Nygren Thinly Sliced

First impressions are part of an evolutionary cognitive process for humans, with Thin-Slicing a term coined by psychologists Nalini Ambady and Robert Rosenthal. Decisions we make on attributes such as trustworthiness and competence when first meeting another human are often made in ten seconds or less. The amygdala hijack within in our brains is hard wired to prioritize survival over rationality, which takes time via the prefrontal cortex.

Research suggests that through the lens of interpersonal survival, these Thin-Slices are pretty accurate in determining whether a new encounter is a threat or friend.

But how about for the domain of footballers’ performance measurement?

Cognitive biases are a feature and not a bug of evolutionary psychology. Performance measurement and related analysis is an attempt to account for such things.