Blink - The Power Of Intuition - Essay Example

Blink: The Power Of Intuition In his book ‘Blink’, Malcolm Gladwell, through his theory of ‘thin slicing’, has tried to describethe intuition, the ability of the mind to perceive and understand those things or events, that are difficult to explain. Gladwell refers to that part of our mind which is a huge storage of information and experience ( Gladwell, Page 11). This space he describes as adaptive unconscious and according to him, it is this part of the mind that, through its own experience and calculations, perceive the people and the events around us, giving snap judgments on it (Gladwell, Page 23). ‘Thin Slicing’ is nothing but the ability of our unconscious mind to reach a decision or a conclusion in seconds, based on the mental patterns that are created by our mind. Without the help of the large computer like unconscious mind, it is not possible to have that ability. However, the question is, are these snap judgments and the ‘gut feelings’, as they are known popularly, reliable? And if they are, to what extent can we rely on them? Gladwell has given many examples and have studied various aspects of life to understand how we can improve this ability so that it serves the best of our interest. Gladwell has given different factors where these split second decisions are reliable and where they are not reliable. Let us look at it one by one. Factors that can make the snap judgments unreliable : 1) Ego can be a great hindrance : In the year 1983, the museum of J.Paul Getty got a visitor who wanted to sell the marble statue from the sixth century BC. The museum, after some investigation decided to buy it, to realize later that it was actually a fake. In 1986, when it went on display, artist Zeri and Greek sculptor expert Evelyn Harrison visited the museum, and something instantly told them that it was not the original (Gladwell, Page 5). Later on investigations followed and it was found that it was really a fake. But what Gladwell was interested in knowing is why this snap judgment or the ‘feeling’ did not work with the Museaum experts? The answer, he found out was in the desire to be famous. The museum was young and they were desperately in need of some invaluable art piece which will help them to get recognition (Gladwell, Page 14). People have ego and the desires that lead them to ignore their gut feelings. This desire to gain success, led the museum to believe that the Kouro was original. 2) Lack Of time: On March’30 1981, President Reagan was attacked by an assassin called John Hinkley. He was among the reporters and shot five to six billets from close range. It all happened so suddenly and so fast that the body guards, instead of stopping Hinkley from shooting, spent those critical micro seconds in taking out the weapons from their holders. The snap judgment did not work here as they did not get any time to even think about it (Gladwell, Page 231) 3) Conditioning of mind Through a psychological tool called implicit Association Test (IAT) (Gladwell, Page 77) , it was found that our mind is conditioned to believe in some things which are not necessarily true. It was found that we have a bent of mind which is prejudiced against people of certain race or people having a particular physical appearance (Gladwell, Page 77). This definitely can hamper the snap judgment as it can overshadow the power of intelligence. 4) Emotions : Emotions like love, hatred, anger and despair has the power to be an obstacle in the path of ‘gut feeling’(Gladwell, Page 15). Let us take an example of a teenager who gets into a physically abusive relationship. Even if her gut feelings tell her that she is in a bad relationship, her emotion of love might still force her to stay in that relationship. Factors that are Reliable : 1) Practice: Mind reading is one of the aspects of snap judgment. Mind is always trainable to behave in certain way. So if we are to make our mind take a right decision under the influence of gut feeling, then what can help is practice. (Gladwell, Page 15) 2) Experience : Gladwell has described his meetings with some of the experts from different fields. He has talked about the experience he had with the food tasters (Gladwell, Page 176). After spending some time with them, he realized that people who are exposed to various kinds of experiences are more likely to take the right decision than people who are not exposed to varied experiences. This is because our snap decisions are based on the patterns that our mind creates from ‘experiences’. 3) Less information is better: With the help of example from Cook County Hospital, Gladwell has shown how less information can help us to reach accurate decision than loads of information (Gladwell, Page 136). The process of going through more information can make a human being to get conscious about the processing and start depending on his learning. Gut feeling happens in seconds and it does not depend on learning. So less the information is, more are the chances of having a right decision. 4) Right decision also needs a the help of practical mind: Gladwell says that the success of the snap decision depends on the combination of both, gut feeling and a logical thinking. One should know when to depend on the snap judgment and when to stop that and start utilizing the trained mind, i.e. the practical mind. This is the most important aspect of understanding the thin slice theory. Examples of people from different walks of life: 1. Priming Experiments (Gladwell Page 35) The priming experiment shows that the mind has associations with different words. And those associations are so strong that they work instantly and unconsciously in our life. So, Gladwell says that it is good to start your day with exposing yourself to the words or objects that give you a positive attitude and positive feelings throughout the day. 2. Bob Golomb’s Sales Success: (Gladwell Page 89) The example given of the car salesman Bob Golomb’s shows that one has to be completely free of the prejudiced mental associations to be completely successful in the art of snap judgments. Bob has said that although his success depends on the intuition regarding the personality of customer’s behavior, he never let that overpower him. He also believes in the conscious hard work by letting the customer know that he really cares for them, whether they buy a car or not. (Gladwell Page 90) 3. Kenna’s Music Career: (Gladwell Page 152) Kenna was a victim of lack of the exposure of common people to the various form of music. Every other expert in the field of music had predicted that Kenna is going to be the next musical sensation . What they did not realize was that fame of Kenna depended on the record deals with companies, which in turn depended on the public survey. When people heard Kenna’s music, they found it different from what they were used to. This got Kenna down on his ratings and he lost out on the big career. 4. The Chair of Death (Gladwell Page 168) When Bill Stumpf designed an office chair called Aeron, he was not prepared for the cold reaction he got from the customers. It was evident that people were not ready to accept a ‘new’ design that they were offered. People are comfortable with the designs and the ideas they are used to. If you want them to accept you, you will have to give them time and let their mind be comfortable with the new idea. And that is what happened. After some years of its arrival, Aeron became the largest selling chair. 5. Autism Cases and “Temporary Autism” : (Gladwell Page 219) Autism is a mental condition where a human being is unable to comprehend the emotions of others. People who have autism are incapable of reading the mind and the emotions of others. They follow the words rather than the feelings of the others. Sometimes, panic can lead us to have the same inability temporarily. Our mind becomes incapable of judging the mental state of other person and end up making a wrong decision. (Gladwell Page 214) 6. Amadou Diallo : (Gladwell Page 214) Diallo was an innocent young man who was killed by four police officers in a chase. This is an example of the snap judgment going completely wrong. It was because of the panic and the biological reaction to panic that the police officers were not able to take the right decision even when it involved the life of one innocent young man. (Gladwell Page 226) Overall, Gladwell has done a great job in letting us know how to develop the skill of thin slicing and make life better. Rference: Gladwell, Malcolm, Blink, Penguin Books, London, England, 2005 Read More