Can you make a good decision without having all the information at hand? You bet. Research has shown how accurate first impressions can be. For instance, a University of Connecticut study of college students found that their first impressions of classmates largely matched those classmates’ descriptions of themselves. First impressions don’t apply only to personalities. The Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, in Berlin, had subjects choose a portfolio of stocks based solely on whether they recognized the names of the companies. The result? These portfolios outperformed those selected by experts every time, beating market indices and managed funds in six out of eight tests. See, ignorance can be bliss.