First impressions are often lasting ones. Indeed, if you play your cards right, you can enjoy the benefits of what sociologists call the "halo effect." This means that if you're viewed positively within the critical first few minutes, the person you've met will likely assume everything you do is positive.

How you move and gesture will greatly influence an interviewer's first impression of you. In a landmark study of communications, psychologists discovered that seven percent of any message about our feelings and attitudes comes from the words we use, 38 percent from our voice, and a startling 55 percent from our facial expressions. In fact, when our facial expression or tone of voice conflicts with our words, the listener will typically put more weight on the nonverbal message.

第一印象往往是持久的。的确，如果你把印象牌打好的话，可以享受社会学家口中的“光环效应”所带来的好处。这意味着，如果在重要的最初几分钟里，你的形象被认为是积极的，那么和你见面的人可能会假设你所做的一切都是积极的。

你的动作和姿态将极大地影响面试者对你的第一印象。在一项具有里程碑意义的关于交流的研究中，心理学家发现，百分之七的各类关于我们情感和态度的信息来自我们所说的话，百分之三十八来自我们的声音，而惊人的百分之五十五来自我们的面部表情。事实上，当我们的面部表情或声调与我们所说的话有冲突，听者通常会更加重视非言语信息。