Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell Individual Dynamics and Leadership

SVKMs NMIMS University School of Business Management MBA(First Year) Trimester-I, Session 2013-2014

INDIVIDUAL DYNAMICS AND LEADERSHIP BOOK REVIEW

Submitted By N.Bharanidharan Abhishek Gulavani Indrayani Ingale Sparsh Manchanda Tanvi Mishra Jeenoy Pandya (B001) (B019) (B025) (B036) (B040) (B046)

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell Individual Dynamics and Leadership

CONTENTS

1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0

Introduction and Summary of the book..3 Statement of Objectives of the study..3 Methodology of Study....4 Chapter wise summary and Critical Analysis.....4 Theoretical framework...6 Relating theory to practical aspects of human behaviour...7 Learning and Conclusion......12 Acknowledgements.13

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell Individual Dynamics and Leadership

1.0 INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF THE BOOK

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking, a book by Malcolm Gladwell, as the name suggests is about the choices that are made in the blink of an eye. The book deals with the concepts of snap judgement judgements/impressions that are made without actually thinking consciously; the power of first impressions - the moments when we know something without knowing the reason behind it; rapid cognition and intuitive repulsion - the origin and impact of the instantaneous hunches (intuition) that spontaneously arise in conflict/stressful situations, decision making and while meeting new people. The book tries to convince the reader about three simple and generally overlooked facts 1. Decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately. Blink is not just a celebration of the power of glance, however. 2. Our instinctive reactions often have to compete with all kinds of other interests and emotions and sentiments. So when should we trust our instincts, and when should we be wary of them? Answering that question is the second task of Blink. 3. The third and most important task of this book is to convince you that our snap judgements and first impressions can be educated and controlled. Blink takes the reader through a series of delightful and relevant stories depicting our hunches and intuitions and the way they impact our decision making. These stories are based upon a variety of situations of day to day life from science, business, advertising, sales, medicine etc. These short stories reinforce the idea of intuition, gut feelings and the power of the subconscious mind and adaptive unconscious. Blink been used by our group to study, apply and get a better understanding of the Organisational Behaviour frameworks namely intuition, emotional intelligence, perception and attitudes applicable to the book.

2.0 STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

Blink caught our groups attention since the book talks a lot about intuitive decision making, thin slicing and spot judgments. Although for most of the twentieth century intuition had been classified by experts as one of the less rational ways of decision making, it has been now found that a lot of decisions in the business world as well as our day to day life are based on intuition. Intuitive decision making has become significantly relevant in present context of fast and dynamic businesses where decision making needs to be fast and accurate and hence it becomes increasingly important to be well aware of the various dimensions of intuition. Our Objectives behind the study include

To analyze the intuitions and hunches that further build our decision making process. To understand the advantages and disadvantages of rapid cognition and snap decisions and further learn how and when to control our snap decisions. To learn how emotional cues and moods affect our decision making. To be able to understand how perception errors and biases may creep into the intuitive decision making process.
3

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell Individual Dynamics and Leadership

To draw inferences with respect to work behaviour and relate it to the concepts of intuition. Based on the above broad objective the assignment should be able to cover at least the following specific objectives:

The critical analysis of each chapter (if written chapter wise) / part wise in the book. Interpreting the behavioural theories from the writings. Relating theories to practical behaviour. Our learning from this exercise. Group processes followed and peer evaluation of interpersonal skills of group members

3.0 METHOD OF STUDY

Reading- The group members individually read the book with the aim of understanding the relevant Organisational behaviour frameworks that could be applied. Brainstorming and Interpreting the book - The individual reading exercise was followed by a series of meetings to discuss, interpret and analyze the Organisational Behaviour theories applicable in the book. Various theories were discussed to check their applicability. This involved a lot of learning at the individual level regarding the various theories and their practical aspects. Compiling- After the group had discussed the relevant theories and reached a consensus on the various applicable theories, the same were compiled into a presentable format.

4.0 CHAPTER WISE SUMMARY AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Introduction: The Statue That Didnt Look Right The first chapter talks about the essence of blink which enables us to perform snap judgements within the first few seconds. Gladwell goes on to explain about the subconscious reactions of human beings, through the adaptive conscious in our brains, which enables us to make these judgements. Through various examples he stresses upon kneejerk human reactions, and says that the world would be a much better place if we lay emphasis on them. Chapter 1: The Theory of Thin Slices: How a Little Bit of Knowledge Goes a Long Way Here he talks about thin slicing wherein our gut feeling finds patterns in daily situations and manners based on short-term experiences. All human actions have patterns which enables us in determining the upcoming events to a certain degree. He concludes by saying that we humans thin slice on a daily basis without being conscious about it. Chapter 2: The Locked Door: The Secret Life of Snap Decisions He explains here that snap judgements are very fast and are unconscious. Since these decisions are unconscious we have a tough time explaining and depending on them. Through an experiment called Priming he says that our unconscious takes care of all the trivial mental details of our life leaving us open to focus on the important problem in hand. People are usually unaware of the things that influence their actions, yet they rarely feel ignorant. He stresses upon the fact that we must be trained to accept our unawareness and say I dont know more frequently. Chapter 3: The Warren Harding Error: Why We Fall For Tall, Dark, and Handsome Men
4

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell Individual Dynamics and Leadership

Gladwell now talks about the drawback of thin slicing taking the example of Warren Halding, Americas 29th President whose appearance led people to falsely suppose that he would turn out be an influential politician. He has highlighted this fact through a test called IAT (Implicit Association Test). Our beliefs lead us to make judgement errors based on race, sex etc. He goes on to show that these mistakes can be controlled by altering our first impressions and experiences that change the manner in which we thin slice. Chapter 4: Paul Van Ripers Big Victory: Creating Structure for Spontaneity He talks about the frugality of snap judgements by citing an example of a war game called the Millennium Challenge staged by the Pentagon. The team that won the challenge acted on the fact that war is unpredictable as opposed to the team who had an extraordinary amount of knowledge and intelligence. He further states that spontaneity can be mastered through practice and is not as accidental as people make it to be. Again stressing upon the Millennium Challenge, Gladwell emphasises that we can choose to over analyse the given problem and miss the apparent answers in the process. He says that good decision making requires equilibrium between considerate and instinctive thinking and prudence matters when making good decisions. Chapter 5: Kennas Dilemma: The Right and Wrong Way to Ask People What They Want Gladwell discourages the emphasis we lay upon focus groups because, as previously discussed, people are not good at explaining the thought process behind their gut responses. He portrays this through an example of a musician called Kenna who challenged categorization. He was loved by the people in the music industry but rejected by the focus groups. He concludes by saying that experts, through their myriad experiences with a certain subject matter, are much better at looking behind the locked door than those with not as much of experience. Chapter 6: Seven Seconds in the Bronx: The Delicate Art of Mind Reading Gladwell goes on to talk about the most common form of rapid cognition reading peoples facial expressions which he labels as mind reading. He argues that our facial expressions and our emotions are irreversibly linked. He says that autistic people have a hard time understanding facial expressions and we tend to become temporarily autistic when we dont have enough time. When our subconscious is forced to take a quick decision it loses its ability to make a well informed decision but one can train ones instincts. Conclusion: Listening with Your Eyes: The Lessons of Blink He starts this chapter by citing the example of Abbie Conant, a trombonist who had to prove her merit through lung tests as she was a woman, in spite of wowing the judges in a blind orchestra test. The judges were hasty with their power of rapid cognitions. He elaborates by saying that if we are to take the influence of our snap judgments sincerely we should identify the little factors which affect them. In case of the example stated previously the blind auditions with the screen led to a fair judgement which further elucidates his point of how understanding the tendencies of rapid cognition has positively affected our world. Afterword Through the battle of Chancellorsville, Van Riper taught Gladwell that its only possible to act rapidly and cleverly after one has attained a vast amount of experience and learning. Gladwell argues, through examples that people who are knowledgeable but have poor understanding end up making mistaken judgements which occurs very often in todays informed world. According to him we must find a balance between our instincts and rational
5

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell Individual Dynamics and Leadership

analysis of situations. He ends by saying that we have the power to change (for the better) the ways in which our snap judgements are affected and hence make the world a better place.

5.0 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

We have identified the following frameworks with respect to the critical analysis of Blink A. Organisational Behaviour a. Technical skills the ability to apply specialized knowledge b. Conceptual skills the mental ability to analyse & diagnose complex situations c. Human skills the ability to work with, understand, & motivate other people, both in person & in groups B. Personality and Values a. Masculinity a national culture attribute that describes the extent to which the culture favours traditional masculine work roles of achievement, power & control b. Uncertainty avoidance extent to which a subject feels threatened by ambiguous situations & tries to avoid them c. Power distance attribute that describes the extent to which unequal distribution of power is accepted C. Perception and Individual Decision Making a. Intuitive decision making an unconscious process created out of distilled experience. b. Availability Bias the tendency for people to base their judgements on information that is readily available to them. c. Halo Effect the tendency to draw a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic. d. Risk aversion tendency to avoid a riskier outcome even if it might have a higher expected payoff. e. Selective perception the tendency to selectively interpret what one sees on the basis of ones interests, background, experience, and attitudes. f. Contrast effect evaluation of a persons characteristics that is affected by comparison with other people. g. Fundamental attribution error the tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors & overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgements about behaviour of others h. Anchoring bias a tendency to fixate on initial information, from which one then fails to adequately adjust for subsequent information i. Hindsight bias the tendency to believe falsely, after an outcome of an event is actually known, that one would have predicted that outcome. j. Confirmation bias the tendency to seek out information that reaffirms past choices & to discount information that contradicts past judgements k. Escalation of commitment an increased commitment to a previous decision in spite of negative information D. a. b. c. Attitudes and Job Satisfaction Cognitive Component the belief segment of an attitude Affective Component the emotional component of an attitude Behavioural Component an intention to behave in a certain way
6

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell Individual Dynamics and Leadership

6.0 RELATING THEORY TO PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

INTRODUCTION: THE STATUE THAT DIDNT LOOK RIGHT
The statue bought by the Getty Museum was tested for being a contemporary fake by multiple art experts. Expressing the first word or feeling that comes to their mind, the art experts were eventually successful in judging the veracity of the proclaimed facts. Based on the instincts the experts had varied reactions including the first word that comes to their head fresh , the feeling of the presence of a glass between the person and the work and the feeling of an intuitive repulsion. They were able to understand more about the essence of the statue in the first two seconds of their first glance than the Getty was able to understand after fourteen months. 1. Fast and Frugal: The Iowa experiment with the red and blue deck of cards portrays the way a human mind works in terms of learning and thinking.

IDL Principle applicable: Intuitive decision making. Explanation: When the participants have to make sense of fast moving and large data two strategies play a role. The conscious strategy which is logical and definitive and cognitive psychology, the strategy in which the brain reaches conclusions without us knowing about it. Where in information is processed unknowingly which results in a hunch leading to a decision without knowing a decision is being made, mainly called adaptive unconscious. 2. The Internal Computer: Adaptive unconscious is a decision making apparatus which is capable of making very quick judgements based on very little information. IDL Principle: Halo effect and stereotyping Explanation: Decisions made in a short span of time can be as effective as the ones taken within a long span of time. First impressions of a person will be a case of stereotyping or Halo effect. They can be educated and controlled. Ones unconscious is powerful but it also makes errors. We are able to form an impression about a teacher based on short duration tapes because of adaptive unconscious. This can be considered as Halo Effect, as the impression formed is based on few points or a single criterion which is taken to be a representative of the teacher as a whole. CHAPTER 1: THEORY OF THIN SLICES: HOW A LITTLE BIT OF KNOWLEDGE GOES A LONG WAY Thin slicing is the ability of our unconscious to study patterns in situations and behaviour through rapid cognition. The author sites examples of the same like studying married couples for short durations and predict if they will get divorced, also predicting if doctors will get sued based on a short experience. Through these examples, he emphasizes on the fact that we humans thin-slice almost every time we face a new person or are in a novel situation. The Importance of Contempt: IDL Principle: Selective perception and emotions Explanation: The problem for Gladwell to predict certain relationships was that he was overwhelmed with the variety of emotions displayed by the couples. Gottman, on the other hand, has found that there are four emotions that indicate a troubled relationship: defensiveness, criticism, contempt, and stonewalling. Gottman focuses on these four
7

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell Individual Dynamics and Leadership

emotions when analyzing a clip. This is what our subconscious does when making a snap decision. It selectively perceives the information and makes a decision based on the most important factors. Secrets of the Bedroom: IDL Principle: Selective perception and Big 5 Personality model Explanation: Samuel Gosling has used the Big 5 Personality model to show that judging personalities is an example of how humans thin slice on a regular basis. Group of friends and strangers were asked to rate a person on Big 5 attributes based on intuitive judgement process. In the process, it was found that the strangers did better than friends in 3 out of five traitsConscientiousness, Openness to experience and Emotional stability- thus coming out as much better judges of others personalities. Here we see that the thin-slice technique can be just as effective, if not more so, than the thick-slice technique. CHAPTER 2: THE LOCKED DOOR - THE SECRET LIFE OF SNAP DECISIONS One of the aspects of the minds ability to thin slice and make accurat e judgments rapidly is that it is an unconscious process. As Gladwell points out, we perceive the way we make decisions and underestimate the influence of external factors on unconscious decisionmaking. IDL Principle: Stereotyping, Emotions and intuitive decision making Explanation: Influence on Emotion: Gladwell observed that people entered the room at a much brisk pace than at which they left the room due to the frequent usage and influence of words like worried, old, lonely, gray and wrinkle because this makes them feel old. Stereotype: Due to the mention of their race before the test the African students performed poorly in the test. This was due to the stereotyping done by the students based on one characteristic their skin tone. Intuition: Vic Braden, one of the worlds top tennis coaches, was consistently accurate in predicting double fault based on intuition. CHAPTER 3: THE WARREN HARDING ERROR Principles applied Anchoring Bias: A tendency to fixate on initial information only, from which one then fails to adequately adjust for subsequent information. The salesmen, besides Golomb, perceive their customers only based on their first appearances. Also, they believed only on available information (appearance). Therefore, Availability bias comes into play. The way they treat all blacks as nave and whites as smart customers, reflect the stereotyping error. Halo effect: The tendency to draw a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic Harry Daughtery is overwhelmed by physical appearance of Warren Harding, and assumes that he will make a good president. Self-Monitoring: Emotional Labour and Surface Acting are apparent when Golomb hides his personal problems to treat customers even on rough days.

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell Individual Dynamics and Leadership

CHAPTER 4: PAUL VAN RIPERS BIG VICTORY: CREATING STRUCTURE FOR SPONTANEITY The Millennium Games- simulation war games prepare the US army for a potentially similar situation against a dictator. The US army commander Paul Van Riper, a strict, aggressive and fearless North Vietnam-US war veteran played the role of a dictator who was attacked by the US army in his own territory. Despite the fact that Paul was given meager resources compared to the resourceful US army, Paul used his basic instincts and fast thinking rather than tons of information to gain an upper hand. This depicts the advantages of quick thinking over slow thinking involving analysis of large amounts of data. IDL Principle: Intuitive decision making. Explanation: In situations like war, diagnosis of disease etc where delayed decision making can complicate matters it is advantageous to take a decision based on initial thinking rather than analyzing huge volumes of data. CHAPTER 5: KENNAS DILEMMA Kenna is a promising musician who defies categorization. People in the music industry loved his music. Unfortunately for Kenna, focus groups did not. His music was tested with listeners and given unfavourable scores. As a result, Kennas career stalled. 1. A Second Look at First Impressions: Gladwell says that we should not put too much weight into the gut reactions of a focus group as people are not good at explaining the thought process behind their gut reactions. IDL Principle: Intuitive decision making. Explanation: When the decisions are made on a hunch, they are based on a large amount of data which had been collected & processed consciously or unconsciously over a long period of time from varied experiences. This precisely is the reason that the person is unable to quantify the reason in words in the expected short period of time. 2. Pepsis Challenge: In the early 1980s Pepsi began a marketing campaign that challenged Coca-Cola in a series of blind taste tests. The results indicated that people like the taste of Pepsi significantly more than Coca-Cola. In response, Coca-Cola created a new recipe that tested well in blind taste tests. The executives at Coke were very happy with these results and put the new recipe on the market but people didnt like the new Coca-Cola, in spite of its high test scores. IDL Principles: Cognitive Component, Affective Component & Behavioural Component of an attitude Explanation: The Americans had developed a sense of belonging towards Coke (affective component). This gave them a feeling of ownership of the brand (cognitive component). Hence they were unhappy when without them being consulted; the brand was revamped & introduced. The displeasure was expressed via wide-spread protests & ultimate failure of product (behavioural component). 3. The Blind Leading the Blind: Our perception of a persons appearance can affect the way we treat them. This was one of the problems affecting Kenna and his music. The people in the industry had seen him perform, or knew someone who had, while the focus groups strictly heard his songs. Judging Kenna without that additional information is like making people choose between Pepsi and Coke in a blind taste test (p. 167).
9

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell Individual Dynamics and Leadership

IDL Principle: Availability Bias Explanation: For the sake of convenience a lot of judgements are based on the catered data without taking a plunge into the adequacy or credibility of data which is evident from the case. Most of the decisions taken in such a manner are likely to be prone to errors. 4. The Chair of Death: In spite of its incredible back support, the Aeron did not test well due to its odd appearance. The company continued with the chairs production anyway, and today the Aeron is the best selling chair in the companys history. As it turns out the Aeron received bad reviews because it was revolutionary, not because it was a bad product. This was another one of the problems facing Kenna: His music was new and different, and it is the new and different that is always most vulnerable to market research (p. 176). IDL Principle: Halo Effect Explanation: the judgement in both the cases was based on one property that was supposed to be representative of the entire subject under consideration which was not the case. 5. The Gift of Expertise: In this section Gladwell argues that experts, through their countless experiences with a certain subject, are much better at looking behind the locked door than people with less experience. IDL Principle: Technical skills Explanation: the experts have honed their skills over a long period putting in considerable effort to get better with every experience as a result of which they are able to apply their acquired knowledge with relative ease. 6. It Sucks What the Record Companies are Doing to You: Gladwell ends this chapter by summing up Kennas current situation. Radio stations wont play his music without proof that people will like it (positive reviews from focus groups). While experts and live audiences love Kenna, he is yet to make it big due to his poorly contextualized test scores. IDL Principle: Risk aversion Explanation: The record companies chose to not sign Kenna in spite of the possibility of his being a sensation (people needed to have more exposure to his non-conformist style of music) the as the initial reviews arent sure-shot predictors of the future trend (just like the above mentioned case of Aeron chair). CHAPTER 6: SEVEN SECONDS IN THE BRONX: THE DELICATE ART OF MIND READING Just before midnight on February 3, 1999, the four officers spotted Diallo standing outside of his apartment building and thought he was up to no good. As they backed the car up to investigate, Diallo stared at them inquisitively. The officers stopped the car, got out and addressed Diallo. Diallo did not reply. He was terrified because his friends were recently robbed by a group of armed men. Diallo turned and ran into the building, with the officers chasing after him. As Diallo reached the door he pulled his wallet out of his pocket. The officers, thinking the wallet was a gun, opened fire and killed Diallo. The officers were put on trial for murder. IDL Principle: Selective perception Explanation: the officers mistook Diallo to be a suspicious character on the basis of a stereotype & the ambience; all their following interpretations were to reaffirm their false beliefs

10

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell Individual Dynamics and Leadership

2. The Theory of Mind Reading: In this section Gladwell tells the story of Silvan Tomkins and Paul Ekman, two scientists who catalogued every possible facial expression and the emotions they portray. In essence, the men created a guide to mind-reading. IDL Principles: Conceptual skills & Human skills Explanation: the experts needed great depth of knowledge & at the same time the ability to apply it to decipher this complex problem which they did successfully (conceptual skills) & are now adept at reading & dealing with people (human skills). 5. Arguing with a Dog: In this section Gladwell tells us that when our heart rate goes over 175 beats per minute, our ability to reason breaks down. The forebrain shuts down, and the mid-brain the part that is the same as your dogs (all mammals have that part of the brain) reaches up and hijacks the forebrain (p. 225). In other words, when our heart rate reaches a certain point we have the reasoning skills of a dog. IDL Principle: Contrast effect Explanation: here the effect is exaggerated as the author resorts to a direct comparison with a dog to bring out the crux of matter. 8. The Tragedy on Wheeler Avenue: With all of this new information Gladwell retells the story of Amadou Diallos death. This time Gladwell points out that the officers were thrown into a situation that caused them to make terrible decisions: they were not aware of their super-computers miscalculation, they were unable to read Diallos mind because he turned and ran as they approached, they did not have enough time to make an informed decision and they were hindered by the negative effects of a racing heart. IDL Principles: Fundamental attribution error, Anchoring bias, Confirmation bias & Escalation of commitment Explanation: The officers made a judgement of Diallo being a suspicious character beforehand; they interpreted his attempted evasion as that of a culprit while in fact Diallo was just scared of them under the given circumstances; this shows a fundamental attribution error on the part of officers. All the following information was interpreted in such a manner as to corroborate their previous judgement of Diallo which shows confirmation bias which also led them to neglect several following cues like fear that were contradictory that were displayed by Diallo; also an instance of anchoring bias. Once Diallo made an attempt to flee, the officers were coaxed into action in spite of not having any evidence to support their suspicion which shows an escalation of commitment. CONCLUSION: LISTENING WITH YOUR EYES: THE LESSONS OF BLINK Up until the late 20th Century, the world of classical music had been dominated by men. At the root of this unfair practice was the false perception that women did not have the physical strength and lung capacity to play as well as men. Nowadays most orchestral auditions are done blind, with the musician playing behind a screen. This allows the judges to listen to the music without their supercomputers affecting the experience. When Abbie Conant, a trombonist, did a blind audition the Music Director, Sergiu Celibidache, proclaimed after Conants audition, Thats who we want (p. 246)! However Celibidache had no idea that Conant was a woman. Celibidache did hire Conant, but he refused to allow her to become first chair trombone. Conant went through a series of tests to prove that her lung strength was every bit as good as a mans to become a first chair trombone.
11

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell Individual Dynamics and Leadership

IDL Principles: Masculinity, Power distance, Uncertainty avoidance & Hindsight bias Explanation: In the case under consideration, the culture seems to be highly masculine (male dominated) with a large power distance (everyone offers respect of the highest cadre to the maestros). Uncertainty avoidance is evitable when the jury is faced with a difficult situation (of the outstanding performer being a female & that too one that they knew - proving all their previous judgements regarding her were biased) & tries to procrastinate the result as they were not brave enough to challenge the on-going tradition. Hindsight bias becomes visible when the authorities make several futile attempts for falsely implicating Abbie when their case lacked substance which was subsequently proven.

7.0 LEARNING AND CONCLUSION

Why, for so many years, were conductors so oblivious to the corruption of their snap judgments? Because we are often careless with our powers of rapid cognition. Written in an outspoken and conversational style, Blink forced us to evaluate the merits of snap judgements and through its various intriguing anecdotes and theories which appealed to our judgement. It gradually made us think and consider our decisions differently. Even though we are inclined to assume that a slow thoughtful methodological investigation leads to better results as compared to snap judgements, Gladwell argues and convinces the reader that quick decisions are equally good as the cautious and deliberate decisions. The book shows that our brain has a strong subconscious which continuously works at the back of our mind to rapidly gather huge amounts of information, process data, isolate details and come to astonishingly rapid conclusions, even within the first two seconds of seeing something. Blink is very relevant in current times because today we have a huge amount of data and sometimes the volume of the data can interfere with the accuracy of the judgment leading to Analysis Paralysis. This paralysis can very often hamper our judgement as we tend to over think and over analyse situations. The challenge here is to extract the useful information out from a large amount of data. The other information may be irrelevant and confusing to the analyst. Collecting more information reinforces our judgement but does not help in making it accurate. Information collection is regarded as confirming an individuals initial belief/bias. Gladwell explains that for better judgement it is not necessary that a lot of information is needed. On the contrary better judgement can be made through the simplicity and frugality of the information. Gladwell also stresses upon the fact that one must learn to gain expertise on their snap judgements .He concludes the book by stating that we have the beautiful gift of making snap judgements in almost a blink and it is our responsibility to change and use this power for the better and therefore make this world a better place We therefore conclude agreeing with Gladwell that we require more of such systems in place. We must master our narrow perceptions and ideas that impoverish our world. Since we intend to live in a society that places great trust on our snap judgements, we must make an effort to construct the same for ourselves.

12

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell Individual Dynamics and Leadership

8.0 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Our team thanks Mrs. Seema Rawat for giving us this golden opportunity to study, analyze and apply knowledge gained from the course- Individual Dynamics and Leadership to the book Blink: The power of thinking without thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. It has indeed improved our knowledge of the subject and given us an experience of practical application in our day to day lives. Hope we get another similar opportunity in the near future.

13