Blink

Malcom Gladwell

Don’t Distrust Your Intuitive Judgement — They can often be superior to your conscious ones.

• Human brain relies on two strategies to make decisions in any given situation

1. Consciously record and process information, weigh pros and cons, and come to rational conclusion about the best way to go (slow) and in some situations there’s just not enough time for it.
2. The unconscious mind makes snap judgments based on gut feelings rather than thorough analysis

• The second decision making strategy allows the brain to unload some of the strain of its complex thought process to the unconscious. Which makes decision in the blink of the eye and makes decisions about the best course of action.
• Many people trust conscious, but snap decisions are frequently far superior that those made after a thorough analysis
• In many situations there are patterns and regularities that the unconscious recognizes faster than the conscious and logical mind. This is when you should trust snap decisions.

Our unconscious can differentiate between relevant and irrelevant information in a mere split second.

• Example looking at a couple to see if they will last, you’ll notice a few key signs they may be in trouble. However if you analyze every bit of information it will be hard to make prediction. Irrelevant information overshadows the big relevant ones.
• In many decision making situations our unconscious makes precisely this distinction for us; by differentiating between important and unimportant information.

We make far more snap judgments than we realize, and often invent rational explanations for them later.

• For example, after a football match a goalkeeper may attribute his many great saves during the game to simply “being in the right place at the right time”, even though this explanation doesn’t reflect what “really” went through his head at the time: his automatic reactions to the shots on goal came from his unconscious.

Our decisions are greatly influenced by our unconscious associations.

• Similarly, our unconscious associations constantly influence our behavior.
• For instance, most of us have learned to unconsciously and automatically associate attributes like “white,” “male” and “tall” with qualities like power and competence. Even if we do not explicitly believe that tall, white men are more competent than short, black women, many of us form these associations unconsciously.

Stress can make us temporarily autistic and drive us to wrong judgments.

• When under stress, we tend to ignore many indirect signals like facial expressions and go into a tunnel vision-mode, devoting our entire attention to the most imminent “threat,” meaning the most relevant piece of information.
• -Tunnel vision can, for example, sometimes cause police officers to shoot innocent people because they focus so intently on the possible threat of a weapon that even a black wallet can seem threatening.

Market research is not always a good indicator of true consumer behavior.

• Coke did taste tests, found people like Pepsi better. Tried making a new coke and it failed miserably and pulled it off the shelf
• Why did this fail? They had simply been conducted under the wrong conditions: The taste testers had to evaluate the products on the basis of a single sip with all recognizable brand elements, like the color of the can hidden. How often have you had cola like this?
• Such unrealistic conditions resulted in an appraisal that had nothing to do with customers’ later buying behavior. For a truly representative snap judgment, the taste testers needed the right context: they should have been nursing a can at home on their couch.
• Finally, one more thing to consider in market research is that in general, consumers tend to rate particularly innovative products negatively in initial tests. The fact is, consumers just have to get used to products that are new and unfamiliar before they start to like them.

To Rid yourself of prejudice go out and experience new things.

• Using simple association tests, psychologists have shown that racial prejudices are in fact deeply anchored in people
• Experts relate this phenomenon to the fact that the unconscious learns through observation.
• Ruling class of the US is almost totally made up of white people; therefore, US citizens have developed an unconscious association between white skin and positive attributes like power.
• The most troubling part about all this is that prejudices actually do influence our everyday behavior. Skin color, gender and height all shape the way others perceive a person, say, in a job application process
• The most troubling part about all this is that prejudices actually do influence our everyday behavior. Skin color, gender and height all shape the way others perceive a person, say, in a job application process

If you want to avoid bad snap judgments, ignore all irrelevant information.

• Strongly unconscious prejudices and stereotypes can influence your decisions.We are victims of stereotyping and prejudice.
• As this example shows, sometimes negating our unconscious snap judgments can be as simple as deliberately ignoring information that’s not relevant.

The human brain can make snap judgments in the blink of an eye. In certain situations,these snap judgments are far superior to conscious analysis, whereas sometimes they can lead to bad choices and unfair appraisals of others.