Rights Case

Body Language and facial gesture provide plenty visual information to help high-level social assumptions that help you judge a situation or a person. In the novel, Blink, Gladwell calls this "thin-slicing". This is described as "the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience" ( 23). Given short moments of voiced or non-verbal behavior, adults are able to make reliable and sometimes not so reliable judgments in everyday tasks. This skill is a very powerful tool. Thin slicing makes it possible to adjust your own behavior based on someone else's.

The fact of the matter is Thin-slicing is used unconsciously whether we know it or not. It aids us in making split second decisions in our everyday world. With that said, the question typically asked is, "Is thin-slicing used as a reliable tool to give us inferences about people and situations around us? How accurate can our judgments be?" Unfortunately, this tool is not always correct.

As an incoming freshman, I was ready to be a master student. I knew with perseverance and determination my grades would be something to brag about. In my English 101 class, I did not even get the chance to do so. My English teacher, an older man who said little with facial his expressions, had come to my class with a great surprise: He had already graded us on the short two weeks that he had known us based on thin-slicing. My initial thought was, "How unfair! What could I possibly be judged on?" Of course I thought this method of grading to be anything but reasonable. Not one paper or simple worksheet was handed in to even demonstrate what I was semi capable of. As a million questions were running through my head, all I really could do was sit in my wiggly desk and stare at my professor hoping for answers.

At this point, I did not know what to think. Positive that my grade was low and that it was not going to exceed my expectations, I started considering things I could have done differently or what the grade was remotely based on. Perhaps the grade had to do with me being a young girl. My professor could have thought women were inferior to males, giving them the upper hand on a higher grade. Could it have been my nails were painted black? Possibly my educator believed anyone who was wearing black worshiped the devil. He could have looked at me as an evil person, resulting in the lowering of my grade. Perchance my nails were painted bright bubble gum pink. Might it be possible I would have been viewed as a gentle, yet peaceful human. Maybe I could have religiously volunteered and shared my ideas in the classroom more often? He could have thought I was uninterested in his teachings or the class was too advanced for me. Could I have let out an accidental piercing yawn in class? Because of this mistake, I may have instantly been marked as a disrespectful student who was not