Producers of a recent Wisconsin Public Radio segment said they received a great deal of feedback from a recent “Central Time” segment with UW-Green Bay Prof. Regan A. R. Gurung (Human Development, Psychology). The subject was “how to cope with the bad actions of those we admire.” Recent sexual misconduct allegations of many in the entertainment and news worlds can touch a nerve and even feel like a personal affront. Why? Gurung told WPR to “understand and cope with these feelings, it’s important to understand how we form opinions of others in the first place. ‘We form impressions of other people very quickly,’ he said. ‘We can form an impression of somebody in as little as five seconds.’ We don’t need to physically meet that person in order to form those impressions. It happens when we see them on TV or the big screen, whether we like it or not. And once those impressions are formed, they’re not easily changed. ‘Those first impressions are then built on and built on, and that very first impression gets solidified, and the more that happens just goes toward reinforcing that picture we have of somebody,’ Gurung said. ‘That’s partly why, I think, things get so disturbing when suddenly that worldview is shifted.'” You can listen to the show here.
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