In chapter five of Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, in which Malcolm Gladwell has several main points of focus, which correlate previous chapters and bring new ideas into sight. In the previous chapters, he talks about “thin-slicing” (Gladwell Ch. 1, Section 2, Paragraph 7), which is finding patterns in narrow windows of experience and also how snap judgment can help you in situations in which quick reactions are used. In chapter five he focuses on the other side of “thin-slicing” (Gladwell Ch. 1, Section 2, Paragraph 7), showing that you cannot always trust it, how emotional involvement can…
In chapter “Wilma Derksen”, Malcolm Gladwell talks about different way of using power. There are two words that important to understand the chapter are “crime” and “repercussions”. The first word is crime; this word means an offensive action that may be prosecute by state. This chapter talks about the limit of power through the ways that people uses to react to crime. We can see this word repeats all over this chapter. The second word is repercussions; this word means a bad consequence occurring after an welcome action or event. Gladwell uses this word when he talks about the effect of Three Law Strikes. We all think that the Three Law Strikes is good; it will help decrease the number of criminals. However, it causes some major repercussions…
In Outlier, Malcolm Gladwell argues an “opportunity” is the important key which lead people from one success to another success (5). He proves his point to the readers by an example that seems normal to a strong evidence about the “physical maturity” in which affect by the birth month gap (24). I agree with him about the meaning of an outlier who must “do things that are out of the ordinary” (17) and those “genuine outlier” hockey players “didn’t start out an outlier”, yet “he started out just a little bit better” (31). His viewpoint about those sport games not only precisely substantiate, but it also exactly justify the impact of family background that certainly affect individuals’ success. Gladwell makes me to realize that real life success…
Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell’s, discusses the idea of thin slicing, the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations from small samples. Gladwell also delves into the positive and negative effects of snap judgments and how people come to conclusions withoutbeing consciously aware of doing so. One topic of the book that intrigued me was the research of John Gottman and Paul Ekman. Gottman is a psychologist and professor who has spent most of his career studying interpersonal relationships. By watching a 15 minute video in slow motion, Gottman is able to predict with 90% accuracy whether or not the couple will eventually divorce.…
Malcolm Gladwell, a best-selling author, describes the social phenomenon known as thin-slicing in his book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. Thin-slicing refers to the way that people take in little information quickly and make judgements with or without knowing they are doing so. Gladwell asserts that thin-slicing is imperative in save time and make valuable predictions. Gladwell’s inference is well supported with psychologists’ research and data collected on the subconscious.…
As explained in Blink by Gladwell and Payne, unconscious discrimination is a type of discrimination that is very hard to recognize. We have all heard about explicit discrimination, which can take two forms: the individual level and the institutional level. At the individual level, people openly like. This can be seen in the case of bias hiring when an employer tells a postulant; “I will not hire you because you are a female.” At the institutional level, one of the most striking examples of discrimination occurs with the Nuremberg Laws in Nazi Germany. These laws restricted the rights of German citizens that were Jews. People working in the Nazi institutions had to enforce these discriminatory laws even if they disagreed with them. By discriminating against Jews, they were only “doing their job and following orders”.…
Throughout the novel, “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell, Gladwell discusses the theory of thin slicing. Thin Slicing “refers to the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience” (23) Gladwell convinced me of this theory because he provided many resources and many studies.…
Have you ever had to make a split second decision? Have you ever mad an impulse judgment without knowing all the facts? You probably have; its human nature. Whether its reading body language, processing facial expressions, or even having someone rub you the wrong way, your gut feeling or intuition about situations can be described in a different manner. In the book “Blink” By Malcolm Gladwell, Gladwell describes his theory on thin slicing, how it works and how we can utilize this unconscious tool for our own benefit. Thin slicing is when the unconscious mind automatically identifies patterns developed from past experiences and makes what Gladwell calls snap judgments. He shows several examples of when thin slicing can be beneficial as well as a few flaws in the slicing process. One of the main points to the thin slicing process is that only small amounts of data are required so long as it’s the right data in making the proper snap judgment. This point is made in the examples that Gladwell uses with the Getty Museum, John…
The main focus of this book is about “thin-slicing” of human mind. Mankind often see the situation or people with a little of understanding. People try to recognize the situation they are in, resulting them to look at only a small portion of the whole thing. We humans often perceive things by what we look and hear. Gladwell points out how “thin-slicing” works in human’s mind.…
In the renowned fantasy novel Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling, Albus Dumbledore says, “indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike.” The play, Angels in America, A Gay Fantasia on National Themes by Tony Kushner, presents several relationships of characters. The relationship of Joe and Harper Pitt in particular plays a vital role in his play. By not making the effort to fix the problems in their relationship, Joe and Harper have finally grown so distant from each other that it is impossible to fix it. Kushner uses many different writing techniques to present that Joe and Harper have a failing marriage. He uses tone and dialog to show that Harper isn’t going to follow Joe in his advancing career. Next, Kushner references movies that parallel Joe and Harper’s relationship. And lastly, Kushner adds real world examples to show the neglect of Harper’s emotional problems. All of Kushner’s writing techniques add up to clearly explain why the marriage is failing.…
Throughout life, people are always seeking something, whether it is discovering solutions to satisfy desires or seeking the purpose of life. However, the recognition and fulfillment of one's true self-are the hardest things in the world simply because one always seems certain of him or herself, and is strongly influenced by his or her surroundings. In his essay, “The Power of Context,” Malcolm Gladwell says that human behavior is susceptible to and strongly predisposed by the environment in which they live. He further poses that, "epidemics are sensitive to the surroundings and situation of the places and times in which they transpire." The essay extensively states that the features of one’s current social and physical…
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell explores the idea of “thin-slicing,” which is the act of the brain only using a small bit of information to make a decision. These types of snap judgements are sometimes thought to be inferior to well thought out and studied decisions. Gladwell shows that well researched decisions are not always better decisions.…
I was sitting alone in the library preparing myself for my upcoming math test. While I…
The human thoughts, behavior and the overall physical nature, have been described as an invincible part of the existence of humanity. The manner in which individuals and people conduct themselves within the society or in a specific community is best explained through the use of various psychological theories. The latter is a sociological part of a study that picks up one human trait and studies it in discrete detail. One classic example is the behavioral theory that is applied when attempting to explain and demonstrate new behaviors and tendencies within a given group of people. The majority of these psychological theories are included within the learning curriculum since they tremendously contribute to the understanding and appreciation of…
This chapter went more into depth of the material. It was actually interesting to read about the theories. Biological, Multicultural, Traits, Positive Psychology, and Internet Use. One Section that i myself enjoyed learning about was traits, or the "Big 5 Super Traits". Yes there is still some criticism on this, but it was interesting how narrowed down it could be. The 5 traits consisted of: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. It's fascinating how we know so much, yet we are also still unaware of many things. New technology and more importantly time, will surely tell if we are able to understand everything. But, How much longer till we know everything? Will we ever know everything? Are the five super traits…