Summary Of Malcolm Gladwell's Blink

In February four New York City police officers were on patrol in the Bronx when they saw a young black man standing on a stoop. They thought he looked suspicious. When they pulled over he retreated into the doorway and began digging in his pocket. He kept digging as the police shouted at him to show his hands; a few seconds later the man Amado Diallo a -year-old immigrant from Guinea was dead hit by of the bullets that the police fired at him. What Diallo was reaching for was his wallet. He was going for his ID as he stood on the steps of his own apartment building. Diallo's story and the officer's fatal pre-judgment of him is recounted in Malcolm Gladwell's bestseller Blink. Gladwell and the social psychologists whose work he draws upon explores

And I mean it can be so non-conscious that even when people ask us point-blank about our attitudes we unwillingly or unknowingly don’t always give them an honest answer. Do you think that men are better at science the women? Or that Muslims are more violent than Christians? Or that overweight people are unhealthy? Our tendency to unwittingly doctor our answers to questions like these is why we have the implicit association test or IAT. The test was implemented in the late s to try to gauge implicit attitudes identities beliefs and biases that people are unwilling or unable to report. You can take the IAT online and measure your implicit attitudes in all kinds of topics from race religion and gender to disability weight and sexuality. It's basically a timed categorization task. For example, the age-related IAT looks at implicit attitudes about older vs. younger people. In it you might be shown a series of faces old and young and objects pleasant and unpleasant like pretty flowers vs. apple of garbage. You're then asked to sort these pictures so you'd press the left key if you see a young face or a pleasant object and press the right key if you see an old face or an unpleasant object.