first impression is what counts” Since, although in a regular meeting there are certain standard behaviors, the truth is that what captures attention, what generates the bias by which we recognize the other as an individual, are precisely these stimuli that present a certain salience.

We could define salience in a very colloquial way as that spring that springs in our understanding when we meet other people and they catch our attention. Normally, we associate certain traits, such as a biting comment, with intelligence or impertinence or arrogance.

Depending on our personal assessment of this trait, the person will be, at first, marked by it, no matter how much we resist. This happens unconsciously and automatically.

Why salience with some stimuli and not with others?

According to social psychology and, specifically, according to various studies about behavior in a current Western society, there are some factors that make us stay with these stimuli and the bias continues:

Self-fulfilling prophecy: It seems like street psychology but when a person places expectations on another, whatever their thoughts, it will be very possible that they will be fulfilled because the first impression is what counts. It is not a coincidence, but a self-fulfilling prophecy. Perceptual selection: The salience of some attributes with respect to others causes the rest of the other’s attitudes and aptitudes to be ignored, until we adapt them to our mental scheme. Even if we don’t want to accept it, we always select and focus on certain attributes while putting a blindfold on others. This sometimes gives rise to so-called expectations. Optimism: Positive moods tend to highlight the positive points of the person you have just met in a more consistent way than in other cases since this is a state of mind. of spirit that one wants to preserve.

These and many other factors contribute to why some people motivate us and we refuse contact with others.. Knowing all of these is key to not let ourselves be defeated by the idea that the first impression is what counts since many times these stimuli that stand out negatively at first can make us refuse to meet people for whom it is worth looking again. , this time, with another perspective.

Being aware of everything mentioned will allow us to expand our knowledge and not get carried away by what we automatically do, but that prevents us from discovering people as they are. We can look at them from another perspective, because there is not only one true one. Do we change our way of seeing others?

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