Whenever you meet people, you paint pictures in your mind of who they are and what you think of them. These images can be positive or negative, long lasting or subject to change. However, they act as a powerful guide in shaping your communication, for better or for worse.

Although it’s hard to believe now, Joe was a competitive distance runner in college. Grueling training runs in the heat and humidity of southeast Texas bonded him and his fellow teammates, helping them overcome differences in their ethnic backgrounds, personalities, lifestyles, and worldviews. But just as they were forming more positive impressions of one another, the runners as a group were perceived differently by other students on campus. At the time, long-distance running was only just starting to gain popularity in the United States. Students who didn’t understand the sport viewed the athletes as freaks. Who in their right mind, after all, would run 20 miles a day? In Texas?! The runners’ scrawny physiques even led some people to say they were malnourished, creating further skepticism about the sport. Yet many of these same critics were shocked to see how much pizza the runners put away in the dining hall as they loaded up on carbohydrates before a race.

Like those who judged the distance runners, you also use the perception process to form impressions of others: mental images of who people are and how you feel about them. All aspects of the perception process shape your impressions: the information you select to focus your attention on, the way you organize this information, the interpretations you make, and the attributions you create.

Because the perception process is complex and everyone organizes and interprets information differently, impressions vary widely. Some take shape quickly: You hear a politician giving a speech and take an immediate dislike to him. Other impressions form slowly, over a series of encounters. Some are intensely positive: “Long-distance runners are amazingly dedicated and disciplined!” Others are neutral. Some are negative: “Long-distance runners are freaks!” Let’s look at some ways you form impressions.