My Review 4/5

The study of the first two seconds after you encounter something. This book focuses on the ‘gut’ reaction that people have to stimulus. System 1 has the ability to categorize and respond to patterns before the top down System 2 can even understand what is happening. Opening chapter cites John Gottman’s work (The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work: A Practical Guide from the Country’s Foremost Relationship Expert) and how this is a study of “thin slices” approach. By categorizing every second of an interaction with a variety of codes and measures a clear pattern emerges that then predicts marriage outcome.

Since this rapid cognition happens in milliseconds it is hidden from our conscious thoughts. In fact it’s a ‘locked door’ that we can only filter not change. This rapid response has a dark side. When dealing with negative associations things can escalate out of control. IE President william harding. No qualifications other than he ‘looked the part’. Or negative associations with minority races. Black -> bad, white -> good.

Thin slicing also has another downfall. Too much information. Our top-down brain likes and expects more information to be more ‘confident’ of a decision. But that’s all it builds: confidence. Another scenario that thin slicing is valid is when time is a constrained resource. Ideally you’d have infinite time, infinite resources to come to a conclusion. Under duress system 1 takes over and hands up a snap decision that if not trusted can lead to remorse. This book again builds on the System 1 concepts of Thinking, Fast and Slow. Good read.

Another side effect of snap judgements is object transference. We see a chair and judge it to be comfortable by how it conforms to our preconceived notions of what a chair should be. This also applies to product purchases. Packaging is the product and can impact perceptions. 7-up was tested in a ‘yellower’ can and users reported the product had a strong lime taste.

Another aspect of ‘blink’ is the human ability to read another person’s face in thin slicing approach. Things like “why are you mad” or “why are you sad” when you feel like you’re putting on your best game face. Face is not just a residual of feelings it’s also the involuntary expression of feelings. Playing videos at quarter speed shows these emotions plainly. This is how Gottman can categorize relationships in 15 min. Take a contextual sample, an argument, and categorize all the emotions by type and you’re left with an ‘fist’ of pattern matching.

This is how teletype operators were tracked via WWII. Operators come online and use the telegraph morse code in their own sub-conscious way. This could be picked up by another human. The most important aspect of all these categorizations are occurring in a ‘context’. Interactions between couples at dinner parties is not relevant. Gottman has his couples discuss a point of contention/disagreement in their marriage to set the proper context.

The final section of the book deals with how police officers handle rapid cognition in interactions. Much of their training is built around protecting the brain from feeling trapped. During the heightened awareness the body will actually start shutting down extraneous systems. People became ‘autistic’ in the sense they overly focus on objects instead of faces. Police officers involved in shootings describe only focusing on the gun, the hand and being totally un-aware of any other activity. The body performs ‘best’ in these high stress situations at a heart rate around 120-150 bmp. More and the body is overwhelmed, less and its taxing but not effective.

In conclusion, knowing what your brain does in the 2 seconds after you encounter a stimulus is important but cannot block prejudices. With the rise of ‘screened’ orchestra auditions for example orchestras have become much more diverse in minorities and females. While our top down system asserts that we are masters of perception and can identify great talent from our ears alone, like the drinkers of 7-up our eyes form judgements about what we see which influence what we think.

Date Read

2016/03/01

Date Added

2016/05/31

Goodreads book information

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/567650

Bookshelves: psychology

Author’s Note

Initial md Generated using https://github.com/jsr6720/goodreads-csv-to-md

Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Little, Brown & Company 2005 (Audio CD)1

Significant revisions

tags: 2016, book, review, Gladwell, psychology

  • Apr 22nd, 2024 Converted to jekyll markdown format and copied to personal site
  • Mar 1st, 2016 Originally published on goodreads

EOF/Footnotes

  1. ISBN: =”1586217194” ↩