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THE BLINK




TITLE: THE BLINK
AUTHOR: MALCOM GLADWELL

‘A book about rapid cognition, about the kind of thinking that happens in the blink of an eye. When you meet someone for the first time or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump into a series of conclusions.’


 The blink is a book about the psychology of snap judgment otherwise known as first impression judgment. The proper word use for this in Psychology is thin-slicing. 

Thin slicing simply means that we can make a sense of a situation base on the thinnest slice of experience. For instance, the author gave an example of a situation in which you want to know who a person is really Is. 

What if you get close to the person and ensure you see him daily? This sound great right! But the truth is you may not get the exact thing you want to know about him, or you end up being biased about your judgment of him. 

This is called thick-slicing. But what of a situation, you are just allowed to observe their body language, or facial expressions or mere looking at their bookshelves and the picture on their walls. Our years of experience in a particular field can also enhance our power of thin-slicing in such a field. 

Because unknowingly we have some information stored in our unconscious mind concerning what we are thin-slicing.  However, oftentimes people are unable to explain their snap judgment. It’s something going behind the locked door of the unconscious. 

You are making a whole lot of error if your snap judgement is based on religion, color or race. But if you can get rid of these feelings your judgment will be reasonable

But we also must be careful not to misinterpret our feelings while making first impressions. This is one of the disadvantages of first impressions. The author called it Warren Harding error: while we fall for tall, dark and handsome. Warren Harding is one of the worst president America ever had.

 He was elected into the white house in 1920. He is tall, dark and handsome. The was even an instance when he met a man for the first time, and the man's first impression about him was that he would be made a good president.  

When he contested, he pulled crow because of his physique. The people voted for his stature. And they made their first impression about him based on his height and stature. 


Also when we see something unique, different from what we used to, we have this impression that it’s not good. This is simply because they seem to be unusual. 


Our mentality can also affect our snap judgment. For instance, the author got the idea of the blink because of what happened to him when he decided to grow his hair wild. ‘He said he started getting pulled out of airport security lines for special attention. 

He got police pulled up beside him, and the policemen said a rapist they were looking for look a lot like him.’ All because of his hairstyle. 



 I also learn that I don’t need a whole lot of information to make a better snap judgment. Above all, while making a snap judgment, I must ensure I let go of the prejudice of religion, color or race.


  Because they impair our first impression judgment.

ODUNAYOSAMUEL A

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