Attractive appearances can give off a good feeling while facing any individual for the first time. Dion, Berscheid and Walster suggested individual with attractive face will be perceived differently as having a happier and more successful life than the less attractive one. Having an attractive face must have a level of confidence to show their advantage and is easier to get accepted by the people who they meet for the first time. Unfortunately having an ugly face leads such individual to have a character of shy and shame about their appearance.
Physique
In addition to a person’s face we may also attend to their physique. Although person’s body has little to do with their personality, we generally presume that physique is in connection with person’s personality due to stereotype. We may believe that thin people are nervous, fat people are clumsy and muscular people are aggressive. I discovered one interesting issue is that all staff employed in “Kowloon Watch Company” were in stocky and fat body shape. Having had a chance to talk to the boss of “Kowloon Watch Company”, he explained that he perceive that shape of people are more loyal and trustful.
Hair style and clothing
Hair style and clothing are also the factors we may attend to. Interestingly, hair style and clothing reflect different signals varied on time. It is because different culture and different points in time has different perception on hair style and clothing. Just like in Hong Kong, people who had gold-dyed hair in 1980s are perceived to be triad members or bad guys. Nowadays, colour-dyed hair becomes a prevailing trend among all people in Hong Kong.
Voice
Voice can convey meaningful message about each individual’s personality and background about their politeness, education level and intelligence. Impression can be formed in the light of softness or hardness of a person’s voice, the intonation and the speed with which they speak. A person who speaks rapidly may be perceived to be of a nervous disposition while a person who speaks in a slower, more deliberate voice may be perceived to be confident and assured. Riggio and Friedman suggest that “individuals who are skilled communicators of posed emotions tend to be more successful deceivers.” In this case, person who has a voice with self-confidence and fluent verbalism may play an important role in some deception task. Some of person who is attracted by such voice performs some abnormal behavior. For instance, teenager easily influences by some gangster through their speech on how heroic they confront with police or the other. Afterwards such influenced teenagers will be mind controlled by gangster to commit illegal activities. On the other hand, we can say that the reason of teenager joining the gangster is that such teenager needs more protection from gangster and stand out effectively among the others.
Non-verbal communication
Other than verbal communication, non-verbal communication is also important factor we may attend to.
Gesture
Firstly, Gestures are often used to illustrate certain aspects of speech or, in some cases, as alternatives to speech. Normally, a body movement is one of substitute to reinforce the tone of speech but rude body movement can disrupt the atmosphere during the communication with the others. For example, every parent always points directly at their children who they want to instruct. Such additional gesture can force their children to stop their inappropriate behavior immediately rather than just a verbal instruction.
Posture
Secondly, observation of a person’s posture can be used to understand how the person may be feeling and what sort of person the others appear to be. It can be used as a way of signaling to others whether we are likely to be receptive to an advance from another person or whether we look as though we do not want to be disturbed. For example, during a job interview, interviewee always leans forward intently while interviewer always slouches in her chair. This example suggests that interviewee is more interested in what the interviewer has to say.
Interpersonal Distance
Thirdly, interpersonal distance is one of the notions in non-verbal communication. If we meet a person for the first time, we will tend to interact at a much greater interpersonal distance than we meet a close friend. It is because people require a certain level of personal space in order to feel comfortable.
Eye contact
Fourthly, eye contact is one of the most important regulators in any interaction we make with others. During the conversation, we use eye contact to convey message to the others and force the listener pay more attention on speaker. The speaker will assure whether the listener understand the contents in the speech or not. Eye contact is a signal to invite the listener to response. But too much eye contact is considered rude during the meeting. If you wear reflective sunglasses during a conversation, I am sure the communication is much more difficult.
Smile
Finally, smile is also a significant response for us to adjust a person. Smile is one of the powerful weapons in any meeting because it can give a feeling of comfort to the others and make the others to accept you quickly with faithfulness. In this case, environmental influences play an important role on such person who has good communication skills with smile. We will presume that person has a naturally happy mind and grow up in a warm family that can provide a good education on such person. But some experienced deceivers are used social skills to get advantage from the other. For example, salespeople may be more practiced or experienced at telling similar lies by using social skills. Social skills have an ability to influence people final decision effectively.
Attribution
Another important aspect of the perception of others is concerned with how we attribute a cause to an individual’s bebaviour and how we try to understand the motives behind an individual’s actions. For example, a police officer may attribute a speeding driver as a bad person because he likes to do that. This is so call the internal attribution. On the other, the driver speeds up his car maybe due to hurrying to a hospital to visit his mother who is in critical situation, that is, external attribution. Different attribution gives us different perception of others.
Conclusion
Through our observation of others’ facial appearance, physique, hair style, clothing, voice and other non-verbal communication factors, we may now have a brief idea on one’s education level and even one’s personalities. We should also be reminded that we have a tendency to use stereotypes and prejudice in adjusting a person. Therefore, if we are trying to criticize a person who meets at the first, please stop and think deeply whether we have such stereotypes and prejudices.
