| | Introduction | p. ix |
| | In The Beginning | p. 1 |
| | Primitive Predictions | p. 3 |
| | Prediction on the battlefield | |
| | Caveman prediction | |
| | Foibles of the mind | |
| | How our minds are actually prediction machines | |
| | Maintaining humility with a predictive mind | |
| | The Genes in All of Us | p. 13 |
| | Ominous behavior at the beginning of life | |
| | Recognizing the tells of autism and doing something about it | |
| | The case of William and his anxious summer at camp | |
| | How a forty-five-minute observation of young children predicts reactive physiology years later | |
| | Biology is not destiny. | |
| | Strange Situations: Growing up in a Thin-Sliced World | p. 27 |
| | Parks, swings, and observing behavior | |
| | How we become attached | |
| | To be secure or insecure? | |
| | The power of Strange Situations to predict who we are | |
| | Predicting your child's attachment style before she's even born. | |
| | How We Size Up Others | p. 47 |
| | Who Are You Anyway? | p. 49 |
| | A photographic personality | |
| | Is it possible to forecast the cognitive chops of someone you just interviewed? | |
| | Seeing goodness in(side) others | |
| | Spotting liars, cheaters, and aggressive people | |
| | When tells go awry. | |
| | The Targets of Our Attraction | p. 69 |
| | Gaydar and straightdar | |
| | The science of inferring sexual orientation | |
| | The role of society | |
| | Is it possible to predict sexual orientation? | |
| | Can one conceal sexual orientation? | |
| | The tells of sexual orientation | |
| | The role of nature and nurture | |
| | Love and Lies | p. 83 |
| | From Dating to Mating | p. 85 |
| | Seeking partners in a modern age with an old brain | |
| | What men's lopsided faces and fancy goods tell as | |
| | What women's faces and figures predict | |
| | Accentuating our evolutionary signals with a scalpel | |
| | Predicting divorce from three minutes of interaction or a photograph | |
| | Smile and live long | |
| | Detecting Deception | p. 111 |
| | The student who lied after a bathroom break | |
| | Are we good lie detectors? | |
| | Did the bank clerk steal the money? | |
| | Police officers are (just) people too | |
| | The tells of deceit | |
| | Truth wizards and Eyes for Lies | |
| | Making the Grade: Education, Business, and Politics | p. 127 |
| | The Power of Enthusiasm | p. 129 |
| | Star teachers and their ways | |
| | It only takes six seconds | |
| | Dr. Ceci's "Enthusiasin Experiment" | |
| | The power of enthusiasm inside the classroom and out | |
| | Catching the Cues of the Cash Cow | p. 141 |
| | The God-like status of CEOs | |
| | Is it possible to predict company profits from a CEO's face? | |
| | The neuroscieuce of perception | |
| | Are leaders born or made? | |
| | Identifying and hiring your next sales superstar | |
| | Political Punditry: Any Kid Can Do It | p. 153 |
| | The unnatural state of democracy | |
| | Are we really as rational as we think we are when we vote? | |
| | Lessons from history: Nixon versus Kennedy, and a twelve-year-old's letter to Lincoln | |
| | Predicting elections from a snapshot | |
| | Designing the "perfect" candidate | |
| | Conclusion: The Importance of Predictive Humility | p. 177 |
| | Acknowledgments | p. 181 |
| | Notes | p. 185 |
| | References | p. 221 |
| | Credits | p. 255 |
| | Index | p. 257 |