A Mind-Boggling Social Experiment Proves the Importance of First Impressions

 

If you ever wondered just how important the jurors’ first impressions of your client and witnesses are, here’s a mind-boggling social experiment, posted on Facebook.

It shows people walking right past well-known and loved family members, not recognizing a single one of them, when the family members were dressed as homeless individuals, sitting as the homeless often do, on the sidewalk by a building.

Now, if dress and body posture can fool a daughter into not recognizing her mother, or parents into not recognizing their own children, imagine how critical the attire and body language of your client and witnesses are. The jurors can easily be misled as to the credibility and sincerity of your witnesses, strangers as they all are, at the beginning of trial.

In jury debriefings, it was found, for example, that a neurosurgeon who wore a black shirt under his expensive dark suit, was labeled “Mafia Doc” by the jurors when nothing could have been farther from the truth. A handsome thirty-year-old CPA, who persisted in running his hand through his stylish somewhat long locks, was dubbed “Player” by the jurors, and his testimony deemed suspect: “Nobody who looks like that could ever be serious.”

First impressions matter. From the moment your client/witness steps into the courtroom, all juror eyes are upon them. And jurors judge everything they see according to stereotyped definitions which unfortunately hold great power. Even as the trial unfolds, failure to attend to your witnesses’ self-presentation can mar otherwise competent testimony.

Create a Trustworthy First Impression

Personal experience tells us how powerful first impressions are. However, new research from the University of California, Berkeley (Nov, 2011) reinforces our innate understanding of first impressions. The study suggests it can take just 20 seconds to detect whether a stranger is genetically inclined to being trustworthy, kind or compassionate. That’s less than a minute for you, or your witnesses, to establish a credible first impression with the jurors, one which, once established, will be very difficult to change or alter in any way.

What was it about the strangers that led the study subjects to figure out whether or not the stranger was trustworthy? Very simply, the “trusted” strangers displayed more trustworthy behaviors – more head nods, more eye contact, more smiling, more open body posture.

All of these behaviors are easily accessible to any of us. For that matter, when you’re in a relaxed, comfortable situation with friends or family, you’re likely to display these very behaviors without thinking about it.

Allow yourself to present yourself to the jurors more as who you are with friends – trusting and therefore trustworthy, and encourage your witnesses to do the same. The only caveat is that smiles must be appropriate to the situation, and when in trial, the moments where it is appropriate to smile are limited.