Acknowledgement

First, we would like to express my sincere gratitude to Miss Pang Chia Yee for her

exemplary guidance, monitoring and constant encouragement throughout the course of

this thesis and who gave us the precious opportunity to do this project. This project had

led us to do a lot of research and we could learn more about the topic that we were

doing, which is first impression. We felt really grateful to Miss. Pang about this.

Furthermore, we would like to thank all the participants and models involved in this

study. Their time and willingness was very much appreciated in order to complete the

survey forms. We would also like to thank all those who cooperated and filled up the

survey forms. In the other hand, we also needed to preserve the anonymity of the

surveyors. This survey would not be done without their help. At last, we would like to

thank all of our group members for their cooperation, hardworking attitude and making

an all-out effort to complete this project.

1

Table of Contents

Acknowledgement………………...…………………………………….……………..…1

Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………2

ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………....3

INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………......……....4

METHOD…………………………………………………………………...……..…..5-8

Participants……………………………………………………………………….5

Materials /Apparatus……………………………………………………………..6

Procedure…………………………………………………………………........7-8

RESULTS…………………………………………………………………………….9-13

DISCUSSION……………………………………………………………………….14-15

REFERENCES……………………………………………………...………………….16

APPENDICES………………………………………………………..…………......17-23

Appendix A: Questionnaire……………………………………..…………18-21

Appendix B : The answers……..……………………………..……………22-23

2

Abstract

The first impression towards a stranger is variable and the purpose of this experiment is to

determine the accuracy of first impression on a stranger. This experiment is very important

because people nowadays always judge a person based on their first impression, which is

always wrong. An experiment was conducted with 120 survey forms in order to prove that

our hypothesis is correct. The questionnaire contains of 4 male and 4 female models in

different appearances and surveyors have to note down their first impression towards them

and tick the answers accordingly. There are two groups of participant; both male and female

participants will answer the survey forms with few options related to the personality and

family background of the models. The results are then analyzed and the results showed that

there are 46.67% of people thinking that the first impression is accurate while the other

53.33% thinks that it is inaccurate. However, the average results for the people, who thinks

that first impression is accurate is just 40.27%, slightly higher than the others who does not,

which gets a result of 37.59%, the difference is very small and no matter what, these results

are below 50%. Therefore, it is concluded that the first impression on females’ and males

appearances is inaccurate.

3

Introduction

In this Social Psychology research project, the main objective is to conduct a simple social

psychology research experiment. This experiment is about the undertaking of relationships

based on first impressions. This project is divided into two parts. Part one is about conducting

the research by creating a hypothesis, research method, execute, collect and analyze data.

Then write a research report from all the data that has been collected. Then, the other part is a

group presentation about our research and data collected. The theme of our project is first

impression. Our title of this research is the first impression that you give on female and male.

In my opinion, you never get a second chance to make a first impression, so I believe that

first impression on the appearance is considerably inaccurate. The above-mentioned opinion

does not apply to every people, some of them believe that first impression is correct. Now,

we take action to make sure that first impression is inaccurate. We try to conduct an

experiment to ascertain effect. Researches have shown that men and women are able to judge

based on their first impressions whether their potential mate is a sinner man or hopelessly

depend on their feelings. As we knew that a picture is worth a thousand words, so choosing

different types of ‘picture’ will affect people to make their first impression. On the other way,

social measured impressions on a variety of traits, including attractiveness, aggressiveness,

like ability, and trustworthiness, the trait inference that predicted the election outcomes was

ability. So, we are trying to do a survey proving that the first impression based on a person’s

appearance is inaccurate.

4

Methods: -

Participants

All the participants who took part in our survey are from Taylor’s University while all the

volunteered models were not the students from Taylor’s University. This was to prevent the

participants from knowing the models because it might affect the final results.

There were a total number of 120 participants and 60 of them are males and the other 60 are

females (Shown in Figure 1). This helped to see whether was there any difference in the

accuracy of first impression between males and females. Their ages are from 15-26 year-old

and most of the participants are in 19-22 year-old. (Shown in Figure 2)

Male Female0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Number of Participants

Figure 1

5

15-18 19-22 23-260

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

MALEFEMALE

Ages of Participants

Materials and Apparatus

Firstly, photos of 8 models were captured for the questionnaire. The photos of the

models consist of 4 males and 4 females, which were then attached on the questionnaire

together with the questions (Shown in Appendix A). 120 sets of questionnaire were

printed out after getting approval from the tutor. Then, the questionnaires were

distributed around Taylor’s University to be filled in by volunteered participants in

order to obtain their gender, age, estimation about model age and also the first

impression towards the models. Answers for the ages and characteristics about the

models were also prepared for comparing and matching with the data gathered from

participants (Shown in Appendix B).

Figure 2

6

Procedures:

1. Conforming the topic

Several meetings were conducted to confirm the topic. The topic “first impression” was

finally been chosen as the topic of this research assignment. This was because people

nowadays always judge people by only looking at their appearances.

2. Planning the experiment

The experiment was then planned accordingly to our research topic. Some researches

about the topic were also being done before conducting the experiment. A hypothesis

was formed in order to have a basic idea about the predicted outcomes. And,

questionnaire was set to complete the research.

3. Finding models for the research

4 males and 4 females were chose to be the models of the research. Then, their photos

would be taken and attached on the questionnaires. Aim and procedures of the research

assignment should be explained to the models. And, permissions were also needed from

all the human models to show that they were fully volunteered. All the models chosen

are not from Taylor’s University in order to minimize the chances for participants to

recognize the models.

4. Setting the questionnaire

The questionnaire was constructed and aimed to test the accuracy of the first impression

on males’ and females’ appearances. 19 questions were set for each questionnaire and

attached with the pictures of all the models. After setting the questions, 120 sets of

questionnaire were printed out and distributed to students around Taylor’s University.

(Please refer to Appendix 1 for the Survey Questionnaire)

5. Distributing the questionnaires

All the questionnaires were distributed around the university such as classrooms, student

life center, library and restaurants. Since there were 5 members, so around 25 sets of

questionnaire were gave to each member in order to reduce the work done and save up

the time taken.

7

6. Analyzing the data

The questionnaires were then collected. And, all the data were calculated, interpreted and

analyzed. The data gathered should be private and confidential and would not be showed

to anyone other than the group member and lecturer.

7. Discussing the results

The final results would then be compared with the hypothesis to see whether the

outcomes are match with the hypothesis or not. After that, discussion would be made

based on the results gathered.

8

Results

The results were presented in Table 1 below with the number of participants of each gender

and the percentages of accuracy for the first impression based on appearances. Besides,

Figure 4 showed the number of participants in different genders and thinking about first

impression.

The way of reading the data was showed in Figure 3 below. From the top, the gender of the

participants came first and followed by whether they think first impression is accurate or not.

Then, the second row was the number of participants and the last row was the average

percentages of their accuracy about the first impression.

Male (Yes)

27

38.36%

Male (No)

33

38.41%

Female (Yes)

29

42.17%

Female (No)

31

36.76%

Average percentage of the accuracy

Male (Yes)9999%

Number of participants

Yes = People who think the 1st impressions is accurateNo = People who think the 1st impression is inaccurate

Sex

Figure 3

Table 1

9

Number of Participants

Male (think first impression is accurate)Male (think first impression is inaccurate)Female (think first impression is accurate)Female (think first impression is inaccurate)

All the data were then converted into bar chart, which the colored bars represented the male

and female participants and the y-axis represented the accuracy of first impression in

percentages (%). (Shown in Figure 5)

Think that 1st impression is

accurate

Think that 1st impression is

inaccurate

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

MaleFemale

Accuracy of First Impression, (%)

Figure 4

Figure 510

Without missing any data, male participants who think that first impression is accurate only got 38.36% out of 100% correct in the survey while 38.41% for those male participants who think the first impression is inaccurate. Whereas, the female participants who believed that first impression is accurate had scored the highest percentage, which is 42.17%. This also meant that females are more accurate in judging people by just referring to their appearances. On the other hand, female participants who not believed in first impression got 36.76%. As a result, there are only few participants out of 120 participants managed to past the survey, which is above 50%. Most of the participants got the percentage of below 50% and the overall percentages for both male and female also fell below 50%. This had proven that the hypothesis stated at the beginning of this research is acceptable.

Figures 6-9 showed the percentages of each model got by 4 groups of participants and Figure 10 showed the average percentages got by all the participants.

MODEL A MODEL B MODEL C MODEL D MODEL E MODEL F MODEL G MODEL H0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Male Participants (First Impression is accurate) in %

Series 1

Figure 6

11

MODEL A MODEL B MODEL C MODEL D MODEL E MODEL F MODEL G MODEL H0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Male Participants (First Impression is inaccurate) in %

Series 1

MODEL A MODEL B MODEL C MODEL D MODEL E MODEL F MODEL G MODEL H0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Female Participants (First Impression is accurate) in %

Series 1

Figure 7

Figure 8

12

MODEL A MODEL B MODEL C MODEL D MODEL E MODEL F MODEL G MODEL H0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Female Participants (First Impression is inaccurate) in %

Series 1

MODEL A MODEL B MODEL C MODEL D MODEL E MODEL F MODEL G MODEL H0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Averages percentages got by all the participants (%)

Series 1

Figure 10

Figure 9

13

Discussion

Our questionnaires were designed to measure the accuracy of first impression on females’

and males’ appearances among the students in Taylor’s University. So, we stated a

hypothesis at the beginning of this research assignment to give a basic idea of our predicted

results. The hypothesis we formed is the first impression on females’ and males’ appearances

is inaccurate and it has been accepted based on our results obtained.

As what we can see from the results, there were 46.67% of participants think that the first

impression is accurate. This group of people thought that they could interpret people via only

the appearances correctly. But, unfortunately they only got an average of 40.27% in the test.

Although they got a higher percentage in the test compared to those people who said first

impression is inaccurate, which is 37.59%. But, they still not exceeding the percentage of

50%, which stands for at least half of the models’ characteristics were guessed correctly. In

addition, the percentages of the survey had proven that their thought of first impression is

always correct was wrong. This showed that first impression based on appearances is

inaccurate. Therefore, people should not interpret others by just looking at their appearances.

Other than that, some ethical issues should be taken into consideration while doing this

research assignment. First and the most important one, all the participants must be

volunteered to take part in our research. For instance, we must explain to the models about

the reason of taking their personal photos and information. And, they have to be informed

about the procedures as well. Besides, participants should be ensured that they are avoided

from physical and mental discomforts. They should be protected from being embarrassed,

offended or frightened during our survey. Furthermore, all the participants would have the

right to withdraw anytime without having any penalty.

Moreover, the data collected during the survey should be kept privately. For example, the

characteristics that the participants felt about the models should not be leaked out. This will

eventually hurt the feeling of the models. So, all the privacies of participants and data

gathered should be in private and confidential. As many as eight models were included in the

survey for a more accurate result. However, this has lead to a problem for the surveyors as

there are too many questions to answer and would take up a lot of their time.

14

Not only that, the result analyzed also creates a practical implication in real life. People living

in this tangible world always judge one person based on his or her appearance without

knowing him or her in depth. Therefore appearance tells everything and is very important as

this might lead to prejudice. The best example relating to the experiment would be job

employing. Most of the time, the employer and job applicant would be totally stranger and

therefore the first impression of the job applicant towards the employer is very important

because the employer might despise based on the appearance. This should not happen as the

result analyzed in this experiment has shown that the first impression on one’s appearance is

inaccurate.

Last but not least, first impression is something that occurs every single day when you meet

with strangers around you. You will always have a thought in your mind on the person you

saw and judging them immediately, which the thought is called first impression. However,

based on the experiment we conducted, it is proved that the first impression is always wrong.

A person should not be judged based on the appearance only but should also include the

personality, attitude and others.

15

Reference Lists

OWL (1995-2014) Purdue Online Writing Lab: Welcome to Purdue OWL. Retrieved

from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

 Mickey S. Schafer (1992-2013) Writing in Psychology/Writing the Results Section

Retrieved from http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/msscha/psych/report_results.html

Hoss, S. (2009, July 10). First impression and your appearance: Common myths and

misconceptions. Retrieved from http://voices.yahoo.com/first-impressions-

appearance-common-myths-3719868.html

Hogg, M.A. & Vaughan, G.M. (2005). Social Psychology. (4th Ed.). England: Pearson

Education Limited.

Myers, D.G. (2007). Exploring Social Psychology. (4th Ed.). NewYork: McGraw Hill

Companies Inc.

Myers, D.G. (2008). Social Psychology. (9th Ed.). McGraw Hill Companies, Inc.

16

Appendix A

17

18

19

20

21

Appendix B

Answers:

Model A: 19-22 Lazy Nerdy Joker From rich family

Model B: 23-26 Hard-Working Friendly Playful From rich family

Model C: 19-22 Friendly Nerdy Joker From average family

Model D: 19-22 Friendly Sporty Playful From average family

Model E: 19-22 Hard-working Friendly Playful From average family

Model F:

22

19-22 Lazy Friendly Playful From average family

Model G: 19-22 Hard-working Sporty Playful From average family

Model H: 19-22 Hard-working Friendly Boring From rich family

23