In the first chapter of Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, the idea of thin slicing is introduced. Gladwell (2005) defines this idea as, “the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behaviors based on very narrow slices of experience” (p. 23). In other words, Gladwell (2005) is arguing that one’s unconscious is able to find patterns in other’s behavior that, in turn, shape one’s opinions and thoughts about that new person. Illustrating this phenomenon, Blink analyzes the research work of a psychologist, John Gottman, and his ability to use the technique of thin slicing. Gottman can predict, with 95 percent accuracy, if after 15 years if a married couple will stay married. Using this critical part of rapid cognition, Gottman interpretes …show more content…
It is common knowledge that multiple factors influence one’s decision making process, such as someone’s culture and experience. These factors’ influence are magnified when one has to make a snap judgement and accelerate the decision making process. Gladwell (2005) illustrates this idea by examining a shooting of an immigrant in New York City in 1999. Four police thought Amadou Diallo was armed and ending up shooting Diallo 41 times. After realizing he was unarmed, the police were obviously very distraught and the idea of thin slicing becomes very less appealing. Another application of when using the tool of thin slicing can lead one to be wrong is airport security. As noted prior, people base their snap judgements off of their culture and experience. In the United States at this moment in time islamophobia is at an all time high, and this could cause issue with workers of TSA at airport security checkpoints. TSA workers may practice stereotyping and prejudice when asking people who look muslim or even from middle eastern descent to take additional security …show more content…
Instead we see it as we have been taught to see it. We see it through the lenses our culture has provided us” (136). After reading this and analyzing the concept of social cognition in lecture, it is easy to see how it directly relates to Blink. Social cognition affects how people interpret each other’s messages. In other words, by understanding another person and the nature of the social situation, it is easier to understand what that person is trying to convey Jensen Trenholm, 2013). This idea directly corresponds with Gottman’s research and the fact that humans never see the world as it truly is. Instead, humans see the world is multi second snapshots that illustrate the real meaning of an interaction. Such as Gottman analyzing every aspect of a couple’s conversation in order to make his prediction on whether or not he believed that same couple would be married fifteen years later. Gottman is able to forecast the outcome of a couple’s marriage with such astounding accuracy because of his experience honing his skills (Gladwell, 2005). The same can be said for the shooting in New York City in 1999, because of the police officer’s perception of the man, based off of their culture and experience, caused them to end his
Malcolm Gladwell, in the nonfiction book Outliers, claims that success stems from where you come from, and to find that you must look beyond the individual. Malcolm Gladwell develops and supports his claim by defining an outlier, then providing an example of how Stewart Wolf looked beyond the individual, and finally by giving the purpose of the book Outliers as a whole. Gladwell’s purpose is to explain the extenuating circumstances that allowed one group of people to become outliers in order to inform readers on how to be successful. The author writes in a serious and factual tone for the average person in society of both genders and all ethnicities who wants to become successful in life.
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,
David and Goliath is the story of a young shepherd whom lacking of any kind of combat training, managed to overcome a giant, who was sophisticated in combat tactics, just using his wit. In modern times, that act is used as an analogy to compare people who against all odds overcome a difficult situation in their lives.
Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers includes a section based on the Bible's “Matthew Effect” and a self-fulfilling prophecy. This chapter elaborates on“the Matthew Effect” and how if anyone gives certain opportunities at the right time, their experiences will be furthered than others through training and more opportunities being opened to them. Gladwell touches on this using the example of hockey players given the advancement of only being born in the early months of the year and then those kids get trained exceptionally better than others for this simple reason of them being born in these months. It shows how society is simple-minded and always set to have an outcome, it’s not only random at this point, it’s always decided upon and furthered. Kids
Sherman Alexie’s Flight Patterns, which discusses racial stereotypes, relates to the effects of 9/11 on American citizens, who tend to inappropriately judge Muslim and other cultures in the world today. Although 9/11 was a horrible day, it still should not be used to categorize and stereotype people. Stereotypes do nothing but harm to the people who receive it and to the people who dish it out.
To most people the blink of an eye is a very short span of time. Most people would not believe, however, that critical information can be gathered and a conclusion made in the blink of an eye. In Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell proves that split second decisions or what some call “gut decisions” can be just as reliable if not more reliable than drawn out, researched conclusions. Gladwell believes that this book will revolutionize the thought process and the world, he proves this by using exemplification and compare and contrast.
Technology has had a negative impact on this generation- we have lost and forgotten many things because of it. In Malcolm Gladwell’s “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted”, he discusses the difference between social media activism and “real” activism and the loss of human connection that he has identified. He believes that with social media activism, we lack the connections a community should have because we don’t get together in person- we are satisfied with being connected through technology. He also thinks that as time goes on, we will only get worse when referring to the ideas that we are delusional because the issues we fight about (such as getting phones taken away) aren’t as important as we think.
“People don't rise from nothing....It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't”(Gladwell 18).
In the United States of America today, racial profiling is a deeply troubling national problem. Many people, usually minorities, experience it every day, as they suffer the humiliation of being stopped by police while driving, flying, or even walking for no other reason than their color, religion, or ethnicity. Racial profiling is a law enforcement practice steeped in racial stereotypes and different assumptions about the inclination of African-American, Latino, Asian, Native American or Arab people to commit particular types of crimes. The idea that people stay silent because they live in fear of being judged based on their race, allows racial profiling to live on.
Malcolm Gladwell’s “Troublemakers” is an article in which he explores the way societies make generalizations. Malcolm explains how Ontario has banned pit bulls due to a boy being attacked and people viewing that one example to be enough to distinguish all pit bulls as vicious and bloodthirsty. He goes on to employ that all dogs even resembling pit bulls or that have some pit bull mixed into them have been banned as well, because anything that looks like a pit bull has now been deemed dangerous for the people in that society. Not only does Malcolm point out other ways societies generalize people, like racial profiling a terrorist, but he distinguishes how steps could have been taken to eliminate the threat of the pit bull but it seemed to just
The North Korean government is known as authoritarian socialist; one-man dictatorship. North Korea could be considered a start of a dystopia. Dystopia is a community or society where people are unhappy and usually not treated fairly. This relates how Ray Bradbury's 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451 shows the readers how a lost of connections with people and think for themselves can lead to a corrupt and violent society known as a dystopia.
It is clear that the film Prisoners of Silence holds many illustrations of concepts explained by Social Psychology. While the examples of belief perseverance and the confirmation bias are specifically pointed out here, one could find numerous others. This shows that one can examine situations and events occurring around and within one's own life and see Social Psychology at work.
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
1.Author: Ray Bradbury an American novelist and horror author wrote dozens of books like Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man, and The Martian Chronicles. He also wrote lot’s of short stories and he was a playwright. He was born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. Ray Bradbury graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938.
Once in a while, it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to. Gladwell believes that cultural legacies are powerful forces. Cultural legacies are the customs of a family or a group of people, that is inherited through the generations. According to Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, Cultural legacies is something that’s been passed down for generations to generations. It depends on what type of legacies was passed that will affect a person. If a good legacy was passed down, someone can keep that legacy going by trying hard at keeping the legacies going. If a bad legacy was passed down; I believe that cultural legacies can be altered or changed, by good working habits, determination, and a positive mindset to succeed. Culture can affect either positively or negatively, but we have the power to turn our cultural