Scientists Find This Background Makes Colleagues Think You’re Incompetent

Your Zoom background could be affecting the way people judge you.

First impressions are made in a matter of milliseconds and can be difficult to shake. And in recent years, more and more of us are making them over video-conferencing software. Physical cues like eye contact and body language are harder to read, so what can we do to put our best foot forward through a computer screen?

In a recent study, published in the journal PLOS One on Wednesday, researchers from the University of Durham in the U.K. analyzed how Zoom backgrounds influence our first impressions of people.

Your Zoom background could be affecting the way people perceive you.
Vadym Pastukh/Getty

“There is previous research that shows that background context can affect perceptions of things like threat etc,” Paddy Ross, an associate professor of psychology at Durham University and co-author on the study, told Newsweek. “Zoom backgrounds here can affect our perception of trust and competence in the same way.”

In the study, Ross and colleagues Abi Cook and Meg Thompson asked 167 adults to make judgments on a series of still images. Each image appeared to be a screenshot from a video call with male or female participants with a smiling or neutral expression and a mix of different backgrounds. These included living rooms, houseplants, bookcases, a blank wall, and a novelty image of a walrus on an iceberg.

Participants tended to perceive happy faces as being more trustworthy and competent than neutral ones. But what about the backgrounds? “We found that a background of a living room lowered ratings of trust and competence,” Ross said.

A sample of the different images shown to the participants with a variety of different Zoom backgrounds.
COOK ET AL., 2023, PLOS ONE/Getty

Unsurprisingly, the walrus didn’t score high either. But having a few plants or a bookcase in the background significantly increased how trustworthy and competent the faces were perceived as.

“It could be that plants for instance give the impression that someone is responsible, and thus trustworthy and competent,” Ross said. “Similarly, a bookcase can give the impression of intelligence and someone who wants to better themselves intellectually, leading to higher scores of trust and competence as well.

“If you cannot avoid having a background of your living room, this research would suggest including some plants or books in some way to improve first impressions.”

To confirm the results, the team hopes to run a follow-up study using video footage rather than still images. “We can then ask more probing questions that could have direct real-world implications (e.g. ‘Would you hire this person?’),” Ross said.

But in the meantime, what can you do to improve your first impression on video conferencing software?

“If you have an online interview coming up or need to make a good first impression online, first of all, do all the things you would do if it were face to face,” Ross said. “Dress appropriately, smile, be amicable. But also make sure you pay attention to your surroundings on camera. Have a look before any meeting to see what your camera can see, and ask yourself if that’s something YOU would like to see if you were hiring someone. And if you can place some strategically placed plants or books in the background, this research suggests that that will give you the best chance at making a good first impression.”

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