What happens to people's first impressions as a function of age? ANSWER:

When people meet each other, they tend to come to many conclusions about the other on many dimensions. Impression formation is the way we create and revise first impressions about others. Researchers examine how people use traits or characteristics that appear critical or unique in creating first impressions and how this process varies with age. What happens to people's impressions as a function of age is a well-established finding. All participants modify their impressions. When older adults received negative information after receiving initially positive information, older adults modified their impressions toward the negative. Older adults modified their impressions based on all the information available to them, whereas younger adults tended to make their impressions based on the most recent information received.