So you've made a bad first impression. How do you recover?

Who were you making the impression on? That might make the answer change for me.

I think it’s very escapable…

Well the amount of reversal depends on how much I care that I made the bad impression…sometimes you can’t avoid something…you gotta say ‘look, before x y and z happened..it seemed as though you thought x y and z..i just wanted to clarify that…’

I don’t. I never worry about first impressions. They are mostly inaccurate, thus I discount them. If you have to believe in first impressions as your sole source of “judgement“on someone you are really not getting it. If someone judges me in kind, so be it.

I find that doing something that completely changes someone’s opinion of you can work. I’ve saved a lot of snotty girls from bugs and they tend to like me a lot better afterward.

Also I am very tired and not making much sense.

move on.

“I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure: which is: Try to please everybody.”
—Herbert B. Swope:

I’m sure I’ve made some bad first impressions in my lifetime. But unless the person is an important part of my life, I try not to stress it. If they happen to be important, then surely I will have plenty more opprotunities to redeem myself in the future.

I think the best remedy is time to show your true self.

Don’t fall all over yourself to make a better impression, but be more careful when you happen to meet them again. First impressions aren’t that important.

If you did something totally ass-like, call yourself out on it. “I realized the first time I met you I ___ and that was lame/mean/not my usual self.” Then let the real you be known.

What if the “bad” first impression is just your being overly concerned or overly sensitive during your introduction? Maybe they think it’s all good

On the flip, what if you thought you were as right as rain when you met? and their impression is that you’re an ass

Personally, if a first impression screws me over I try to shrug it off and have a great re-do. Sometimes people are just looking to pick you apart. It takes skill to decipher what situation you fall into and what the best way to handle it is.

I give everyone a second chance no matter how bad the first impression of them was. If my first impression was considered bad by someone, I will certainly try to make the second impression better. In order to do so, I suppose I would need to know how I messed the first one up, what would I have done to make this impression bad. I don’t think we communicate with one another enough. We need to give more constructive criticism and be more open to receiving it.

If all else fails, I suppose I could always resort to jokes and sex; those always make impressions better.