blink by Malcolm Gladwell (Book Review)

blink by Malcolm Gladwell (Book Review)

Malcolm Gladwell is a former business and science reporter at the Washington Post and is now a staff reporter for the New Yorker. In his book blink he wishes to unravel the mysteries of the “unconscious instinct” and how it can be controlled.

The book consists of six chapters and is filled with various real-life incidents that better help him to explain his theory of the “unconscious instinct”. The unconscious mind is constantly analyzing and critiquing every single bit of information it receives. This is called “thin-slicing”. Our unconscious mind is so swift at doing this that we do not even realize how fast the whole process has taken. We rate people on how we experience them rather than how much we know of them. That is why a courteous person is likely to get into trouble than an impolite one. This is how the unconscious mind works. It examines every detail in a split second and then makes its judgement.

The unconscious mind is like a locked door that is dark inside. Many of our snap judgements are made using this part of the mind. That is why we are unable to give a reason for our decisions. Nevertheless, the mind still makes these judgements because of some information that we already know. Our observations come from the information we have gained. But, we must be cautious because too much information blinds the “unconscious instinct” which makes it all the more difficult to make snap judgements.

Our minds are filled with pre-judgements. Some of them are known to us while other are buried deep in the unconscious. This explains how we would score less on an ‘Race IAT’ test. The information that we gain unconsciously ‘primes’ the unconscious. This becomes a problem when we are unable to thin-slice beyond the mere externals. We then rely on the biases that have ‘primed’ the unconscious which cause us to make decisions that we would not do if we thought about the situation very carefully and consciously. The mind needs to be trained to thin-slice the emotions and qualities of the person rather than the external appearances in order to make proper snap judgements.

Moreover, these snap judgements become more reliable if we are more experienced at a particular field. Thus, professional food tasters are able to really tell the taste of the food than mere diners.  They experience the food they eat and study it so minutely that even if they were to be given to taste a food blindfolded they would still succeed in accurately describing the taste. There are many police academies who also give their trainees experience in high-stress situations. It is said that if our heart rate is above 145, our judgements are impaired as we become temporarily autistic. However, the stress we experience improves our performance in making judgements when our heart rate is between 115 and 145. The stress level in a situation is reduced only when one is confident, which is what the police academies wish to instill in their trainees.

The book blink is worth reading, As you move from chapter to chapter, it feels as though the author is speaking directly to you. Taking incidents from people of various walks of life, the author presents the theory of the “unconscious instinct” so as to be applicable to all people. Read the book intellectually in order to bring out the best from the author.