The book Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell, is about making quick snap judgments without thinking for a long time. It's about knowing when to trust your "gut feeling" and when not to. When people can master the use of these instinctive feelings, they can make quick, powerful decisions without analyzing rational information too long.

This quick thought process occurs in the adaptive unconsciousness. Instinctive decisions come to people in the same way everyone remembers to breathe, sweats when they're hot, or flinches when they are startled. It is a natural impulse, a function of the body to protect itself. The body automatically picks up surrounding details and unconsciously calculates what is best for it to avoid any physical threats.

Although these instinctive feelings can help make snap decisions, they can often be misleading. It is important to learn when to trust these feelings, because humans are hardwired to have many misconceptions and biases that affect their decision making ability. There are many judgments that should not be made instantly. For example, marketing experts make a living off of tinkering with the presentation of their message in order to affect the customers unconsciously, making them want the item based on a snap judgment. Instead of thinking the decisions through rationally, these marketers want customers to buy impulsively.

Gottman decodes couples' relationships based on small cues that show actions performed subconsciously by each individual. He identifies and explains exactly what to look for in a couple's actions, and what actions they cannot control. The uncontrollable actions show a great deal about the couple and the health of the relationship itself. When the couples are analyzed, I don't think they can consciously control what is normally an unconscious decision. It's like trying to control the speed of your pulse, or how much sweat you are giving off.

Gottman identifies contempt as the primary feeling that causes relationships to go bad.
With over 80% guessing accuracy, I believe Gottman has really mastered the snap judgment technique, and knows when he should trust his instinct. I would personally get his expert opinion before getting married, to see if he can identify any problems with the relationship. Obviously I would want to do this early enough into the relationship that it wouldn't cause any pain if the results are not desirable.

There is a lot that can be learned from just an individual's environment, such as their bedroom. The section in Blink that described the surveys people filled out after inspecting rooms reminded me of a show on MTV called Room Raiders. The show is about a guy or a girl raiding three rooms and learning as much about the other person as possible through only what he or she could find in the bedroom. They would decide who to date based on what they learn about the person's belongings in the room.

It is also interesting to learn that medical malpractice litigation is based on how well people like their doctors. If they like their doctors, they are less likely to sue the doctor for medical malpractice because they are under the impression that it is not the doctor's fault. I personally follow a similar approach when marketing my DJ services. Often I get people to like me as a DJ and as a person instead of getting them to like my music. If they like me, they are less likely to complain, or even notice if there are mistakes in the performance of the music mixing.

Posted in Posted by Umang Patel at 11:36 PM