Any of you homies read Blink by Malcolm Gladwell? It seemed like the sort of thing you intellectual types would be into.
For any who don’t know, Blink is about the phenomenon of rapid cognition, the power to “think without thinking”. The prologue starts with the story of an “ancient” statue purchased by the Getty Museum in California, and subjected to all manner of scientific tests which proved its authenticity. The museum invited a number of art experts to view the statue, and all of them immediately pronounced it a fake after seeing it for just a few seconds. None could come up with a substantive reason as for why they believed it to be a fake, but they turned out to be correct.
Gladwell then goes on to illustrate other examples of rapid cognition, both good and bad, describing how our minds can be “conditioned” through subliminal messages, how we make snap judgments during things like cola taste tests, how the mind reacts under extreme stress. It describes how many of our thought processes occur beneath the surface of the conscious mind, instilling unconscious prejudices even in the most open of minds. One truly shocking example was a study of black students being given a standardized test. The study found that black students did significantly worse on the test when they were asked for their race at the beginning of the test, compared to those black students who were not asked for their race at all. The shocking conclusion drawn from this is that just reminding these kids that they’re black (with the stigmas of underachieving that are unconsciously bound to it) caused the unconscious prejudices in their minds to play out on the page.
There’s no real point to the book (none that I could see, at least), but it’s a fascinating read, simply to observe how much we simply don’t know about the functioning of our unconscious mind. Anyone else read it?
That does sound like a fascin
That does sound like a fascinating read.
Certainly all the great swordmasters, Western and Eastern, exhorted their students to train and re-train every move until it became a subconscious reflex, the theory being that in the heat of a duel, the conscious mind is just too slow. Essentially, “If you have to think about your next move, you’ve lost.” This is especially hit on in the concept of “No mind” that goes with many Eastern martial arts styles.
On an interesting tie-in to the racial stigma element of it, I remember one of the best courses I ever took in college. We were studying American literature just after the Civil War, and our English teacher just came right out and said: “Here’s the thing. *Everyone’s* racist, in sofar as we all have varying degrees of mental stereotypes. Don’t pretend your mind doesn’t jump to certain automatic conclusions. Everyone’s does. The trick is being conscious and aware of those jumps and not necessarily acting on them.”
Arthur Rowan Brother Katana of Reasoned Discussion Rebel Leader and Racial Harmony Coordinator for the Unitarian Jihad
Amazing Memory
Rowan, you have an amazing memory. I can’t even remember the orders my fiancee delivered to me 3 hours ago. I think it was something about the trash. No, wait, ummm…pick up the kids after school? No, I don’t have any kids.
Anyway, after hearing lots about “Blink” I don’t buy the surface premise that people should make important decisions based on their gut reactions. I haven’t read the book, but regardless of the supporting data, which I’ve been told is anecdotal, I’m a fan of process and contemplation.
well
Well, that’s actually not the surface premise of the book. The premise is that rapid cognition is useful in certain circumstances, and dangerous (if not deadly) in other circumstances. And that those who are the best at it are those who are an expert in a particular field. For instance, the art experts who were able to instantly declare the Getty sculpture a fake had spent many years studying art, both real and counterfeit, and had built up such a store of knowledge that they were able to make a snap judgment. So the premise is about intuition backed by real knowledge.
The book does, however, make the point that sometimes acting on instinct is more effective than process and contemplation. Gladwell tells the story of the war games that were waged by the US military during the lead-up to the Iraq War. They picked a retired general (whose name escapes me) to play Saddam Hussein (they didn’t call him that, of course – he was just the Red Team Leader), and the US, or the Blue Team, worked with a state-of-the-art system of intelligence and military precision. Suffice it to say that, operating on the instinct learned from 30 years in the armed services, the Red Team summarily defeated the US and its massive store of information. Basically, by employing a minimum of planning and being flexible enough to adapt to the situations that came up (for example, when the US cut off their communications, the Red Team Leader immediately dispatched messengers via motorcycle), the Red Team was able to act and cripple the US while the US was still mired in meetings and cost-benefit analyses. The US was so chagrined that they changed the rules of the game, only allowing the Red Team to act within a few parameters, and of course on the rematch the US were victorious. (Says something about our military, but that’s another conversation.)
Anyway, regardless, it’s still an interesting and thought-provoking read. I’m certainly not going to change my way of life because of it, but it was fun to read.
— Ben
Generic or not.
–Another study showed that people who have an aversion to buying a generic product actually most of the time would like the product better if they were to do a taste test between the two. It is a programing that we all go through. From our parents and advertising. It has been found that the packaging would be a major turn off. This play’s into our live’s and gut reactions. The element’s around us can either turn us on or off from a paticular thing. Hence cause us to make a desicion about it. It is a matter of attuning ourselves to the things around us and trustig our insticts.
Teresa the Flautist and fire dancer