The author describes the main subject of his book as thinslicing. Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant in the blink of an eye that actually arent as simple as they seem. In a psychological experiment, normal people given fifteen minutes to examine a students college dormitory can describe the subjects personality more accurately than. The theory of thin slicing humans can take a small amount of data a thin slice and draw conclusions from it using a combination of experience and intuition. Blink is a book by malcolm gladwell explaining this theory of thinslicing.
Kennedy gladwells theory of success applied to micheal jordan, bill gates, and ellen degeneres applied to gladwells theory of success trouble with geniuses personal biography growing up john attend private schools due to the families wealth and his parents desire to have. Malcolm gladwell is the author of five new york times bestsellers. Blink summary from litcharts the creators of sparknotes. Achieving three tasks, gladwell marshals anecdotes, statistics, and a little bit of theory to persuasively argue his case. The power of thinking without thinking 2005 is malcolm gladwells. You tell a human interest story and learn from it along the way. In chapter four, he looks at the famous pentagon war game of 2000, in which an enemy red team and a heroic blue team engaged in a mockwar for control of the middle east. In gladwells descriptions of thin slicing, he found that in all cases knowing a very specific, small amount about someone or something enables an observer to more accurately predict or conclude. Blink can help readers understand when thinslicing is useful and when analytical thinking should be relied on instead. Malcolm gladwells blink is a fascinating exploration of rapid cognition, the thinking that takes place within the blink of an eye. The cognitive theory behind this kind of strange, but natural, impulse a theory gladwell colloquially refers to as thin slicing is at the very heart of blink. Malcolm gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. It presents in popular science format research from psychology and behavioral economics on the adaptive unconscious. But in fact, gladwell argues, thin slicing can be more fairminded and objective than rational assessment because it reduces the number of opportunities for easy stereotyping.
The concept refers to how in a split second or blink of an eye people can make. Thin slices of negotiation 3 thin slices of negotiation. The tipping point by malcolm gladwell animated book. The idea behind thin slicing is that our mind can see overarching, significant. A marriage analyst knows within minutes whether a couple will stay together. You could write a book a persons face and still, you wouldnt recognize it. Do you think you could hire someone by thinslicing the candidate during a brief interview. From the author of the tipping point, malcolm gladwells international bestseller blink. A few thin slices of malcolm gladwell by dave, february 8, 2005 9. Malcolm timothy gladwell cm born september 3, 1963 is a canadian journalist, author, and public speaker. This clear and detailed summary and analysis is a valuable resource for anyone who wants to understand gladwells bestselling book. He has been a staff writer for the new yorker since 1996. The great thing about thinslicing, argues gladwell, is that we can all do it, especially when it comes to thinslicing each other. One might think that thinslicing is tailormade for stereotyping, since it involves judging a book by its cover.
Gladwell attempts to answer this with an idea he calls, the tipping point. Gladwells theories come packaged in nifty little tales, like paul reveres midnight ride revere, you see, was both a maven and a connector or the thinslicing psychologist who, after a mere. Supersummary, a modern alternative to sparknotes and cliffsnotes, offers highquality study guides for challenging works of literature. This is neither a theoretical book nor a collection of essays. Fast and frugal imagine that i were to ask you to play a very simple gambling game. And that the only way you can tame this flawed decision making process is to become an expert in your field and to always realize that your subconscious is at work in your decision making process. This book is an interesting read because this topic concerns everyone since instinctive decision making is common. Thin slicing refers to the ability of our unconscious mind to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience.
Put simply, thin slicing is the ability to grasp a situation or problem in the blink of an eye without having to analyze it in detail. Humanities gladwells theory of success by becca ritchie. The mind operates most efficiently by relegating a good deal of highlevel. Gladwell talks about how different people can thin slice things differently. Summaries are available in pdf, pda, html, powerpoint and audio formats. A few thin slices of malcolm gladwell powells books. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept. Now, in blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Its paperback edition consists of 320 pages blink is written in a scientific, yet conversational style and is aimed at the broadest possible audience gladwell describes the main subject of his book as thinslicing.
The end of the book seems to say that thinslicing is a bad thing, which causes us to make snap judgments based on race and gender biases. At first glance you might want to think of rapid cognition as intuition or a gut feel somewhat of an emotional perception, unconscious or perhaps irrational. In the second half of the book, gladwell explores some of the case studies of his theory of thinslicing. Gladwells theory about rapid cognition or thinslicing indicates that it is not enough to make certain conscious changes in attitudes or values, but must also acknowledge the subtle influences that can alter our subconscious, thereby undermining our conscious attitudes. This book verified something that i believed to be true rapidcognition without providing ways to practically exploit the theory. Evolution has honed our social intelligence, allowing us read people accurately based on fleeting first impressions which is why speed. When an ohio lawyer and lobbyist named harry daugherty was a newspaper editor, he first saw harding in a hotel lobby in ohio, and was instantly overwhelmed by what he saw.
The psychologist, samuel gosling, shows how thinslicing can be used to judge peoples personality when he uses the dorm room observers. Malcolm gladwells mindblowing ideas business insider. Contents data are machine generated based on prepublication provided by the publisher. Predicting outcomes from conversational dynamics within the first five minutes malcolm gladwells popular book, blink, describes the surprising power of thin slicing, defined as the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and people.
Why malcolm gladwells ideas are so interesting, whether. In the book gladwell tells us many different stories that have to do with thin slicing. Blink by malcolm gladwell pdf download free ebooks. John gottman, author of some wonderful books you can read on this website as well, became famous for predicting with a 90% accuracy rate which couples would divorce just by looking at a 15 minutes conversation between them.
But gottman is a master of thin slicing a part of rapid cognition that refers to the ability of the unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience. The book has examples of successful thin slicing, examples showing how it works and what it accomplishes. Before the theory of thinslicing was proposed, most of the research done on our talents for reading other people was focussed on body language and lie. The power of thinking without thinking dr jt nthebe. The power of thinking without thinking is a revolution in the understanding of the mind an art expert sees a tenmilliondollar sculpture and instantly spots its a fake. Thinslicing refers to the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience. One of the possible inconsistencies in gladwells argument, one that sometimes arises in different parts of his book, is that of initial impressions. Understanding unconscious intelligence and intuition. The tipping point, blink, outliers, what the dog saw, and david and goliath. But thinslicing also works with nonexperts if youre looking at something which. The power of thinking without thinking, malcolm gladwell the author describes the main subject of his book as thin slicing. Bibliographic record and links to related information available from the library of congress catalog note.
Humans can take a small amount of data a thinslice and draw conclusions from it using a combination of experience and intuition. The case of amadou diallo in blink, by malcolm gladwell, is one example of unsuccessful thinslicing. Thinslicing is a term used in psychology and philosophy to describe the ability to find patterns in events based only on thin slices, or narrow windows, of experience. Gladwell tells the story of the rise of us president warren g. The cognitive theory behind this kind of strange, but natural, impulse called thin slicing is the main topic of blink. But gottman, it turns out, can teach us a great deal about a critical part of rapid cognition known as thinslicing. The power of thinking without thinking 2005 is malcolm gladwells second book. The term means making very quick inferences about the state, characteristics or details of an individual or. The book has examples of successful thinslicing, examples showing how it works and what it accomplishes. Related booksfree pdf healing the soul of a woman by joyce meyer pdf. A snap of a second looking at the picture of marilyn monroe face and you would recognize her right away though. That magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. The dark side of thin slicing so far in blink, i have talked about how extraordinarily powerful thin slicing can be, and what makes thin slicing possible is our ability to very quickly get below the surface of a situation.
The psychologist john gottman, for example, became known for being able to determine with a 90% correction rate if a marriage would perpetuate. One might think that thin slicing is tailormade for stereotyping, since it involves judging a book by its cover. Blink is a book by malcolm gladwell explaining this theory of thin slicing. In the book gladwell tells us many different stories that have to do with thinslicing. This 43page guide for blink by malcolm gladwell includes detailed chapter summaries and analysis covering 6 chapters, as well as several more indepth sections of expertwritten literary analysis. The power of thinking without thinking using a tried and tested technique. Gladwell 2005 explains that when we are thinslicing or making our snap judgment, we ve got a locked door i. Thomas hoving and evelyn harrison and the an experts were instantly able to see behind the forgers artifice. John gottman, author of some wonderful books you can read on this website as well. An analysis of the examples of thinslicing in blink by. It considers both the strengths of the adaptive unconscious, for example in expert judgment, and its. His work is a classic example of conscious and deliberate thinking.
In front of you are four decks of cards two of them red and the other two blue. In blink, gladwell zooms in on thin slicing, a psychological process in which were constantly reading peoples personalities within seconds of seeing them. This book is only 277 pages long, but there are dozens of stories about thinslicing. Blink is about the power of thinking without thinking. Thinslicing is the ability of your brain to make decisions or judgments before you have the time to think about them. Love at first sight is one of our most endearing beliefs, but it is a romantic delusion. Im not buying anything else of gladwells, but i would recommend looking up the sparknotessummary of this book. The power of thinking without thinking is a book written by malcolm gladwell. The technique relies on using our unconscious ability to find patterns in situations and behaviors based on small experiences. Contents may have variations from the printed book or be incomplete or contain other coding. No doubt that gottman and company are good at quickly figuring out the future of a couple, but to have gotten to that point required years of observation that has habituated and pruned them to.
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