Canadian researchers have shown that the snap decisions internet users make about the quality of a web page, in just a twentieth of a second, have a lasting impact on their opinions.
The study, reported by news@nature.com today, shows that the brain can make flash judgements in just 50 milliseconds.
The discovery has come as a surprise to experts in the field, says Gitte Lindgaard of Carleton University in Ottawa, whose team predicted that little could be taken in by a viewer in less than half a second.
The research is published in the journal Behaviour and Information Technology.
Those first impressions are then solidified by psychological effects, said the researchers. People enjoy being right, so continuing to use a web site that gave a good first impression helps to convince themselves they made a good initial decision.