The Instant Verdict (Key Studies)

The Election Study (Perceived Competence)

The importance of physical appearance in our judgments has been demonstrated in studies of how we perceive competence.

In one notable investigation, photographs of rival candidates in a foreign legislative election were shown to participants who were unfamiliar with them (e.g., showing Danish candidates to Spanish participants).

Since the participants were completely unfamiliar with the candidates' policy ideas or programs, any success in guessing the winner should be based purely on chance, with an expected success rate of 50%.

However, the results showed that adults correctly guessed the actual winner in a significantly higher percentage, close to 72% of cases.

This suggests that, consciously or unconsciously, we base our judgments on the same physical criteria, revealing the mental shortcuts our brains use to decide who to trust, whether to choose a leader, a doctor or a business partner.

The Educators' Study (Judgment in Seconds)

Another fascinating study illustrates the incredible speed with which we form opinions based on nonverbal cues.

In this experiment, several educators were filmed as they taught their classes for a full semester, and their long-term students rated them.

Subsequently, the researchers edited very short (e.g., ten-second) video clips of those same educators, but completely removed the sound.

These silent clips were shown to a new group of students who had never had contact with those educators.

The results were stark: the ratings assigned by the group that only saw the silent clips were virtually identical to the ratings given by the students who had spent an entire semester with them.

The finding held even when the clips were reduced to just two seconds.

This shows that two seconds is enough time for us to form an opinion and judge someone's expertise, likeability or charisma.

The exercise of business intuition

To illustrate this phenomenon of intuitive judgment, consider a practical exercise. Imagine that you are presented with several images of CEOs of large companies.

The goal is to rank them according to perceived success; for example, to rank them from the one you intuitively sense generates the most revenue to the one that generates the least.

The key to the exercise is to trust your intuition and rank them quickly.

Although there is no right or wrong answer in the context of the exercise, this simulation demonstrates how humans rely more on nonverbal cues than on the words they hear, and how, often unconsciously, we form snap judgments about competence and success based purely on appearance.

Summary

We form snap judgments based on physical appearance. One study showed photos of political candidates to strangers; they guessed the actual winner 72% of the time.

This shows that we use mental shortcuts and physical criteria to decide who to trust, whether it's a leader, a doctor, or a business partner. We judge competition intuitively.

Another study filmed educators. Ratings of students who watched two-second silent clips were identical to those of full-semester students.