Gus Cooney

Feb 14, 2024 | hbr.org | Erica B. Boothby |Gus Cooney |Adam Mastroianni |Andrew G Reece |Gillian M. Sandstrom

Initial conversations can have an outsized impact on how relationships develop over time. Naturally, people often dwell on the impressions they might have made the minute they finish speaking with someone for the first time: “Did they like me or were they just being polite?” “Was my pitch funny or offensive?” “Are they deep in thought or deeply bored?” In our research in psychology, we wondered whether these worries might loom too large.