Dissociable Neural Modulation Underlying Lasting First Impressions, Changing Your Mind for the Better, and Changing It for the Worse

Unattractive job candidates face a disadvantage when interviewing for a job. Employers' evaluations are colored by the candidate's physical attractiveness even when they take job interview performance into account. This example illustrates unexplored questions about the neural basis of social evaluation in humans. What neural regions support the lasting effects of initial impressions (even after getting to know someone)? How does the brain process information that changes our minds about someone? Job candidates' competence was evaluated from photographs and again after seeing snippets of job interviews. Left lateral orbitofrontal cortex modulation serves as a warning signal for initial reactions that ultimately undermine evaluations even when additional information is taken into account. The neural basis of changing one's mind about a candidate is not a simple matter of computing the amount of competence-affirming information in their job interview. Instead, seeing a candidate for the better is somewhat distinguishable at the neural level from seeing a candidate for the worse. Whereas amygdala modulation marks the extremity of evaluation change, favorable impression change additionally draws on parametric modulation of lateral prefrontal cortex and unfavorable impression change additionally draws on parametric modulation of medial prefrontal cortex, temporal cortex, and striatum. Investigating social evaluation as a dynamic process (rather than a one-time impression) paints a new picture of its neural basis and highlights the partially dissociable processes that contribute to changing your mind about someone for the better or the worse.