Thin-slicing - Blink

One of the most popular books on thin-slicing is Blink written by Malcolm Gladwell. In this book, the author goes through and describes interesting examples and research which exploit the idea of thin-slicing.

• Gladwell describes how a museum purchases an Art Sculpture brought to the J. Paul Getty Museum in California, under the name of Getty kouros. Immediately, art experts looked through the sculpture and decided there was something wrong with it, a gut feeling which exhibited all the wrong signs. Yet under thorough investigation the sculpture was deemed real because of no solid evidence against the now known fake. After some given time, the statue was described to be a fake due to simple flaws found within the structures. The art sculptures were able to immediately analyze the situation and realize the fallibly of sculptural.

• Another example is explained through relationships. John Gottman, a well-known Marital expert, describes how within an hour of observing a couple, he can gather with 95% accuracy if the couple will be together within 15 years. His accuracy goes down to 90% if he observes the couples for more than 2 hours, supporting the phenomenon of thin-slicing.