BUS 662 Consumer Behaviour

Selcan Babur
108604019

SUMMARY of BLINK – MALCOM GLADWELL

In this Book, Malcolm Gladwell explains why sometimes instantaneous snap decisions
are more true or effective than thought out cautious decisions. The author also explains what
happens in our brain when we perceive a situation by giving us various examples. He also
explains the downside of snap decisions (prejudices, choosing a wrong president on appearances,
gender biases, accidental shootings). He tells us how we can actually impact our own cognitive
skills to think better and make more effective decisions and judgments. Calling it, Thin Slicing.

Gladwell addresses the questions about thin-slicing and gives a wide range of examples
of blinking from the worlds of gambling, speed dating, tennis, war games, the movies,
malpractice suits, popular music, and predicting divorce. Interspersed are accounts of scientific
studies that partially, but never completely, explain the largely unconscious phenomenon that we
have all experienced at one time or another in our lives. Nevertheless, the hypotheses, the
scientific experiments, and the examples are very interesting.

A researcher tells the story of a firefighter in Cleveland who answered a routine call with
his men. It was in the back of a one-and-a-half story house in a residential neighborhood in the
kitchen. The firefighters broke down the door, laid down their hose, and began dousing the fire
with water. It should have abated, but it didn't. As the fire lieutenant recalls, he suddenly thought
to himself, "There's something wrong here," and he immediately ordered his men out. Moments
after they fled, the floor they had been standing on collapsed. The fire had been in the basement,
not the kitchen as it appeared. When asked how he knew to get out, the fireman thought it was
ESP, which of course it wasn't. What is interesting to Gladwell is that the fireman could not
immediately explain how he knew to get out. From what Gladwell calls "the locked box" in our
brains, our fireman just "blinked" and made the right decision. In fact, if the fireman had
deliberated on the facts he was seeing, he would have likely lost his life and the lives of his men.

It took well over two hours of questioning for the fire lieutenant to piece together how he
knew to get out (firstly, the fire didn't respond as it was supposed to; secondly, the fire was
abnormally hot; thirdly, it was quiet when it should have been noisier given the heat).

One take-away from the book is that how we blink is a function of our experiences,
training, and knowledge. For example, prejudice is so unconsciously woven into our society that,
despite our best intentions, at an unconscious level it can lead to really bad blinks. This is partly
why tall people are frequently seen as natural leaders when there is no basis in reality for that
belief. And, in the case of the Amadou Diallo killing in 1999, it is why four policemen
incorrectly thin-sliced a situation and wound up killing an innocent man by mistake.

Blink ‘Malcom Gladwell’

 BUS 662 Consumer Behaviour
Selcan Babur
108604019

The another example was of the couple that was for all appearances looked very happy
together but actually was not. They look at very specific points, references and eliminate the rest.
We do not know why we conclude some things without having a clue as to how we came to a
decision or why? That phenomenon is explained and identified as a true source of decisions
which may end up saving our lives. The Warren Harding error, the tall dark handsome but
extremely faulty president of USA. The prejudices that allow car sales men to disregard potential
customers. Blink decisions also need vigorous training and constant practice. Especially for
people to work well together in a team, they need to constantly play by or operate under some
rules. So when they are truly required to they can make snap and effective decisions. Examples
of this are improvisation comedy club and war games. We also need to learn how to read all the
signals our eyes are giving us. The example is the ability to read body language which may prove
to be detrimental in saving or killing someone.

Gladwell concludes that those who quickly filter out extraneous information generally
make better decisions than those who discount their first impressions.

Blink reveals that great decision makers aren't those who process the most information or
spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of thin-slicing - filtering
the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables. I really liked the
book. I believe in statistics, but I also believe that sometimes the right answer just cannot be
confirmed with numbers. In my opinion, if you only rely on numbers you sometimes miss out on
doing the right thing. You can use the technique of thin slicing that is explained in Blink in your
own business and personal live. Trusting on your instinct when you make decisions. Think
without thinking and make the right decision and be successful.

Blink ‘Malcom Gladwell’