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Social Psychology

Intuition

Nalini Ambady

Nalini Ambady

Ambady was an Indian-American psychologist who mainly researched non-verbal perception. Along with Robert Rosenthal, she coined the term “thin slices” to describe the ability to make quick judgements on a person based on non-verbal cues in a narrow window of experience. In their famous experiment, students watched silent, 2-, 5-, and 10-second clips of an unfamiliar professor whilst teaching and rated them on likeability, honesty, competence etc. They found no difference in ratings between the 2-, 5-, and 10-second clips, but also, their ratings correlated with students who were taught by the professors for a whole term.

Future Research Ideas

- The effects of social media on judgements made about people

- Generational differences in thin slices