Source: Diego Reinero & Jay Van Bavel—New York University

Social psychologists have long been interested in the way people form impressions of others. Much of this work has focused on the errors people make in judging others, such as the exaggerated influence of central traits (such as "warm" and "cold"), the insufficient weight given to the context in which others' behavior takes place, and the tendency for people to make judgments that conform to their initial expectations about another. However, this focus on errors masks the fact that people are quite good at making fairly accurate judgments about other people's characteristics, an ability that was no doubt important over the course of human evolution.

Indeed, the human ability to make quick sense of social situations and people ranks among our most valuable skills. What is particularly impressive about our ability to make sense of others is not just how little information we need to make inferences, but how well calibrated we can be with so little information. This video shows some experimental techniques used by psychology researchers, including Ambady and Rosenthal in their seminal work,¹ and explores the process of making inferences in the context of students' evaluations of their teachers.