Book Reviews

Blink
Malcolm Gladwell

Gladwell is a bit of an intellectual gadfly and translator of social science research for popular consumption. A staff writer for the New Yorker he has achieved enormous success with both the I Pod generation and Fortune 500 business in large part because he is both optimistic and pragmatic with a breezy and engaging writing style.

As a psychologist there are two areas Gladwell covers that are of particular interest. The first is the work of Tim Wilson on the “adaptive unconscious.” Wilson’s research suggests that a good deal of sophisticated and complex thinking about decisions making, setting goals, generating and communicating ideas and actions occur on an unconscious level. This mode of thinking is most often on display when we must respond quickly in unique or novel and stressful situations where prior preparation hasn’t been possible. In other words we rely on this adaptive unconscious to make quick decisions with little information.

An essential element of such rapid decision making is known as “thin-slicing.” Gladwell suggests that “thin-slicing” refers to the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience. A fascinating and most relevant example is the work of John Gottman. Gottman, with an astounding degree of accuracy, can determine which couples will remain married and which will divorce by eavesdropping (thin-slicing) on a couple’s conversation in a restaurant. What does he listen for, what is the most pertinent “thin-slice”? Contempt; which he defines as speaking from a superior position which is condescending, dismissive and drenched in disgust for one’s partner. Gottman has found the presence of contempt in a marriage can even effect the immune system as he has discovered he can predict such illnesses as how many colds a husband or wife gets.
This brief book is full of interesting, insightful, and compelling examples based on Gladwell’s mantra: to understand how things work is to have control over them. This is a book well worth the read and the arguments the thoughtful reader will find available.