The Theory Of Thin Slicing Chapter 1 Summary

The main focus of this book is about “thin-slicing” of human mind. Mankind often see the situation or people with a little of understanding. People try to recognize the situation they are in, resulting them to look at only a small portion of the whole thing. We humans often perceive things by what we look and hear. Gladwell points out how “thin-slicing” works in human’s mind. People could notice other’s feeling, friends’ personality, and the purpose of someone’s behavior by looking at few seconds of others. Gladwell states that “thin- slicing” works in our unconscious and people don’t know how it works at making decision. This book shows us that how “thin-slicing” performs in our lives in various ways. I chose to read Chapter One: The Theory of Thin Slices: How A Little Bit of Knowledge Goes a Long Way. This chapter illustrated how human’s unconscious makes accurate estimation in few seconds. Gladwell observed a married couple to examine their marriage life. The topic that was given to a couple was something that is very common so people could talk about in daily lives. The
In this chapter, Gladwell is showing the readers that our prejudices could mislead our decisions. President Warren Harding, who is considered as one of the worst presidents in the United States, was elected as a president for his dark, tall, and handsome appearance. People thought he would be a good president for them because he looked “Presidential”. Harding was not smart of morally good. Soon people realized that his appearance does not do anything with politics. They were fascinated by Harding’s physical appearance so they lost the eyes to look at true nature of him. People blinded themselves with their prejudices and missed the most important matters of electing a president. Harding was not responsible for his position and people started to make condemnation of