Our love of good stories often biases our decisions, which is evidenced by the scrambling to buy the Facebook IPO despite the fact that there’s virtually no concrete financial data to justify the price of the business (if it is even a ‘business‘).

We all know it’s true but this study confirms it yet again.  Our penchant for a pretty face can also falsely cause us to have an unreasonable level of confidence in someone’s abilities or trustworthiness.  Of these two faces pictured to the right, a substantial majority considered the face on the far right more trustworthy even though it is clearly the same person.

Begs the question for salespeople, advisors and investment professionals:  What does your Facebook profile photo say to people?

Of course, first impressions are often the only tool at our disposal and it is not surprising then that we run the risk of relying our instincts far too much.  Our brains are notoriously lazy, and so we are apt to come to snap decisions based on our feelings instead of engage in tedious research or analysis.

How many people do you suppose put orders in for the Facebook IPO believing they fully understand the business side of it…..simply because they managed to create a profile and connect with some family and friends?  It felt good using Facebook, and so it must be a good investment.  This makes no logical sense, but then we are not a logical species.

On the flipside, judgements based purely on appearance can prove to be very accurate, if only on very rare occasions.  By modifying the study, I was shocked to find that sometimes looks can be a reliable indicator indeed! 

If (once you stop laughing) you’d care to read the original article use this link:  Link to article: Looks Matter More Than Reputation.