Did you know that the order of information presented to you influences your working memory? It’s known as serial position effects. Said more simply: items presented first get first dibs on your short- term memory. But the last item on the list? That one needs some time to work in its favour. What am I talking about? I’m talking about primacy and recency effects.

1. Primacy effect
2. First-impression bias
3. Meetings, votes & car launches
4. But there’s a twist in the tale
5. Recency bias
6. The proof is in your investment decisions
7. Primacy and recency effects

Let’s say you have a date lined up, but you need to choose between two people who’ll accompany you…

The first date option is envious, stubborn, critical, impulsive, good-looking, and intelligent.

The second date option is intelligent, good-looking, impulsive, critical, stubborn, and envious.

Who would you pick to go on the date with you?

Are you picking option 2? Most people do.

However, did you notice that both people were described with identical words. They were just in a different order.

Arguably, one of the oldest experimental psychology studies was performed by Solomon Asch in 1946. He did exactly what the above example does: asked participants to rate people based on a collection of words (some positive, some negative). Results showing that participants rated the person with positive characteristics at the start of their description higher than those whose positive characteristics came at the end of their description.

More commonly, in social contexts, you can call it the first-impression bias.

It’s not an old-wives-tale, first impressions do matter. You’ll remember the first time you meet someone, more so than the 2nd and 3rd encounters, primarily because of the primacy effect.

This is why any interview checklist will tell you not to arrive late. It doesn’t leave a good first impression. You’re not doing yourself any favours. Once recruiters reflect on your interview and application, they’re likely to remember that you came late more than anything else. Dressing too casually or having grammar and spelling mistakes on your application form are similar examples of things NOT to do. Creates a bad first impression.

But why? It’s because of how our human memory responds to primacy and recency effects.

Primacy effect has some competition. Consider a study by Miller and Campbell where participants were presented with two arguments in a trial. One argument was for the plaintiff accused of a crime, and the other argument against. In some of the trials, the order of the arguments was switched. And in other trials, there was a delay in time between hearing the two arguments.

Consider that the first argument was for the plaintiff and the second against.

When there was no delay between the first and second argument, the participants voted in favour of the plaintiff (primacy effect). That’s the power of opening statements right there.

However, when there was a delay between the first and second argument, the participants voted against the plaintiff. Introducing – the recency effect.

Contrasting to the primacy effect is the recency effect.

The more recent information is, the more likely we’ll be able to remember it. That gives the last items on the list a fighting chance!

In a fight between primacy effect and recency effects, who would win? Generally, if you have to make an immediate decision based on sequential observations (consider the characteristics of that potential date, or the opinions in the meeting) then the primacy effect dominates. But if the observations were some time ago, the recency effect carries more weight. If you watched a Netflix series a few months ago, you’re more likely to remember how it ended, than the first episode.

Of course, it’s important to always remember that the status quo will often trump any choices and the compromise effect can also have a powerful influence. But these biases do have an element of interplay.

The primacy effect is valuable. It helps us to remember the importance of first impressions. But be careful of making unfair comparisons. Evaluate things impartially. Consider how the order of candidates, questions, and reviews influence your relative decisions.

Be careful of assigning a heavier weight to the more recent information you have, rather than older data. The market will not always look the way it looks today. Don’t make unwise decisions because of where the market finds itself at a point in time.

Also, it’s worth mentioning that the jury is still out regarding the impact of primacy and recency effects in verbal learning. When you’re reading – definitely! But when you’re listening, there is an argument to say that verbal behaviors differ. And perhaps, recency trumps primacy!

• Heuristics and biases in decision making – This was the first post in the series which shares some behavioural economics research. Specifically, the heuristics and biases that influence our relationship with money. It uses System 1 and System 2 thinking examples from Daniel Kahneman’s New York Times best selling book, Thinking Fast and Slow, to help us be more conscious of the workings of our brain. 

• Mirror, mirror, on the wall, stop telling me I’m wonderful – This post focuses on the impact of overconfidence bias in decision making. It introduces the illusion of knowledge bias and the illusion of control bias to illustrate the difference between confidence and carelessness. It also discusses the better than average effect, the self-serving bias and fundamental attribution error. You’ll learn how to confront some unpalatable truths and get out of any false sense of comfort (if you’re up for the challenge?).

• Why you can’t argue with a vegan – Ballsy title, we know. But if you read the post you’ll (hopefully) understand why. We’ll be discussing confirmation bias. It’s one of those psychological biases that you can see everywhere. We’ll also touch on cognitive dissonance theory. We all struggle with these biases. They’re both humorous and serious. But because of that, it’s useful to know how to avoid confirmation bias when you need to.

• Size does matter… when it comes to framing – This post uses framing effect examples to show how framing bias influences the way we interpret information and make decisions. We discuss glossing, the compromise effect, and how the size of the frame can influence the volatility of your investment portfolio.

• Loss aversion vs risk aversion – Once you understand framing, you’re ready for this post. It introduces an incredibly powerful bias known as loss aversion. It also touches on prospect theory, the disposition effect and impression management.

• Anchors pulling you down? – Anchoring bias is a straightforward behavioural bias that causes us to focus on a certain initial value and then make decisions with reference to it. This post looks at some examples of this anchoring effect.

• The danger of the default – Default options nudge us to make better decisions. The option of opting out also respects freedom of choice. This post unpacks this notion of libertarian paternalism and the perils of status quo bias.

• Regret, it’s not a nice feeling – Regret influences the decisions we make and pushes us to conform to social norms. Examples of regret avoidance show us how this makes complete sense yet no sense at all.

• When the past influences the future – The Concorde effect is a famous example of sunk cost investment. Too often we invest time, money and energy into something we should’ve just abandoned. This post looks at some examples of how sunk cost fallacy affects our human decision processes.

• What’s mine is more valuable – In this post, you’ll learn why you place extra value on things you own. The endowment effect has implications for our investment portfolio, bonuses and consumer behaviour.

• How to improve self-control – Self-control is an essential life skill. It’s what separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom. Learn how to improve self-control to achieve your long-term goals.

• Procrastination is the enemy of success – We know procrastination is the enemy of success. But while it looks like laziness, it’s often just mental exhaustion at play. Learn how to overcome procrastination.

• The problem with wanting it now – When you delay instant gratification, you will experience long-term satisfaction. It’s the hyperbolic vs exponential discounting debate. Don’t let present bias win!

• We prefer wrong information to no information – Availability bias and survivorship bias influence our decision-making. We make decisions based on the information available to us.

• Learn to deal with uncertainty – Risk and uncertainty will always surround us. Gambler’s Fallacy, the hot-hand effect, the law of small numbers & ambiguity aversion are just some of the biases that arise because of it.

• Stop stereotyping – Representativeness heuristic refers to the fact that we stereotype. It’s a mental shortcut. But beware of making unfounded comparisons.

• Mental Accounting – Money is money! Or is it? Mental accounting says we place different values on different money which leads to irrational decision making.

• Money Illusion– Money illusion is a sneaky bias. It causes us to focus on the amount of money in our hands, rather than it’s purchasing power.

• Home bias – We invest close to home and in what we know. But this lack of diversification results in missed opportunities. Say hello to ‘home bias’.