What People Really Care About When They Meet You: Are You a Good Person?

HBR Blog Network / The Daily Stat

by Andrew O’Connell  |   8:30 AM January 22, 2014

When people meet you, their impressions are formed more by their perceptions of your moral character than by your personal warmth (or lack thereof), suggests research by Geoffrey P. Goodwin, Jared Piazza, and Paul Rozin of the University of Pennsylvania. For example, in one study, research participants who were asked for their overall impressions of people rated those who were “cold” but had “good character” more positively than those who were warm but of bad character (5.59versus 3.60 on a nine-point scale). The researchers’ finding about the importance of moral character—that is, whether you’re a good or bad person—contradicts recent theories that the two fundamental dimensions of perception are warmth and competence.

SOURCE:  Moral Character Predominates in Person Perception and Evaluation