Impression Formation Shortcuts

   Our social thermometers give us a quick take on a stranger's warmth or coldness, and we only need a bit more information to form that first impression. Barraged by sensory information and rushed for time, we take shortcuts and rely on just a few cues. Once we have those, we think we have that person nailed and can move onto other matters. Social psychologists Susan Fiske and Shelley Taylor coined the term cognitive miser to describe our interest in conserving energy and reducing cognitive load.16 It would be too time-consuming to collect comprehensive information to form unique impressions of everyone we meet, so we overuse certain cues that serve as rules of thumb. The impression of a person's warmth or coldness is one example. It dominates the picture as soon as we know anything at all about it and our conclusions about other personal characteristics flow from it.

   You might question tufdude's objectivity on women's rights, for example, and you might be inclined to listen more carefully to rgoldman's views on the future of the Internet than to FoxyLady's. The Harvard address of jtravis might carry some weight in the absence of any other information about the sender.

   Most people with Internet accounts have not spent much time considering the impression their email addresses make. The domain name to the right of the @ is usually acquired by default. Those connected with colleges and universities get whatever they are assigned, though most will end with the name of the institution followed by the edu top-level domain name. That ending instantly identifies you as a member of an academic community, though your actual role is concealed, (jtravis might be a freshman, or on the kitchen staff at Harvard). Edu is a little tag that separates its owner from the world of capitalism, where addresses end in com (for commercial). Other endings announce your connection to government (gov), nonprofit organizations (org), or particular countries. As Internet usage exploded, the U.S.-dominated naming scheme based on organizational affiliation gave way to nationalism. Australian email addresses, for example, end in au.

   People who purchase an account from a provider have more choices, but this consumer decision is usually based on costs and services, rather than the name itself. A major video rental chain called Erols began offering very inexpensive Internet access, and consumers seemed unconcerned that their email address (username@erols.com) would project a certain image. It is the electronic equivalent of wearing a tee-shirt emblazoned with a company brand name, day and night. The technology got away from us on this, but the Internet Service Providers love the free advertising.

   When a choice of user name (to the left of the @ is possible, some people select a frivolous name like tufdude and regret it later. A friend of mine picked LoveChik as a joke when she first got her account, thinking she would never use it for more than fun and games. But as her editorial and desktop publishing business expanded, she began using the account to exchange files with clients around the country. They always asked about the name, and she found herself tediously apologizing and making excuses for it.