thin slices of behavior
extremely small samples of behavior upon which people are able to base relatively accurate judgments about others. In research, thin slices are brief video or aural clips usually lasting from 1 second to 5 minutes, sampled from longer streams of behavior, from which raters are able to make better than chance accuracy judgments about the person being shown or heard. Such findings are thought to demonstrate humans’ remarkable ability to process social information quickly, automatically, and efficiently, an ability that likely has evolutionary significance. Thin slices have been shown to have predictive validity in such areas as teacher evaluations, doctor–patient interactions, and dating. See person perception.