Making First Impressions More Effective

Overview | Thoughts

Musings and conversations about Malcolm Gladwell's Blink. 

Overview

Gladwell examines the human power of 'rapid cognition' - those judgments made after initial impressions, in the blink of an eye. He suggests that there may be more value to these quick, two-second assessments than our culture has been willing to accept. He makes the provocative claim that if we tapped into and honed this skill then we would all become better decision makers and the result would be a "different and better world."

From the back cover:

"Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology to reveal that the difference between good decision making and bad has less to do with how much information we process than with our ability to focus on a few, particular, details, Gladwell shows how we all can become better decision makers - in our homes, in our offices, and in everyday life."

• See what he has to say about his own book at Gladwell.com.

Thoughts

Hey, because I created the page, I get to let you know what I think of the book. Ironically, these are my initial impressions as I have only read the introduction at this point. Let me know what you think. Start the discussion, either on my analysis or pick up the book and read it for yourself. What do you think? What are your initial reactions?

"Malcolm Gladwell’s, author of The Tipping Point,  new book Blink makes the provocative claim that initial impressions, the first “two second” reaction, of situations and experiences have as much value as careful analysis and critical judgment. He suggests that by honing this skill we can become better decision makers and thus create a better world.

"The book begins with the analysis of an initial case study where a private art collector offered an ancient Greek statue to a local art museum. After lawyers and scientists examined the statue’s authenticity they encouraged the museum to secure it and its 10 million dollar price tag. However, as they began showing the statue to several artists and Greek sculpture experts, many of them felt that something was wrong. Although they could not figure out why they thought the statue was a fake. They raise enough suspicion that the statue is examined further and a council concludes that it is indeed a fake.

"Why did the lawyers and scientists fail to come to this conclusion upon their first analysis? How did the artists ‘know’ that something was amiss? Malcolm Gladwell’s book is an examination of these questions on a larger scale. He examines the psychology behind human first reactions, our first blink of an eye.

"I have to admit that I am both intrigued and skeptical. That we could become better decision makers by training out initial impression capabilities is an exciting and very likely suggestion (one we would all do well to follow). But Gladwell's stronger claims seem to stem from a more unusual assumption. The failure of critical judgment appears to come, he implies, through the introduction of human error and flaws into the analytical process. Initial impressions also suffer these flaws, but if we could strip away these layers and tap into an unknown and unused rapid cognition we could make quick judgments about situations freed from this “human” error. It is almost like the brain has the power to correctly analyze everything in a blink, and as long as we don’t get in the way we can make proper decisions. As I said, I am skeptical. I accept that critical judgment is not the objective process that the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution hoped and believed it was. But how are our initial impressions any better? I fear that Blink may influence us to trust our instincts as more accurate and trustworthy than gathering information through critical analysis. If this were the case, I do not believe that Gladwell’s hope for a better world will be achieved. On the contrary, the opposite would come to be.

"Oddly enough Gladwell has plenty to say about the value of trusting quick reactions rather than drawn out analytical processes.  In contrast to his books method I have followed his advice, analyzing the book on my initial impression alone. Maybe I have missed something. I should read the whole book and analyze it as a whole. Who knows what I will think after careful analysis his entire argument?"

Andrew Brown, Bonner Foundation Intern (Summer 2008)