Primacy effect
Overview
The primacy effect (the way first impressions stick) refers to the tendency for the items presented first in a series of information to be remembered more easily than those presented later, and to have a large influence on the overall impression people form. Social psychologist Solomon Asch demonstrated it in 1946 in experiments on impression formation.
In Asch's experiments, the impression of a person differed greatly depending on whether they were described as "intelligent, industrious, impulsive, critical, stubborn, and envious" or with the same adjectives in reverse order. The group that heard the positive traits first formed a good impression, and the group that heard the negative traits first formed a bad impression. The first information can act as a "frame" that steers how later information is interpreted.
Question boxes and the primacy effect
In a question box that has just been opened, the first few answers can shape the impression of the whole thing. Readers who find the first answers careful and funny form the impression that "this person's question box is fun," and tend to read later answers in a favorable light too.
The primacy effect applies to senders as well. For someone who sends a question to a question box for the first time, the impression of the first answer they receive feeds into how they judge that question box as a whole. Someone who gets a careful answer thinks, "I'll ask again," while someone who gets a sloppy answer may hold back from asking next time.
Making use of the primacy effect
One way of thinking about running a question box with the primacy effect in mind is to "put everything into the first impression." Putting extra effort into the very first answers right after you open your question box is one example.
In day-to-day use too, how you choose the first question to answer each day matters. The answer that followers see first on their timeline is one of the things that shape their "impression of the question box today." Bringing a funny question or a thought-provoking question to the front helps lift the impression of the question box as a whole. The primacy effect is where your skill at curating "what to show first" is put to the test.