Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Prof. Sameer Mathur, Ph.D.Sameer Mathur, Ph.D.
Book Summary
Malcolm Gladwell

Contents
Sameer Mathur, Ph.D.
Overview
Why Read This Summary?
1.THE POWER OF INTUITION
2.THE THEORY OF THIN SLICES
3.THE LOCKED DOOR
4.THE WARREN HARDING ERROR
5.THE IMPLICIT ASSOCIATION TEST
6.THE WARREN HARDING ERROR (CONTD)
7.CREATING STRUCTURE FOR SPONTANEITY
8.KENNA’S DILEMMA
9.THE THEORY OF MIND READING

Sameer Mathur
Marketing Professor 2009 – 2013
Ph.D. and M.S. (Marketing) 2003 – 2009
Marketing Professor 2013 –
Indian Institute of Management,
Lucknow
Book Summary prepared by:

Overview
Malcolm Gladwell explains an aspect of our
mental lives that we utterly rely on yet rarely
analyze – our ability to make snap decisions or
quick judgments in a blink of an eye. This is the
power of thinking without thinking.
The main focus of the book is “thin-slicing”: our
ability to gauge what is really important from a
very narrow period of experience. In other
words, spontaneous decisions are often as
good as, or even better than carefully planned
and considered ones.

The original book is brilliant and deeply
insightful. But it is ~200 pages in length.
This summary presents the essential ideas
and insights in a few slides.
It is easy to read.
It saves you time.
Why Read This Summary ?

The Power of Intuition
Malcolm Gladwell urges us to embrace the
unconscious hints and decisions our brain
makes when making important decisions in life.
First impressions and snap judgments can be
educated and controlled, so trust your intuition!

The Power of Intuition
Some Examples:
 Meeting someone for
the first time and feeling
an instant connection
 Knowing instinctively
whether a business idea
will fail

Prof. Sameer Mathur, Ph.D.
The Theory of Thin Slices
How a Little Bit of Knowledge Can Go
A Long Way:
 Refers to the ability of the unconscious mind
to find patterns in situations and behaviour
based on very thin slices of experiences.

Examples:
 Gut feelings
 A certain hunch felt upon learning something
new

Dr. John Gottman, world
renowned for his ability to
predict divorce, can tell
through thin slicing whether
a marriage will succeed or
fail, by observing a few
minutes of a couple’s
conversation.

According to Dr. Gottman:
 One can spot a pattern in how people interact.
 Small nuances are important when judging
how things may eventually turn out.

The Locked Door
 Snap Decisions bubble up from the unconscious.
 Fleeting thoughts rely on the thinnest slices of
experience.
 These thoughts occur behind “locked doors”,
meaning that they occur in your subconscious and
are hard to explain.

The Warren Harding Error
The Dark Side of Thin Slicing
Why do we fall for Dark Tall and Handsome men?

The Implicit Association Test (IAT)
 Developed by Greenwald, Banaji and Nozek
 Measures a person’s attitude on an unconscious
level.
 Looks at your immediate and automatic
associations that occur before you get the time to
think.

 Unconscious attitudes do not always equal or are
not always compatible with conscious values.
Attitudes towards gender or race may be different
on both levels.

Definitions
1. Conscious level:
 Attitudes which are our stated values and
which are used to direct behaviour
deliberately.
2. Unconscious level:
 The immediate, automatic associations that
tumble out before you have time to think.

 Allowing a first impression of someone or
something to obscure or hide pieces of information
that do not correspond with that first impression.

How to avoid committing this error
 Fight against basing your actions and
impressions solely based on physical
appearance.
 Remember that first impressions are
generated by your experiences and
environment.

How to avoid committing this error
 Acknowledge the power that first
impressions have on your life.
 Take active steps to manage and
control your first impressions.

Creating Structure for Spontaneity
Millennium Challenge ‘02
 A simulated war game set up for the Pentagon to
test new and radical ideas on battle warfare.
 Retired marine Van Riper asked to play opposing
“Red” team against the United States “Blue” team.
 A Battle between two perfectly opposed military
philosophies.

Millennium Challenge ‘02
 The Blue team used databases, matrixes, and
methodologies for systematically understanding
intentions and capabilities of the enemy.
 Red team used instinct, led by a man (Van Riper)
known for making instant decisions.

Result
 The Red team caught the
Blue team by surprise and did
not behave the way their
fancy computers predicted.
 The Blue team lost half their
troops.

Red Team
 Acted on instinct and
improvisation.
 Relied on the good judgment,
wisdom and experience of
everyone on the team.
 Did not waste time explaining
and gathering information.

Blue Team
 Had long discussions and lots
of focus was placed on the
mechanics and processes.
 Never looked at the problem
holistically.

Lesson:
 Sometimes too much information confuses rather
than helps. Good decision making sometimes
benefits by less is more.
 Success relies on a balance between deliberate and
instructive thinking.
 Overloading decision makers with too much data
makes decision-making harder.

Kenna’s Dilemma
Sensation Transference
 Concept created by Louis Cheskin
 The notion that positive or negative attributes of a
product (such as the packaging), transfers to the
actual product.

Kenna’s Dilemma
Sensation Transference
 Most people don’t make a distinction between the
package and product on an unconscious level.
 The product is the package and product
combined.
 This means that two identical products packaged
differently will probably get different reviews.

The “New Coke” Fiasco
 As a response to “The Pepsi
Challenge” which revealed
that people preferred the taste
of Pepsi to Coke, Coke
responded with a new flavor
marketed as “New Coke”.
 Even though market
research showed that people
preferred the taste of New
Coke, the product failed.

The “New Coke” Fiasco
 Too much emphasis was placed on taste,
however, people don’t drink coke blindfolded in
real life.
 Sight and memory are used when making a
decision and not just taste and smell.
 Thin Slicing was a factor.

The Theory of Mind Reading
 Failing to read and understand
facial expressions and relying only
on judgment based on stereotypes
can cause arguments and
misunderstandings.
 When you talk to someone you can
pick up on things just by observing
facial expressions and gestures.
This is how one “thin slices” other
people.

 The face is a very rich source of
information about impressions and
mind reading.
 It shows signals of what emotions
a person is feeling.
 It is an equal partner to internal
feelings in the emotional process
and not secondary.

 Basic emotions can be seen in your face, whether
voluntary or involuntary.
 Mind reading and making correct snap judgments
comes with practice, training and expertise.
 By taking control of the environment in which
snap judgments and first impressions take place,
you can control them and prevent or reduce the
mistakes made.

Image Credits
http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/portrait-mature-man-lost-deep-thought-16594874.jpg
http://newzar.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/aig-losing-team.jpg
http://hockeymap.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/winning_team.gif
http://www.onlinepackagingshop.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/paper-packaging.gif
http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4067/4558214720_952d15ecc1_z.jpg
http://wallpapers.pixpux.com/wallpapers/aishwarya_rai_drinking_coke-1024x768.jpg
http://newineveryway.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/happy-man.jpg
http://blog.frankdamazio.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/look-up-2.jpg
http://nosalikes.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/surprised-woman.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UaGIJJCaDgo/T8QtBg79oBI/AAAAAAAAAOo/DaPJgGFGF7g/s320/puzzle.jpg
http://beyondinsurance.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/smile.jpg
http://jeffkaplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/business-people-meeting.jpg
http://hm.dinofly.com/images/myspace/gut_feeling.gif
https://www.gottman.com/wp-content/uploads/John-Gottman.jpg
http://sender11.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341e626f53ef0115712117e1970c-800wi
http://graystone22.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/People-Interacting-Silhouette.png

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