Thin Slice Judgments in the Clinical Context

Clinicians make a variety of judgments about their clients, from judging personality traits to making diagnoses, and a variety of methods are available to do so, ranging from observations to structured interviews. A large body of work demonstrates that from a brief glimpse of another’s nonverbal behavior, a variety of traits and inner states can be accurately perceived. Additionally, from these thin slices of behavior, even future outcomes can be predicted with some accuracy. Certain clinical disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and facial paralysis disrupt nonverbal behavior and may impair clinicians’ ability to make accurate judgments. In certain contexts, personality disorders, anxiety, depression, suicide attempts and outcomes can be detected from others’ nonverbal behavior. Additionally, thin slices can predict psychological adjustment to divorce, bereavement, sexual abuse, and well-being throughout life. Thus, for certain traits and disorders, judgments from a thin slice could provide a complementary tool for the clinician’s toolbox.Keywords: person perception, psychological disorders, nonverbal behavior, accurac

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This research was partially supported by a SSHRC Institutional Grant and SSHRC Insight Development Grant (430-2016-00094) to EH and postdoctoral research support from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, University of Western Australia (CE110001021) and an Australian Research Council Discovery Project Grant (DP170104602) to CS.Peer reviewedPostprin

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