Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink explores the subconscious phenomenon “thin-slicing” and its manifestations in everyday life. “Thin-slicing” refers to the latent processes the brain executes, modeled from past experiences, which determine patterns in situations or behaviors. Gladwell expands upon this when he refers to “snap decisions” and “rapid cognition”, using the two terms interchangeably, as very quick “thin-slicing”. All three of these processes derive from neurological automaticity, which arises from repeat exposure to similar stimuli.
LaBerge and Samuels developed a theory on automaticity by analyzing the relationship between semantics and reading. Particularly, they stated skilled readers could discern symbols (letters), create words, and
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Particularly, sensations such as “thin-slicing” most likely developed due to the value of rapid pattern recognition in history. For example, imagine an early human hunter in the jungle. Even though the hunter has been in a similar setting hundreds of times before, his consciousness will not have noticed a subtle sign or smell that marks danger. However, the subconscious would notice and warn the hunter through an incomprehensible sense that would lead to a response such as increased caution, an action that would result in a higher chance of survival. In contrast, “thin-slicing” can prove disadvantageous in situations such as exams. Oftentimes when taking a test, I will have “gut” feeling for an answer. While it is correct sometimes, more often than not the automaticity of reading the question and the immediate response will prove disadvantageous. Particularly, the subconscious will overlook a certain subtlety, misinterpret, or solely attend to part of the question. In this case, an overreliance on “thin-slicing” would prove detrimental. In conclusion, the subconscious phenomenon presented in Blink derives from the brain’s automatizing function, and these actions can prove both beneficial and
Malcolm Gladwell, in order to make his argument seem credible, utilizes specific writing techniques. Gladwell frequently uses anecdotes about successful individuals as examples to further strengthen his argument. Gladwell write that, “One warm, spring day in May of 2007, the Medicine Hat Tigers and the Vancouver Giants met for the Memorial Cup hockey championships in Vancouver, British Columbia” (Gladwell 15). Frequently, Gladwell starts each chapter with a story about an individual group. These stories showcase the events and lives of successful people and are followed by Gladwell’s analysis of their success. By using specific, descriptive anecdotes, Gladwell is proving the credibility of his argument. Instead of just reciting his analysis,
Snap judgements are those immediate conclusions we make when we meet someone for the first time or experience something new or different. Many of us make snap judgements every single day of our lives without even being conscious of it. In fact, it only takes us a couple seconds to decide whether we like something or not. Snap judgements are a mental process we all do unconsciously. According to our class reading “Blink” by Malcom Gladwell, Gladwell states that most of us have experienced snap judgments, but we feel like we should not trust it. Snap judgements are not always precise but Gladwell believes we should ignore these odds and trust our snap judgements.
Eagleman talks about unconscious learning, and explores how much of what we do daily is learned and directed by the unconscious mind. The first example is changing lanes: when we’re driving, we do it without thinking. However, when asked to describe how they change lanes, many people are flummoxed. Changing lanes is so automatic that when the conscious mind tries to take control, it confuses our brains and our gears become out of sync. The second example is chicken sexers: people who can sort chick hatching even though male and female chicks look exactly alike. The third example is plane spotters: people who could distinguish between enemy and ally planes thousands of feet in the air. In both cases, the people just knew! They couldn’t explain how they knew. Rather, after trial and error, their unconscious picked up on the slight cues that allowed to them tell the difference. The conscious mind, on the other hand, was unaware of this
Classical theories demonstrating the inattentional blindness paradigm are (1) the perceptual load, (2) inattentional amnesia and (3) expectation.
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
In his book, “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” Daniel Kahneman defines two “systems” of thought, which he terms System 1 and System 2. Though he defines the two systems in great detail, in essence, the human mind thinks with either “slow thinking” or “fast thinking.” System 1 is the “fast thinking” system. It is automatic and unconscious. It’s based on human instinct and learns by association. System 2, on the other hand, is the “slow thinking” system. It’s the system that we can control, the system that we use when we concentrate hard a...
“Running with Scissors” addressed many issues within the LGBTQ community, sexual abuse and mental health, large issues facing our society. During my time reading the book, I always faced many concerns on how this book related to my life and the children I work with on a daily basis. The author Augusten Burroughs depicts his childhood and the obstacles he faced. The booked touched based on a child opening up about his sexuality, growing up to soon in society and dealing with a parent with a mental health issue. The reading demonstrated meaningful messages, information available for my personal and professional development, and imposed critical thinking in the larger issues discussed.
In the article Threshold of Violence published by The New Yorker Magazine, author Malcolm Gladwell alludes to the cause of school shootings and why they transpire. Gladwell tries to make sense of the epidemic by consulting a study of riots by stanford sociologist Mark Granovetter. Granovetter sought to understand “why people do things that go against who they are or what they think is right, for instance, why typically non-violent, law-abiding people join a riot”(Granovetter). He concluded that people’s likelihood of joining a riot is determined by the number of people already involved. The ones who start a riot don’t need anyone else to model this behavior for them that they have a “threshold” of zero. But others will riot only if someone
In the novel“Blink” by Gladwell, the act of thin-slicing is a resounding theme throughout the novel. Thin-slicing is an unconscious decision-making process which is said to occur behind a closed door of the mind; we make decisions and draw conclusions which we cannot articulate how we got them. The snap-judgements and conclusions that thin-slicing feeds to our conscious brain are not created at random, but are taken from our personal experiences and personal knowledge. Thin-slicing is a very powerful tool of the mind and assists in keeping us safe from potentially dangerous or uncertain situations; but does it close minds to new or different experiences? Thin-slicing is very powerful and is a large factor of cultural discourse.
Gladwell applies the cognitive perspective of psychology to his book through his explanations of how different situations use the cognitive method of “Thin-slicing.” He describes “Thin-slicing” as “the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience” (Gladwell, 2014, p. 23). The application of “Thin-slicing” is chronicled in how Thomas Hoving and other art experts instinctively knew the Getty Museum’s kouros was fake and in how Lee Goldman developed a heuristic for examining whether patients’ chest pains were indicators of a heart attack or some other ailment. Thomas Hoving’s use of “Thin-slicing” occurred in his thought process when he was examining the Getty kouros. He explains
To attempt to relinquish some of these concerns regarding the differentiation of mind and behaviour definition, Whiten (1996) established four distinct variations of mind- reading. These are implicit mind- reading, counter- deception, recognition of intervening variables, and experience projection. Impli...
Imagine you are holding interviews to fill an important position at your company. The next person you are about to interview looks impeccable on paper and has all the credentials you are looking for, but as soon as that person walks through the door you suddenly get a gut feeling that this person is not the right person for the job. Based on intuition alone, without even interviewing the applicant, you cannot hire this individual. This is what is known as thin slicing. Malcom Gladwell describes thin slicing as, “the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience” (Gladwell 2013, p. 23). Gladwell’s definition explains the reasoning behind that “gut” feeling you just had about the candidate, it was your unconscious telling you that something was not quite right. Thin slicing can be useful in many situations but can also be misleading, which is why it can
Mook, D. G. (2004). Roger Sperry and the Bisected Brain. In D. G. Mook, Classic Experiments in Psychology (pp. 67-71). Westport, Connecticut, United States: Greenwood Press.
Attention has been an increasingly tricky subject within psychology to investigate over the past few centuries, and as advancements have been made, so have the discoveries of more systems within attention itself. It has been described as an enhancement of the perception of certain stimuli in the environment (Shapiro, 1993), with studies having their focus on, of course, human attention. Despite the attentional system’s complexity, it has very clear limitations that have been made apparent and examinable through recent studies. A fairly recent observed phenomenon is known as the attentional blink; a form of selective attention that makes subsequent relevant items in a brief sequence undetectable. Various studies have taken a look at this, and as will soon be discovered, there is much more at work here than simply what is decided to be processed and what isn’t.
The sense of sight plays an important role as an educational device. We use our sense of sight to visually interact with our surroundings. With this sense we can recognize objects around us and make new discoveries. The mind plays a direct role in the way we respond to and interpret the things we see. The human eye provides the brain with vast amounts of visual information, in which the brain then registers or disregards in memory. The brain oftentimes transmits signals back to the person which cause a physical or emotional reaction. For example, when one touches a pointy object or hits one’s knee on a hard surface, one feels pain not from the pointy object or the hard surface but by the interpretation in one’s mind from electrical signals inside the brain. This is what causes one to yell out in agony when these particular situations occur.