Blink 40-98

Summary :

           The second discovery that Gladwell expresses in this book is how the brain can realize things that we wouldn't normally think that we realize. In one experiment, they used 4 college students their friends, their rooms and 4 complete strangers. Most of their friends have known them for years so when they were asked to describe their friend's personalities they thought it would be easy. They brought the strangers up to the rooms and the only way they could determine their personalities was by looking at their belongings. The strangers and the friends were asked the same questions. In the end they found out that the strangers knew the students even better than their friends. The reason for this was when people meet each other they sometimes portray a different person that they really are. People choose to tell the truth or lie about how they really feeling. But they can't pick decorations for they rooms that don't reflect their personality. That's why it was easier for the strangers to figure out what kind of people the students were.

         In another study in a school a few students were given a list with different words to read in the principals office. Reading the random words students couldn't find the connection. After reading a list of descriptions of old people, walking out the office the student was much slower than usual. This is due to the fact that there's a part of the brain that recognizes the words and makes you act as what you read on the paper.

Quote:

          “The people primed to be rude eventually interrupted – in average after about five minutes, but of the people primed to be polite, the overwhelming majority – 82 percent – never interrupted at all.” (Gladwell 55)

Reaction:

           After reading this sections I was really amazed on how the brain recognizes things unconsciously. The example in the quote describes this process. The quote suggests that if a student read a list of adjectives that describe bad or angry behavior a student is more likely to interrupt a conversation than a student that has read description of calm and happy behavior. The brain also recognizes different behavior patterns that can represents someone's personality.

Blink 1- 39

Summary :

             The book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell reveals the amazing studies done to explain the power of thinking without thinking. In the first chapter the narrator describes a situation of a newly married couple that went to visit the laboratory of a psychologist named John Gottman. Gottman was known for his ability to observe couple's behavior for a short period of time and determining whether the couple was going to be together for a long time or not. Gottman was able to observe and recognize repeated patterns. He had come to a conclusion that if the partner doesn't congratulate or compliment their partner when they do something good, that couple is most likely to get divorced. Gottman figured this out by using a technique called The Morse Code. Gottman and his students will put the couple in a room for about 15 minutes, videotape them and have them talk to each other about anything. Than after the videotaping was done, Gottman and his students would analyze the video. They would look for facial expressions, tone of voice and from the words they use and record the numbers down. In the end they determine whether the couple would stay together or get divorced. In one experiment, the couple was arguing about their dog. What Gottman discovered later was that the argument wasn't about the dog at all. The couple was using all their problems and expressing them in the form of their argument about the dog.

Quote:

            “A central argument in Gottman's work is that all marriages have a distinctive pattern, a kind of marital DNA, that surfaces in any king of meaningful interaction. This is why Gottman asks couples to tell the story of how they met, because he has found that when a husband and wife recount the most important episode in their relationship, that pattern shows up right away.” (Gladwell 26)

Reaction:

           The reason why I chose this quote because I found it really amazing how Gottman can recognize a pattern really fast and even by a small amount of time. It takes years for people to determine whether the person they have chosen is the right one for them and even after getting married they still haven't figured it out yet. But it takes Gottman a few minutes to recognize patterns and a few days to determine whether the couple would stay together or get divorced.