slicing and first impressions seriously is accepting the fact that
sometimes we can know more about someone or something in
the blink of an eye than we can after months of study. But we
also have to acknowledge and understand those circumstances
when rapid cognition leads us astray.
2. Blink in Black and White
Over the past few years, a number of psychologists have begun
to look more closely at the role these kinds of unconscious —
or, as they like to call them, implicit — associations play in our
beliefs and behavior, and much of their work has focused on a
very fascinating tool called the Implicit Association Test (IAT).
The IAT was devised by Anthony G. Greenwald, Mahzarin
Banaji, and Brian Nosek, and it is based on a seemingly obvious
— but nonetheless quite profound — observation. We make
connections much more quickly between pairs of ideas that are
already related in our minds than we do between pairs of ideas
that are unfamiliar to us. What does that mean? Let me give
you an example. Below is a list of words. Take a pencil or pen
and assign each name to the category to which it belongs by
putting a check mark either to the left or to the right of the