First impressions of classmates

Abstract

A freshman class of 285 female students was divided into 11 groups, and each member evaluated the appearance and behavior of her groupmates. By analyzing 9,076 responses into 49 subtopics and classifying these under 5 categories, it was found that "responses of a psychological nature were most frequent, with grooming second, physical characteristics third, clothing fourth, and intelligence fifth." These students were more favorable than unfavorable or neutral in their evaluations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)