First impressions play a critical role in our expectations of people, and first impressions are hard to change, according to scientists at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Research on Collective Goods in Germany. They have also discovered that people will help their fellow man based on how altruistic others are.

Dr. Kurschilgen, along with colleagues Christoph Engel and Sebastian Kube at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Research, assessed the findings of so-called good games. According to the team, people that expect others to act selfishly actually are people that experience uncooperative behaviour from others more often.

To test this theory, the researchers used public 'good games' that are usually applied in the field of experimental economics. They wanted to determine how first impressions influence people's behaviour as well as selective information. According to the team, the games are based on the classic dilemma of self-interest and socially minded behaviour. A group of four players receive 20 tokens, which they either keep or give to a community project. Each player gets 0.4 tokens in return for each token they put back into the community project. If all 4 group members give their 20 tokens, they each get 32 tokens. So it is 12 more tokens for them if they invest in the project. If only 3 of the 4 invest their money in the community project, the 'selfish' player (i.e. fourth player) obtains 44 tokens. The selfish member therefore gains from the others' investment in the project. It is clear that the entire community would benefit if everybody invested in the collective. But from an individual perspective, the 'free rider' wins at the end of the day.

Using past research studies as a template for their work, the scientists put the spotlight on social dilemma that could pique the interest of both social policymakers and town planners. The researchers said that under the broken windows theory, the 'minor details', including street rubbish or abandoned buildings, could trigger desolate-like conditions in any given district. Such signs of neglect give people the impression that social standards do not apply there, said Dr Kurschilgen, highlighting the idea behind the theory that kick-started the United States' New York mayor Rudy Giuliani's decision to launch the 'zero-tolerance strategy' he implemented to clean up the city 20 years ago.