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1-Page Summary of Blink
Overview
Author Malcolm Gladwell begins his book Blink by telling a story about the Getty Museum in Southern California, which bought what turned out to be a controversial piece of work called a kouros. It was subjected to extensive geological tests that confirmed its authenticity. However, experts who saw it for the first time said it was fake because they didn’t like how it looked. How could this happen?
Blink is an interesting book about the power of thin slicing. The author, Malcolm Gladwell, uses examples from all over to show how people can make snap judgments based on very little information and be correct in their assumptions. He also shows that these same snap judgments can be wrong because they’re made without enough information. It’s important to remember that we often rely on our first impressions even though they may not always be accurate.
The next part of the book looks at our ability to make quick decisions. We often don’t have enough information, and we use subtle cues that are impossible to describe. The author uses examples from a tennis coach’s analysis of their player’s technique and a student taking an exam to illustrate this point.
In light of a lack of information, people often unconsciously scan for information that their conscious mind cannot conceive or imagine (Gladwell calls these “thin slices”). This is where unconscious judgments arise – when you can’t explain why something happened, it must be because your subconscious picked up on some small detail (or even big one) that allowed you to make a decision without consciously knowing how you came by it. In today’s world, not having enough information isn’t seen as appropriate; however in many professions there is no way around making snap judgments about things which are difficult or impossible to describe with words alone.
Gladwell also examines how people’s unconscious values can be more important than their conscious values. He gives the example of Warren Harding, who was elected president based on his looks and demeanor rather than his actual political beliefs or actions. Gladwell states that these biases are difficult to identify but even more difficult to admit.
Gladwell moves on to another example of a war game that was conducted before the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. The team led by the military had every possible advantage over Paul Van Riper’s team – tactical, weaponry, technology and control over political and economic conditions. Nevertheless, Riper’s team managed to sink the opposing team’s ships in a matter of a few hours – completely voiding the entire effort. This is because Riper used more traditional methods of communication (such as delivering messages through codes transported via motorcycle) to make an attack. Gladwell uses this anecdote to illustrate how instinctive thinking can be combined with deliberate thinking in order for successful decision-making to happen.
Gladwell then looks at experts, and their importance in the decision-making process. They have more experience than other people who don’t need to make quick decisions, so they can deliberate over those decisions. However, this goes back to the fact that deliberative thinking is necessary for making quick decisions – but expertise is needed for explaining those decisions.
In this chapter, Gladwell continues to discuss the concept of a “thin-slicing” situation. He mentions police brutality and how officers have only a few seconds to make decisions that could potentially save their lives or someone else’s life.
Gladwell ends the book with a short nod to classical music auditions in America. When the audition process became more rigorous and less biased, there was an increase in women who were accepted into America’s top symphonies. The author alludes that this happened because judges could not be neutral about applicants unless they didn’t know their identity – another example of unconscious bias at work.
