Thin-Slicing Bias Hits One UFC Fighter
If you’ve ever read Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, you know much of our world perception runs on thin-slicing — taking a quick snapshot of a situation or person we see, and making an immediate judgment. Sometimes this thin slice comes from our unconscious, and we don’t really even know what’s quite going on or why we are perceiving something the way we are. It just happens.
An example: if we see someone dressed ragged with dirty clothes and hair, we immediately think they are homeless or strung out or maybe one of the Olsen twins.
But could it be there’s a millionaire behind those clothes? There’s one particular story in the book about a car salesmen who refuses to look at someone and size them up by looks or race or ethnicity or clothing. Those that come in barefoot with overalls on get treated as equally well as the sharp-dressed man. Because of this, he’s known as one of the best and most successful car dealers around. Because, really, you never know: inside those overalls might be a fat stack of hundreds.
Enter UFC fighter Pat Barry.
Before UFC 104, dude was living on ketchup and rice, and was near eviction from his apartment in Los Angeles. But he scored Knockout of the Night and Fight of the Night in his victory over Antoni Hardonk, and got a nice little bonus of $120,000.
Here’s what happened after he got the check and went to cash it, as he described to MMAScrapsRadio:


