How Do Gladwell And Anthes Portray Effectiveness?

Not many people, including myself, have come to the conclusion that our surroundings does, in fact, influence our focus and/or behavior, according to the readings of Malcolm Gladwell and Emily Anthes. In both their works, Gladwell and Anthes demonstrate examples in which our settings, and even words, affect the way we think and portray creativeness, due to the shape and size of the sites we inhabit. In chapter two of Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Gladwell brings to light of something called priming. According to Gladwell, priming refers to faint triggers that influence our behavior while our consciousness is unaware of such changes (Gladwell 53-54). Examples Gladwell announces includes a situation where he asks the reader to imagine Gladwell is the professor and he asks the reader to come to his office to make a grammatical sentence from the five word scrambled sentence he provides (Gladwell 52). These sentences all comprise of one word that are in reference to the state of “old”. After having completed this test, Gladwell states the student would have walked out of the office slower than he/she did walking in (Gladwell 53). Gladwell primed the reader with scrambled words that conformed with the condition of old such as words like lonely, gray, bingo, and wrinkle (Gladwell 53).
In Building Around the (Mind) by Emily Anthes, it is mentioned that the places we abide have an effect in our thoughts, behaviors, and feelings.
Since this was discovered, prizewinning biologist and Doctor Jonas Salk and other scientists are uncovering clues on how to promote creativity, relaxation, social intimacy, and keep students focused and alerted during classes. Buildings are being constructed and completed with the outlook of creating a place corresponding to its purpose, whether it be higher ceilings, a view of nature through a window, the shape of furniture, and the intensity of lighting in the room
(Anthes). Joan Meyers-Levy reported that the height of a ceiling affects how people think. To elaborate, Levy randomly assigned 100 people to a room with either a ceiling height of eight or ten feet. She asked these people to group sports into categories of their choosing. The people who completed the task in the room with smaller ceilings came up with more concrete sets, as to where the people in the taller ceilings came up with more abstract ideas (Anthes). Adding to how a person thinks, Anthes discusses that the views of natural sceneries, such as gardens and fields actually improve focus. Also, settling in the presence of the color green can essentially aid students with attention disorders. This was tested with children with attention deficit disorder. Scientists asked parents to describe their children’s abilities to concentrate on homework, for example, after being in the presence of greenery