HBR: “…In our research, we tested which of these two assumptions prevailed. To do so, we had 305 people come into our lab before the Covid-19 pandemic (in groups of four to eight) and 555 people join a Zoom session during the pandemic (again, in small groups of three to nine). People would meet one on one with new people for a couple of minutes, just like at a speed-networking event. This resulted in a total of 1,683 unique in-person interactions and 3,068 unique Zoom interactions. After each meeting, they reported on how they perceived each other’s personalities. For example, they would be asked: “To what extent do you see this person as intelligent?” Importantly, we also asked them to rate how they think their interaction partner perceived them: “Does this person think I’m intelligent?” It turns out that people are good at knowing how they come across to others after just a two-minute interaction. Importantly, they are equally accurate about the first impression they make on Zoom as in-person. In both contexts, people could tell if their peer saw them as very intelligent and not so friendly. Put differently, our research suggests that people are able to know how they come across to a peer or a new acquaintance on Zoom to the same extent as in-person. In other words, interacting on Zoom does not seem to interfere with people’s ability to know their reputations.”