In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell explores the phenomenon he calls 'thin slicing'; the human ability to winnow out, in fractions of a second, salient facts from a mass of information and make a decision based on them. Something most of us do all the time without giving it much conscious thought – reading the facial expressions and body language of the people with whom we interact, walking down a busy street (or a quiet street late at night), our subconscious minds processing hundreds or even thousands of bits of information, deciding which few are important and making a judgement based on them.

Gladwell illustrates his thesis using several extended examples. The first is relatively straight forward. In 1983 California's Getty museum was offered a 2500 year old Greek statue, a kouros, for $10 million. All the tests said it was genuine but several art experts, at first glance and without being able to say precisely why, knew it was a fake. He also tells the stories of how an ugly chair conquered the offices of the world, how we are all effected by racial conditioning, how Chicago's Cook County hospital improved diagnosis of heart attacks by removing a physician's knowledge from the process, how a commander using WWII technology defeated the combined might of the the US armed forces in the largest ever war game, and more.

The author uses two main studies to demonstrate how this process of instant assessment works. John Gottman's 'love lab', where he gets couples to talk about a subject tangentially connected with their relationship and videos the exchange to bring out the non-verbal cues, and Paul Ekman, who is an expert of facial micro-expressions that last microseconds and over which we have no control (this latter also being the model for the excellent TV show Lie To Me with Tim Roth). Gladwell builds his argument convincingly and refers back to his examples frequently for both illustration and dramatic effect. Each example he uses shows a different facet of the Blink effect but also, and this is vital, how it can go wrong in certain circumstances.

While it is quick, this subconscious ability does require a moment to work, and can be short circuited by rushing or by an overload of adrenaline. Another case study chillingly shows what can happen when our subconscious is not given the opportunity to work properly. In 1999 an unarmed, innocent man, Amadou Diallo, was shot 41 times in the entryway of his own New York apartment building, by four policemen. He shows how a lack of experience, over-hasty action and perhaps even the over-confidence of numbers allowed these policemen to fall back on crude stereotypes and allow an initial poor assessment to lead them down a tragic course of events.

While Gladwell lauds the benefits of both listening to this subconscious supercomputer and developing the skills, in backing up the studies he constantly refers to the fact that this understanding has often been achieved by the exact opposite type of mentation – deliberate, analytical evaluation of evidence. This, along with the examples given, should show the reader that there are appropriate and inappropriate areas for this sort of thinking, although I can imagine some of the readership taking away only the face-value lesson of relying on first instincts and gut feelings. I would have liked to see a chapter on the abuse of these impressions, which is after all how con artists and frauds such as psychics operate. This could have been perhaps added into the chapter on Warren G. Harding, who was elected as US president because he was tall, handsome, masculine, dignified – and is considered by historians to be one of the worst presidents in US history. I want to take nothing away from this excellent book, however. It is superbly written, making excellent use of pacing and the storylines of the examples he uses to give the book structure. Malcolm Gladwell has a great style, authoritative and engaging, and he packs a great deal of both information and analysis into what is a quick, easy and enjoyable read.

Here's Blink in a nutshell:

Split decisions can be good; better than decisions where we take a lot of time to carefully weigh our options and use scientific evidence.

Except when they're not.

Rapid cognition is an exciting and powerful way to use your brain's quick, intuitive capabilities to make stunningly accurate decisions, and can even lead you to have better success in sports, business and politics.

Except when it won't.

We should learn to trust our snap judgments, even in seemingly complex situations where we don't have a lot of information.

Except not really.


Basically the book gives scientific and anecdotal evidence on why rapid cognition can be both a good and bad thing, without offering us much advise on how to tell the difference between situations where we should or shouldn't trust our instincts.

There are many times when I felt that Gladwell contradicted himself. To support his "rapid cognition is good" section of the book, he uses an example of a psychological test where students were able to tell whether or not a professor was good at their job by simply watching a 5 second clip of them lecturing with the sound turned off. The results basically corresponded with impressions given by other students who spent an entire class with those professors - thus proving that there is some mysterious and powerful part of our subconscious that can make accurate snap judgments.

But then later on in the book, in the "rapid cognition is bad" section, Gladwell warns us that, in general, people instantly like tall, attractive white people better than short, unattractive minorities.

WELL DUH! OBVIOUSLY THE STUDENTS RATING THE PROFESSORS WERE BIASED BY WHETHER OR NOT THEY WERE TALL, WHITE, OR ATTRACTIVE!

Mystery solved!

While Gladwell brings up some interesting concepts, his book never gels into a coherent whole. I read most of it in under a day and already my rapid cognition is telling me it's not worth finishing.

Meh. So first impressions can be amazingly accurate, that's the first message. Or not. That's the other message. So he relates plenty of examples and counter-examples, but he is only reporting interesting (if somewhat obvious) results - many of them, like a magpie picking up glittery objects, and there isn't any conclusion - nothing to tie it all together. Well he's a reporter not a scientist, so maybe it's unreasonable to expect him to have one. But the jargon! He calls this ability (or inability) to size things up in a flash "thin-slicing" .... over and over again. But I guess I could go 2.5 stars

2.5 Stars

Thin slicing refers to the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience. A relationship between two people has a fist as well: a distinctive signature that arises naturally and automatically. People are in one of two states in a relationship:
1. Positive sentiment override where positive emotion overrides irritability
2. Negative sentiment override, people draw lasting conclusions about each other

Part of what it means to take thin-slicing and first impressions seriously is accepting the fact that sometimes we can know more about someone or something in the blink of an eye than we can after months of study. The giant computer that is our unconscious silently crunches all the data it can from the experiences we've had, the people we've met, the lessons we've learned, the books we've read, the movies we've seen and so on, it forms an opinion.

Our first impressions are generated by our experiences and our environment, which means that we can changes our first impressions - we can alter the way we think we think-slice, by changing the experiences that comprise those impressions. How good people's decisions are under the fast-moving, high stress conditions of rapid cognition is a function of training, rules and rehearsal.

Insight is not a lightbulb that goes off inside our heads. It is a flickering candle that can easily be snuffed out. From experience, we gain a powerful gift, the ability to act instinctively in the moment. Understanding the true nature of instinctive decision making requires us to be forgiving of those people trapped in circumstances where good judgment is imperiled.

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Total Waste Of Timee,BorBorBoringgg!!

Blink is an elegant 5 Star piece of science writing, dealing with how we think and chose in an instant. We make snap decisions based on experience or some other basis. Sometimes that is good and sometimes not. There are many good reviews so I am not going to spend more time on a review. What I will point out are two examples of how this book remains relevant today.

First example is the recent campaign by Coca-Cola to sell specially colored white/silver cans of Coke over the 2011-2012 winter season to support “the plight of the polar bears.” Now, regardless of what you think about the motivation, the Cokeheads didn’t do their homework very well. In the book, Gladwell gives an example of a time 7-UP changed the shade of their green can and people complained that they had changed the taste. The 7-UP folks had simply changed the outside of the can, not the inside. Well, the very same thing happened to Coke. People started complaining the taste of regular Coke was different and sales started to go down. Well, astute businessmen that they are, the Cokies changed back to the normal red can ahead of schedule and sales went right back up, complaints went away. A simple reading of this book could have avoided this little mixup. (Coke continued the campaign to support the polar bears, or rather, the enviro’s who claim special concern over the bears plight).

Another example is when I saw this principle in action. I was in the hospital recovery room after my son had an operation. A older couple was at another station as the wife was also recovering. One of the nurses offered her a soda and she asked for a Diet Coke. Well, the nurse reached into the small refrig and pulled out what looked like a Diet Coke but was really one of the special white/silver regular Coke cans. Only at the very last moment did the wife notice it wasn’t a diet drink. The thing is she is a diabetic and the sugary regular Coke would not have been good for her. Again, a brief glance resulted in a snap decision that could have been a real problem. Had the human factors folks at Coke read this book, maybe they would have noted this.

I like Gladwell. He explains science simply and makes me feel smarter than I really am. Thanks dude.

Another very fascinating book by Gladwell. the ideas that he brings and the way he discusses them with the studies and real events that prove those ideas were very well written.

I have two main issues with the book first was the audio quality but that is a minor issue.

The main issue is one that someone wrote about before and I could not help but notice it now. Gladwell is excellent in showing the reader studies and real events that only support his ideas or claims but does very little in discussing any studies or conflicting ideas with the ones he is writing about. however, I think it is more on the reader rather than the author to look for any ideas that may contradict those of the author.

O, to have the writing career of Malcolm Gladwell. The man pulls interesting case studies from academic research and news headlines, spins it into a book under a general theme, and blammo! He has a bestseller. This formula worked for him with The Tipping Point and then Blink.

Blink is a compelling read, despite its weak overall theme, which is that sometimes split-second decisions are good and sometimes they're bad, and we need to learn when to trust our first impressions and when to discount them (except there's no real way to make that distinction).

The book is a pleasure to read simply because of its case studies. Gladwell throws in so many topics — art, politics, marriage, consumer testing, athletes, war, police shootings, music — that there is bound to be something engaging for everyone. (After reading another one of Gladwell's peppy articles in The New Yorker, my husband joked, "Gladwell thinks he can make ANYTHING seem interesting.")

After finishing Blink, I feel like I've learned something important, but I'm not sure exactly what, other than that Gladwell has a very charmed career.

My rating: 3.5 stars rounded up to 4

This is a book about intuition: when it is right and when it can be fatally WRONG.

I was impressed with all that was said in this book and am still thinking about why!!

In the meantime, my husband stole my copy, so before I really get into why, I will have to steal it back!!

I did listen to this book as well. It is narrated by the author. Malcolm Gladwell is a great speaker with a properly modulated voice and sympathetic tone.

Making a decision is, most of the time, a difficult task. Should I consider all the factors involved or should I trust my first instinct? Well, this is what this book is about: it brings up a lot of case studies, highly varied, in which are debated all elements that lead to the decision process.

Below quote, Sigmund Freud's, pretty much summarize the conclusion of experiments presented in this book:

“When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as the choice of a mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. In the important decisions of personal life, we should be governed, I think, by the deep inner needs of our nature.”

However, as the author states, making a decision is not quite simple: it is a mixture between conscious and unconscious analysis.

The writing style is very accessible, the stories more than interesting - Mr. Gladwell is an exceptional story-teller. He is not imposing his believes, he just opens your eyes to see also another side of the issues we confront with every day.

At a classy dinner party, full of wasps and high society drab, Malcolm Gladwell is right up there on my list of people I would invite just to spice things up and make it interesting. Right alongside Dave Chappelle, Ted Dekker, and Helena Bonham Carter.

The man has a way of writing psychology in page-turning, brain-burning style. I haven't stayed up late, reading too long in a while, and when I did, was it a thriller or Halloween spook read? Nope. It was a book on psychology.

Highly recommend! I'd rate this book a PG.

ثاني كتاب أقرأه لنفس الكاتب... و مهم اللي بيقرا النوع ده من الكتب يدرك جيدا المقصود بالpop psychology... و مياخدش الكلام اللي في الكتاب علي انه حقائق علمية مثبتة...

الكاتب بيسوق طبعا دراسات تدعم كلامه... بس هو بيسوقها بالذات للهدف ده: عشان تدعم كلامه... و ده لوحده لا يعني انها صحيحة او دقيقة...

المهم الكتاب ده لافت للنظر بالفعل... بيتكلم عن الsnap judgements... ازاي عقلنا بيعرف حاجات معينة من غير ما احنا نعرفها... اللي ممكن نسميه الحدس... و امتي مناسب نستخدم الحدس ده و امتي ممكن الحدس يلبسنا في الحيطة...
الرسالة الرئيسية في الكتاب من وجهة نظري ان الحدس ده سلاح ذو حدين... زي ما تبقي مربي كلب شرس... هيخدمك كتير و ممكن ينقذ حياتك... بس مهم جدا انك تربيه كويس عشان متلاقيهوش في يوم بيعضك انت... تدريب الحدس ده محتاج نوع من الintrospection ... و الاهم محتاج بيئة صحية و ثرية مثيرة للتأمل و فيها ناس experts تتعلم منهم... عشان مهم جدا تعرف ان اللي مصاحب علي علوكة و اشرف كخة مش هيطلع طيار!