Final answer:
The tendency of early information to strongly influence our impressions is known as the primacy effect, which is part of cognitive bias studies. a. a primacy effect.
Step-by-step explanation:
The “tendency of early information to play a powerful role in our eventual impression of an individual” is known as a primacy effect. This concept is part of the study of cognitive biases and social psychology.
The primacy effect is when the information we encounter first has a significant impact on our judgment, leading us to give it more weight than information presented later. It contrasts with the recency effect, where the most recent information we receive is most influential. This is distinct from confirmation bias, which is when we pay attention to information that aligns with our pre-existing beliefs, or availability heuristic, which is when we make decisions based on information that is most immediately available to us. Furthermore, priming can influence our perception by predisposing us to particular views based on earlier stimuli.