Deceptive Subconsciousness In Malcolm Gladwell's Novel Blink

When someone accidentally touches a smoldering oven rack, they are not presented with adequate time to consider every manner they can react. Within a split-second, the human will retract their hand in order to avoid further agony and save their skin. In this circumstance, the sensory nerve which perceived the pain will bypass the brain and reconnect directly to a motor nerve near the spinal cord, which will in turn cause muscles to withdraw the hand. This life-saving device, called a reflex arc, is not the body’s only underlying system with the ability to quickly recognize and react. The novel Blink, written by Malcolm Gladwell, explores the adaptive unconsciousness—a sort of intuitive instinct which is able to detect if something is awry

A group of scientists at the University of Iowa conducted a study with a gambling game containing 2 decks of blue cards and 2 decks of red cards. The goal of this game is to win prize money off these cards. The blue cards offered a steady flow of money with lesser losses. On the contrary, when describing the red decks, Gladwell uses a metaphor: He refers to the red cards as a “minefield” (paragraph 16), containing great reward, but also immense risk. The only definitive way to emerge victorious is by flipping over the blue cards. Subsequent to turning over approximately 50 cards, one can guess what is occurring and after 80, one can develop a concrete explanation. Despite this, the research found that by the 10th card, the gamblers’ hands began to sweat to a greater extent when turning over the red cards. This perspiration directly correlates with the amount of stress one is experiencing. This anxiety is the result of the adaptive subconsciousness sensing the red deck of cards has a much greater chance of leading to tremendous loss. Gladwell uses alliteration when he refers to this as the “second strategy.” (paragraph 19) He expounds that this instinct operates swifter, but tends to be undetectable. It functions under the surface of consciousness along alternate pathways such as sweat glands. Ultimately, by listening to their instinctual feeling, the players of this game could’ve won much sooner than if they relied on the conscious, first part of their