Participants in a study who were shown black and white photographs of political candidates inferred competence within one second of being exposed to a face. Even when they were given more time to think, their initial impressions did not change. Furthermore, inferences of competence based on facial appearance alone turn out to be better than chance at predicting election outcomes.
When we cast a vote or spend a dollar, we assume we do so for rational reasons. And if we later discover that our vote was miscast or our money misspent, we assume the explanation for that error must lie in the rational world. We do not think we voted for some guy because we made a judgment about him in under a second; we do not think we spent more in a store because it smelled good. But we did. —Joseph T. Hallinan, Why We Make Mistakes
Is That Your Final Answer?
A majority of both college professors and college students believe students should stick with their original answer on a test instead of changing it. They—and even the test industry—are of the opinion that changing answers will result in a lower grade. Research results, however, indicate that no matter what type of test is being taken (multiple-choice, true-or-false, timed or not) most students who change their answers improve their scores.
People generally have this lay belief that as a general rule you should stick with your first instinct. And the fact of the matter is there isn’t a lot of evidence to support that. —Justin Kruger, New York University Stern School of Business
Part of the problem is that people remember sticking with their first answer as having been a more successful strategy than it actually was. This is a case where memory is in direct conflict with reality. And memory wins.
Blink!
Snap judgments are, first of all, enormously quick: they rely on the thinnest slices of experience. But they are also unconscious. —Malcolm Gladwell, Blink
First impressions and snap judgments are the result of the associative thinking that takes place in the unconscious (System 1). The unconscious sees patterns and connects dots our conscious brain (System 2) isn’t even aware of. It operates quickly and is always on, making rapid-fire assessments and communicating them to System 2.
In general, snap judgments are most accurate in situations where an expert is making a quick decision on a familiar topic based on past experience. —Reginald Adams, Penn State professor of psychology
When we become consciously aware of one of those rapid-fire assessments—call it a hunch, gut feeling, instinct, inkling, or inner voice—some of us look for a logical explanation.
But snap judgments and rapid cognition take place behind a locked door, Gladwell says. No matter how hard you try to look inside the room, you can’t. I don’t think we are very good at dealing with the fact of that locked door.
Not knowing how we know whatever it is we know—or think we know—isn’t very satisfying.
There are times when we demand an explanation when an explanation really isn’t possible.