The wrong first impression can have tragic consequences, and that is why companies spend millions testing their products and marketing efforts so that they can create a favorable first impression upon consumers. This is where a history of experience comes in, since those who have a deeper pool of past data to reference at the unconscious level stand a higher chance of making better snap decisions. However, not all snap judgments are correct, so thin-slicing carries an inherent risk that you could be wrong. One result of thin-slicing is that you are able to make quick and correct decisions, and this marks you out as a good leader. While Gottman has fined-tuned his thin-slicing to an art, we all have this innate ability and all we need is to cultivate it so that it can play a bigger role in our professional and personal lives. This ability stems from both our intuition and our experience.Ī real-world example of thin-slicing is exhibited by John Gottman of the Gottman Institute, who has learned the ability to study the facial expressions and conversational patterns of couples for just a few minutes and then accurately predict whether those people will still be married 15 years from the time of his observation. He says that we can read complex situations quickly as long as we identify the underlying pattern in those situations. The author also talks about the concept of “thin-slicing.” This is the ability of the subconscious mind to quickly find patterns in situations or behavior based on very limited information or experience. We keep flipping from side to side in our cognition of the world around us. Our brains have two distinct sides the rational, analytical side and the side which forms impressions without undertaking any logical process.

This often happens at an unconscious level of cognition, so a lot of our thought processes happen in the unconscious mind.

Gladwell notes that his extensive research shows that human beings have developed a capacity to make snap judgments based on first impressions.

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