First Impressions

In this course, we explore the psychology of attribution—the methods our brain use to understand others—and how others use their brains to understand us. Throughout, we build a deep understanding of how we think of others compared to ourselves and learn behavioral tips and tricks that can be used to make a great first impression. This course is separated into two parts. In the first half, we review the mechanisms and limitations of our attribution system, from the individual level (person perception and evaluation) to the perception and evaluation of social groups. In the second half, we examine what happens when we misattribute, or assume things about people that are not true, with a focus on the psychological shortcuts and biases that impair rational evaluations.