Ever felt that people are a bit too quick to judge? That's because we are. Research shows we make up our minds about someone in a matter of seconds – and we're surprisingly better at it than we realize.

Earlier this year, I was walking home after a late night at the office and walked by a man who instantly gave me the heebie-jeebies. I initially wrote off the feeling as being paranoid but after about 5 minutes I realized he was actually following me and hoped in a cab tout de suite. He has since been arrested for following several women in the downtown core and I still cringe at the idea that I didn’t run away sooner.

That initial gut feeling I had is what behavioral experts describe as "thin-slicing methodology". This research is based on the theory that we make a reasonably accurate assessment of a person from observing just a few seconds, or a "thin slice", of their behaviour. If you've ever changed seats on the TTC because there was something "not quite right", you've used your ability to thin-slice to avoid danger - but we thin-slice people in all kinds of situations, not just when we feel threatened.

I first read about thin-slicing from Malcolm Gladwell's book, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. Macolm suggests that we thin-slice whenever we meet a new person or have to make sense of something quickly or encounter a novel situation.

I find it interesting, for instance, how different professions and disciplines have a term to describe their version of ‘thin-slicing’. A great basketball player is said to have “court sense". A military general is said to possess “coup d'oeil”. Investment Advisors and analysts are known to have a good “grasp of market trends”. No matter how you slice it, we’re perpetually judging one another – so it’s worth your time to think twice about how you may be getting sliced.

This Forbes article I came across suggests that we make eleven major decisions about one another in the first seven seconds of meeting and that first impressions are more heavily influenced by nonverbal cues than verbal cues. Included in these nonverbal cues are how you look and those who attended our first Women of Ambition series event this past week, Style for Success, now know just what to do. Yours truly was the model (for lack of a better word) and I spoke about the importance of financial planning for women while Gassia Maljian, Makeup Artist and Monica Mei, Aime Fashion Designer shared their expert secrets to looking great day-till-night.

Enjoy the weekend.

D.

Dian Chaaban

Investment & Wealth Advisor

Chaaban Wealth Management Group

416.842.4234