ISU Critical Essay – Short Essay Option

Our second mind is not as simple as it seems. Blink is a behavioral economics book written in 2005 by British-Canadian Journalist Malcolm Gladwell, focusing on our ability to ‘’Thin Slice’’. He explains through this ability we are able to determine what is truly important from a narrow experience, suggesting our spontaneous decisions are often better than the ones we consider. Using several engaging examples, he warns however that this ability of ours is challenged by personal likes, dislikes and overload of information, and is in our best interest to train our first impression to understand this reality through experience. The lack of scientific research in Blink also suggests that it is anecdotal, but Gladwell accepts this reality himself and thoroughly explains every point he makes in regards to this single flaw. Drawing scenarios that practice this rapid cognition from science, advertising, medicine and many others, he is also able to directly engage the reader’s subconscious by random screening and thought provocation. Malcolm Gladwell’s theory brings awareness to the power of our unconscious decision-making and proposes various strategies that offer a solution to its fallacy, maintaining his veracity in the research presented despite the lack of scientific method.

Malcolm Gladwell’s theory brings awareness to the power of our unconscious decision-making. Decisions made quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously. A critical part of rapid cognition, “Thin-slicing” is the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience [1]. Instead of the usual introductory formalities that most authors take especially when dealing with such a complex concept, Gladwell immediately engages the reader with a scenario instead. An art dealer who claims to possess a very rare sculpture approaches a Museum with an asking price of just under $10 Million, and following thorough investigation and research the museum accepts his proposal and finalizes the deal. During this investigation however, various scholars challenge the authenticity of this statue explaining their “intuitive repulsion”. Ignoring these remarks and going ahead with the purchase anyway, the artifact unfortunately proves to be counterfeit leaving the Museum at a significant loss. Throughout this chapter long example, Gladwell details exactly what happened by explaining both sides of the decision. The scholars use the “fast and frugal” strategy, in which Gladwell explains, “They simply took a look at that statue and some part of their brain did a series of instant calculations, and before any kind of conscious thought took place they felt something” [1]. Ignoring to weigh every conceivable strand of evidence and considering only what could be gathered in a single glance, the scholars were unsure what they had figured out, nonetheless adamant that they were correct. The Museum on the other hand failed to recognize this problematic sculpture partly because of the compelling scientific data, and mostly because of their desire for the statue to be authentic. Gladwell explores their interests suggesting, “It was a young museum, eager to build a world-class collection, and the kouros was such an extraordinary find that its experts were blinded to their instincts” [1]. The Museum’s geologists were desperate and ignored the scholar’s warnings due to personal interest, which was also motivated by the intriguing scientific explanation. Gladwell also uses “priming” as a perfect example to explain just how significant our adaptive unconscious is by making the reader engage in a ‘’scrambled sentence test’’. This test involves making five-word sets out of the ten scrambled phrases; randomly inserting words such as worried, silently, old, lonely, gray, forgetful, bingo and wrinkle. Although it is rather straight forward, Gladwell insists it’s the opposite, as the reader would have walked out of his office and down the hall more slowly than they had walked in. This is because of the use of words stated earlier, which makes our adaptive unconscious think about being old. Although this confirms the disturbing reality that the way we think is a lot more susceptible to outside influences than we might realize, Gladwell believes this to be a possible advantage. Referencing back to the scrambled sentence test taken, Gladwell accurately guesses that each sentence only took a few seconds, performing quickly because of the ability to concentrate the task without being distracted. Through confirming this he concludes, “If you had been on the lookout for possible patterns in the list of words, there is no way you would have completed the task that quickly. You would have been distracted. Your unconscious was simply telling your body; I’ve picked up some clues that we’re in an environment that is really concerned about old age – and let’s behave accordingly.” [1]. The unconscious was in a sense taking care of the minor details, keeping tabs on the surroundings and assuring the conscious act accordingly while also leaving it free to concentrate on the main problem. This establishes yet another point of Gladwell’s theory, which is the fundamental reality that although our unconscious is powerful, it is fallible. Our instinctive reactions compete with other personal interests and sentiments, which can distracts the truth of a situation. Gladwell fortunately has a solution to this problem, insisting that our snap judgments and first impressions can instead be educated and controlled.

Malcom Gladwell’s theory proposes various strategies that offer a solution to its fallacy. Snap Judgments are unconscious and enormously quick, relying on the thinnest slice of experience to come to a conclusion which happens behind a “locked door”. Gladwell suggests that when we ask people to explain their snap judgments and unconscious thinking we should be careful in how we interpret the answer. Although in some instances we are able to learn by example and experience, there are some aspects where people are ignorant of the things that affect their actions, however rarely feel ignorant when really we should acknowledge our ignorance and say “I don’t know” more often [1]. Similar to the powerful association with words stated earlier, Gladwell believes there are facts about people’s appearance, such as their size, shape, color or sex in which trigger a similar association. Part of Thin-Slicing and first impressions comes from accepting the fact that we can know more about something in the blink of an eye than after months of studying, however acknowledging and understanding circumstances when rapid cognition can lead us astray is equally important [1]. Utilizing a tool called the “Implicit Association Test (IAT) which focuses on the role these unconscious associations play in our beliefs and behavior, Gladwell explains, “We make connections much more quickly between pairs of ideas that are already related in our minds than we do between pair of ideas that are unfamiliar to us” [1]. The foundation of what the test is based on, Gladwell is implying that there were common associations we subconsciously remain stereotypical towards, and quickly make connections through previous relation in comparison to what is unfamiliar. This is challenged in the test, which first directly questions your attitude towards black and whites, and is followed by the test itself consisting of two images of both an African American and a European American male. Both races simultaneously contain the world Bad and Good underneath their racial title, along with the words hurt, evil, glorious, and wonderful. Regardless of who takes the test, this can be a challenge. Gladwell explains our attitude towards race or gender operates on two levels. Our conscious attitude is what we choose to believe through stated values and directs our behavior deliberately, while our unconscious attitude is the immediate, automatic associations that follow before we are able to think. Gladwell notes that we don’t deliberately choose our unconscious attitudes, as he mentions earlier we may not even be aware they exist. Our adaptive unconscious however processes data from experiences, movies, books, and overall lessons learned which could result in our unconscious attitudes to be incompatible with our stated conscious value. Gladwell nonetheless has a solution for the unconscious discrimination, and suggests “Our first impressions are generated by our experiences and our environment, which means that we can change our first impressions – we can alter the way we thin slice – by changing the experiences that comprise those impressions” [1]. Instead of a simple commitment to equality, one who seeks a set of associations with minorities for example is required to be exposed to them on a daily basis, becoming comfortable with them and familiar with their respective culture. This works towards the unconscious attitude when dealing with any member of that minority, as they are less likely betrayed by hesitation and discomfort. Rapid cognition is to be taken seriously and requires active steps to truly manage these impressions.

Malcolm Gladwell maintains his veracity in his research presented despite the lack of scientific method. It’s one thing to acknowledge the enormous power of our snap judgments and thin slices, however it is quite another to place our trust in something that is so mysterious [1]. Gladwell goes into further explanation suggesting, “Our world requires that decisions be sourced and footnoted, and if we say how we feel, we must also be prepared to elaborate on why we feel that way. I think that approach is a mistake, and if we learn to improve the quality of the decisions we make, we need to accept the mysterious nature of snap judgments. We need to respect the fact that it is possible to know without knowing why we know and accept that sometimes we’re better of that way” [1]. Snap judgments cannot be ‘’sourced and footnoted”, and Gladwell has put emphasis on the idea that the results produced from this adaptive subconscious can be greater than those calculated. This approach taken directly challenges his research, however he remains humble and simply suggests his personal opinion in the matter which is no different than what he has been implying the entire time. Focused on the small components of our everyday lives, Gladwell bases his research on the content and origin of those instantaneous impressions and conclusions that spontaneously come about whenever we meet a new person, confront complex situations or have to make an important decision under stress [1]. He disagrees with our current strategy of paying attention only to the grand scheme, disregarding the particular fleeting moments that could have a much more significant impact than they do. Ironically enough, one of the examples Gladwell highlights for the book faces similar discrimination in regards to his snap judgment decisions. Paul Van Riper is a prestigious soldier hired by the Pentagon to lead an opposing team in a training exercise. The pentagon hopes to prove that through technological advancement, they will be able to lift the fog of war and unanimously win. Based on his real time experience, Riper believes that the less he knows the better, and orders his platoon to keep the contact to a minimum and to share messages through physical contact. In doing so he is able to get the upper hand on the technologically overwhelmed pentagon force, and manages to completely destroy their defenses, declaring him the victor. For the next few days however, a silence fell over the pentagon facility. They responded by turning back the clock, refloating the ships in which Riper had destroyed and insisted his missiles used were destroyed mysteriously with a new kind of missile defense [1]. Riper also managed to assassinate the leader of the pro-U.S. countries in the surrounding region, however was now told this assassination had no effect. Accepting this bizarre turn of events, it wasn’t until contact with his second in command in which he realized that he was being underrated. The second in command was giving everyone in the command room contradicting orders in comparison to Riper’s original strategy. When Riper asked if he could make personal and shoot down a V-twenty-two plane, the second in command replied, “No, you can’t shoot down any V-twenty-two’s. Sir, I’ve been given guidance by the program director to give completely different directions. The second round was all scripted, and if they didn’t get what they liked, they would just run it again.” [1]. Instead of embracing Riper’s strategy which was clearly effective prior to this reworking, the pentagon chose to disregard his snap judgment decision-making and ruled that the technology advancement is in their best favor. Similar to Gladwell, Riper is unable to prove this strategy without contradictions such as the knowledge technology offers. He can only show his success through live exercise, which is clearly at this point hopeless.

Malcolm Gladwell’s theory brings awareness to the power of our unconscious decision-making and proposes various strategies that offer a solution to its fallacy, maintaining his veracity in the research presented despite the lack of scientific method. Due to the rather mysterious of the topic, Gladwell utilizes this novel to teach the reader through examples and perspectives right down to the conclusion of the novel. Building a foundation which slowly grows more complex through the scenarios given, he encourages the reader to use this newfound knowledge to make a difference in the world around us. Gladwell expresses the importance of this knowledge when he explains, “It is not enough simply to explore the hidden recesses of our unconscious. Once we know about how the mind works – and about the strengths and weaknesses of human judgment – it is our responsibility to act” [1]. The reality we face in society is that there is a shameful disparity in the way we treat people based on the color of their skin, and unfortunately even proves to prevail through our unconscious decision-making when we are not aware. The solution is to take this reality into consideration and forcibly overcoming any doubt in our mind by building personal relation in the matter. Nonetheless however, maintaining the ability to make the best judgment with as little information as possible. In his closing remarks in the original introduction, Gladwell proposes the effect this would have on our world if we universally practiced this ideology, questioning, “What if we stopped scanning the horizon with our binoculars and began instead examining our own decision making and behavior through the most powerful of microscopes? I think that would change the way wars are fought, the kinds of products we see on the shelves, the kinds of movies that get made, the way police officers are trained, the way couples are counseled, the way job interviews are conducted, and on and on” [1]. The task of making sense of our behavior and ourselves requires that we acknowledge there can be as much value in the blink of an eye as in months of rational analysis. When we can overcome our own subconscious fallacies collectively, the society we live within will be far more advanced than we have ever known. This is a reality we should all strive for regardless the position, and is much practical than we make it out to be.