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Table 14.1 Accurate Perceptions in 30 Seconds
Variable Pearson Correlation Coefficient (r)
Accepting 0.50
Active 0.77
Attentive 0.48
Competent 0.56
Confident 0.82
Dominant 0.79
Empathic 0.45
Enthusiastic 0.76
Honest 0.32
Likable 0.73
(Not) anxious 0.26
Optimistic 0.84
Professional 0.53
Supportive 0.55
Warm 0.67
Overall, across all traits 0.76
This table shows the Pearson correlation coefficients between the impressions that a group of students made after they
had seen a video of instructors teaching for only 30 seconds and the teaching ratings of the same instructors made by
students who had spent a whole semester in the class. You can see that the correlations are all positive, and that many of
them are quite large. The conclusion is that people are sometimes able to draw accurate impressions about other people
very quickly.Source: Ambady, N., & Rosenthal, R. (1993). Half a minute: Predicting teacher evaluations from thin slices of
nonverbal behavior and physical attractiveness. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 64(3), 431–441.
If the finding that judgments made about people in 30 seconds correlate highly with judgments made about the
same people after a whole semester surprises you, then perhaps you may be even more surprised to hear that
we do not even need that much time. Indeed, Willis and Todorov (2006) [23] found that even a tenth of a second