Blink: Thin Slices and Mind-Blindness
Christine M. Reinheimer
Arizona State University
Effective Thinking 80501
November 5, 2014
How often do we see someone and just know that we like them in a few seconds? Often. How often do we act unpredictably in foreign situations? Just as often. Do we freak out when we have high levels of stress and feel like the situation is out of our control? Yes. Using the concepts of “thin slices,” or our unconscious ability to understand situations based on a small sample of experience, and “mind-blindness,” or the inability to process first impressions effectively, Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink (2005) explains why we respond in this way. Gladwell (2005) discusses the power of our intuition, as well as its strengths and weaknesses, providing an insight into how our unconscious minds work.
“Love at first sight” is a seemingly inexplicable, but nonetheless common, experience, and an example of thin-slicing. Gladwell (2005) references a speed-dating study conducted by Iyengar and Fisman in which what people said they wanted in a partner did not end up matching what they chose. In other words, a person’s unconscious ability to process someone’s personality in a brief conversation provides a more accurate evaluation of desire than a lengthy and conscious consideration of our own wants and needs. These results would seem to indicate that online dating services will likely not be effective. First, there is a certain degree of information overload on a dating site: pictures, biographical data, what a person wants, how a person sees him- or herself, and so on. Second, when a user browses profiles on a dating site, it is usually a relaxed and lengthy process that does not allow unconscious thin-slicing to occur. Finally, the way a person presents him- or herself on a dating site may not be fully contextualized, which would result in an ambiguous profile made up of words that two
people may define differently (Facione, 2011), so whatever evaluation process a user goes through would be flawed from the start. In some cases, it might be better to allow friends to evaluate online profiles, although given the final point above, a friend’s evaluation would be flawed as well. A brief and speedy introduction, such as a speed dating context, would seem to be a more effective method to find a partner.
Foreign and new situations can often lead us to make unpredictable choices. Van Riper suggests that strange and unpredictable situations do not allow for a calm and reflective decision-making process (Gladwell, 2005). In other words, these situations can make us mind-blind and force us to rely on unconscious thin-slicing to make effective decisions. Even if the situation is unpredictable, however, there are always elements that are predictable, such as our own abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. I play World of Warcraft, an online video game in which groups of players have to work together in order to, for instance, defeat a “boss,” an extremely powerful computer-controlled opponent. These boss fights can be unpredictable of reasons, such as the random targets and attacks programmed into the fight and the unpredictable responses some players may have to the situation. There is no time to follow, for instance, the IDEAS model, identify, deepen, enumerate, assess, and scrutinize (Facione, 2011). Instead, one must make what Van Riper calls intuitive decisions (Gladwell, 2005), or one’s character dies and the group fails. However, if I am familiar with my character’s abilities, and know my and my character’s strengths and weaknesses, I am better able to make thin-sliced and successful decisions. The more often I am involved in different scenarios and with different players, the more practice I get at making intuitive decisions in new situations.
High stress levels and a perceived lack of control can give people mind-blindness or “temporary autism” (Gladwell, 2005, p. 425). I have struggled with these kinds of moments for most of my life, when stress and a lack of control lead me to thoughts of self-harm. While my arousal in these situations remains high, I do “lose my head” and become crippled mentally: I lose the ability to think critically, and I get tunnel vision, able to focus only on thoughts of self-harm. I do not follow through on these thoughts, which may be one version of saying something I do not mean; in addition, I will also literally say things I do not mean, often striking out at people around me. As arousal levels diminish, so do these responses, but in the heat of the moment, my reactions do seem to come from a state of mind-blindness.
Our culture seems to tell us that being rational, thorough, and deliberate is the best way to make decisions: such as the IDEAS model proposed by Facione (2011). However, Gladwell (2005) indicates that this may not be the case. Some situations, such as dating, indicate that intuitive decision-making based on thin slices of experience may be a better course of action. In other situations, high levels of arousal may lead to mind-blindness, making reasoned and deliberate decision-making impossible. I do not feel, however, that we should move entirely to an intuitive way of making decisions. Developing habits of critical thinking, planning for what can be planned for, being aware of one’s abilities can all help to make intuitive decision-making more effective. Eventually one may go with the gut, but conscious and critical preparation will help the gut know where to go.
References
Facione, P. (2011). THINK critically (Student ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Gladwell, M. (2005). Blink: The power of thinking without thinking. New York: Little, Brown and Co.