Two months ago, I caught a short glimpse of my neighbor's face, she was walking her dog. Until yesterday, that I saw her again, upclose, she looked completely different than how I had pictured her. This was in fact very weird, and I want to know if you have had a similar experience.
2007-08-24 15:17:17 · 8 answers · asked by oozahnawahtzyl 4 in Social Science ➔ Psychology
When we catch a brief glimpse of someone, we construct what they look like based on what we feel they "should" look like from past experience. For example, if most of the women we know have darker hair, we might remember that person we got a brief glimpse of as having dark hair.
In the case of people we know, we attribute certain looks to certain people. For example, if we've known a lot of mean people with blond hair and we meet someone else who is mean, we're more likely to remember them to have blonder hair than they actually do.
2007-08-24 15:28:55 · answer #1 · answered by Shrieking Panda 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yes, I have had this experience. The reason: we form our memories based upon word pictures we create. Sometimes these word pictures are not accurate, especially if we have onlt seen things briefly. Of course, everyone's ability in this area is different. But that is why eye witness accounts at trials can be so inaccurate. See, I think her name is, Elizabeth Loftus on this matter. She does research on memory and has testified at many trials, often for the defense, against eye witness accounts.
2007-08-24 15:26:23 · answer #2 · answered by cavassi 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
YES! I was just talking about this the other day. When I was a kid we lived with my grandparents while my dad was overseas. When he came back we got stationed somewhere else and didn't see my grandparents for about 10 years. I remembered my grandmother as this really big woman. In reality she is about 5' flat and maybe 100 pounds. I couldn't believe it when I saw her.
2007-08-24 17:16:08 · answer #3 · answered by beth l 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I once saw what I thought was a voluptuous woman from about a half block away. But when I approached, I noticed that it was man. The chiseled jawline, Adam's apple and large hands and feet were a gave it away. And I walked away without saying a word.
2007-08-24 15:28:52 · answer #4 · answered by Subconsciousless 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yeah, like someone looks a certain way on a pic on the internet but in person they're like wayyyyy different.
2007-08-24 15:37:54 · answer #5 · answered by arielz10 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Open minded people are not so inclined to be strongly influenced by first impressions as some others are
2007-08-24 15:22:36 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yeah but they'd been in a car accident so I guess that explained the differences.
2007-08-24 15:22:40 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
yes
2007-08-24 15:25:35 · answer #8 · answered by contrabandamanda 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋