Social Cognition and Categories
At any moment in time, some of your social categories are more accessible than others, and you will be more likely to use the ones closest to the surface to form an impression of a newcomer. This effect is known as priming. If you just read a story about a cult's use of the Internet for recruitment, for example, the person-type of "treacherous enticer" would be primed and much more accessible from the standpoint of social cognition.
Category priming can happen naturally in the Internet's discussion forums because you proactively go to one of its hundreds of thousands of distinctive neighborhoods when you log in. The Internet consists of countless subcommunities, each with its own norms and category-priming potential. Some bring our work-related categories to the surface, such as a mailing list for dentists or a specialized MUD for journalists. Others, like the riveting multiuser hack-and-slash adventure games, are highly competitive and task-oriented. And of course, the many social corners of the Internet are evolving their own set of expectations.
The online auction house called eBay.com, for example, hosts discussion forums for its registered users on their special interests - whether that happens to be rare coins, antiques, books, or Beanie Babies. When you start reading the posts in your favorite forum the category you associate with people who hang out there is already primed. It is right on top of your cognitive memory stack. You will be the miser, conserving your cognitive energy, by relying on your person-type for stamp collectors or rare book lovers to get some impression of new posters. The same shortcut occurs when you visit a new Internet group to see what is going on. If you drop into the Usenet newsgroup alt.alien.visitors, you might be primed to find "paranormal devotees," "weirdo freaks," "open-minded critics of modern science," "anti-government firebrands," or whatever category you use to characterize people who talk alien visitation.
On MUDs, the vivid room descriptions that you read the moment you enter each one serve an additional priming function. A room called Sensual Respites on LambdaMOO, for example, exudes images of sophisticated sexuality, reminiscent of a trendy singles bar in upscale Soho, while the informal and relaxed Living Room encourages a more family atmosphere. Just the rooms' text descriptions can influence your impressions of the people you meet.
As cognitive misers, we are reluctant to rethink the impressions we form of others. Once we slap a label from our category collection on someone, we are not prone to peel it off or alter it much. That first impression is so critical because of this human resistance to admit mistakes, and the desire to leave the label in place leads to confirmation bias. Not only do we ignore evidence that might contradict our original impressions; we actively search for information to confirm them. Our desire to validate that first impression is a potent force that guides how we collect and assess new information about another person. The open mind we demand of jurors at the start of a trial is a tall order, one that few could fill. Once we form some impression we selectively pick up confirming evidence. In long Internet messages, it is usually not difficult to find snippets to support our first impression and to ignore the rest.
