Blink Malcolm Gladwell Analysis

Can we really learn as much about someone in a Blink as we would spending months with them? Malcolm Gladwell sure thinks so in his book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. In it he explains several aspects of psychology, specifically snap judgments and the adaptive unconscious through many studies, facts, and tests. “There can be as much value in the blink of an eye as in months of rational analysis,” states Gladwell (Gladwell). What is seen in this blink of an eye? What controls this? What is it? This Blink is known as the adaptive unconscious. The adaptive unconscious is our “internal computer” that helps us make rapid decisions based on very short amount of times, such as the blink of an eye. Gladwell goes into detail …show more content…
Researcher Ian Ayres got eighteen white men, seven white women, eight black women, and five black men. He told them to dress in a similar casual dress and to present themselves to auto dealers as well educated professionals looking to find a car. They were to ask the salesmen for the lowest priced car and haggle with them to get the lowest price they could. After visiting auto dealership after auto dealership, all around the city, there was an obvious trend. White men were offered a significantly cheaper deal then all the rest, then white women, then black women, then finally with the worst deal was black men. Gladwell states, “After lengthy negotiations. Ayres’s black men still ended up with a price that was nearly $800 higher than Ayres’s white men were offered without saying a word” (Gladwell). These individuals looked similar in apparel and social rank; the only difference was the gender and the race of the the young adults. Conclusion: Auto dealers are looking for people that they can swindle out a lot of money whom the think are naive. Racist? Sexest? …show more content…
Auto dealers want the best deal so they go for weaker opponent which in this case, the think are women and minorities. This can be connected to other studies that Gladwell showed us in his book. For example, when the young adults who had to mark that they were black before a test, they did worse than they should have. Another was the Race IAT. It showed that we more associate white with good and black with bad. All of these connect to our auto dealers. They see these people walk through the door. Their adaptive unconscious takes the information it has been given and then they act accordingly. This can be applied to many situations in the real world. Even Gladwell relates this to occurrence in the real world, such as not engaging in much conversation if someone is black. Beyond Gladwell, there are so many more. Applying for anything, talking to people, or even thinking about their own image, this idea or settling image that has been grained into our unconscious can effect everything surrounding the lives of women and