People often form an impression based on the information they receive first, and that impression is not easily changed, which is why this is also called the primacy effect. When you join a new company, if you are socially anxious and keep quiet during your first few days, even if you later open up and become more talkative, they may interpret it as you being forced to conform. But if you spend your first few days laughing and joking and acting familiar, then even if you do not say much later on, they may interpret it as you being conscientious at work or having something on your mind. Thus, the power of the primacy effect lies in the fact that it influences how people interpret subsequent information. That same year, he also discovered through experiments that the recency effect refers to how, when people encounter a series of things, the stimulus that appears last influences their impression. Someone may be excellent in every respect and sometimes achieve outstanding results, but have this one minor flaw: being clever and kind, handsome and debonair, yet petty-minded. Because of the way these traits are ordered, we may focus on the minor flaw and overlook the weight of the four advantages—being clever and kind, handsome and debonair—that come before “petty-minded,” as well as the fact that he is excellent in every respect and achieves outstanding results.
In daily life, we are often influenced by the primacy effect and the recency effect. Interestingly, these two effects can operate simultaneously. This raises an even more interesting question: which of the two is stronger? Before long, psychologists reached a conclusion through dedicated research. In 1959, Miller and Campbell discovered through experiments that which one is stronger depends largely on the time interval between them and the timing of the feedback and evaluation.
Translate this: Today is the annual summary meeting. You and your colleagues will give your reports one after another. If the leader evaluates you immediately after the reports, the primacy and recency effects are not clearly distinguishable. So, if you want to make an impression, it’s fine to report either first or last. But if the reports are set aside for a week before the leader evaluates them, the primacy effect has an advantage, so you should report first. If one person reports each day and the last person doesn’t get their turn until a week later, the recency effect has an advantage, so you should report last.
Later, two other psychologists further demonstrated that people with simple cognitive structures are prone to the recency effect, while those with complex cognitive structures are prone to the primacy effect. To put it simply, a simple-minded boss will praise you to the skies if you do well this time, then think you’re worthless if you do poorly next time—but praise you to the skies again the time after that. A more complex-minded boss won’t change their opinion of someone they trust over an occasional mistake. But if someone hasn’t made a good impression, even when they perform well recently, the boss will keep watching and see how things go. That’s the idea. Some scholars have also pointed out that the recency effect is stronger when interacting with people you know, while the primacy effect is stronger when interacting with strangers. By this point, clever readers may be even more puzzled, because these two effects seem to have some connection with the Peak-End Rule, though it’s hard to say exactly what it is.
I have the same concern, but I haven’t found any relevant research comparing them side by side. Still, I can share some of my thoughts. If we have to discuss the two together, then within the peak-end rule, the primacy effect can serve as an initial bias coefficient. If the first impression is positive—that is, if you like it from the beginning—this bias coefficient will amplify what is wonderful about it and minimize what is bad. If the first impression is negative—that is, if you dislike it from the beginning—this bias coefficient will amplify what is bad and minimize what is wonderful.
Overall, first impressions are important, but they are not decisive. If you cannot escape them, you can only put in greater effort later to create something so remarkable that people cannot ignore it, thereby weakening the bias coefficient. As for the memory effect, I think it corresponds to the ending experience. The last glance, the final time, and so on inherently carry extraordinary significance. This superficial personal understanding may not count as an answer, but at least it can provide an explanation for the small doubts in our hearts. If there is always an unresolved question in your mind, anyone would feel somewhat uncomfortable. So, when there is nothing reliable to believe in, people look for something to believe in. When we cannot see through the divine, we turn to names, letting a problem pretend to have an answer so that our hearts can feel at ease. Once the real answer arrives, we can simply discard the original explanation.
So, do you have any suggestions?
03 Study Notes / Mental Models