A Pinoy Blog About Nothing

Time and again, we are told that first impressions are important. Did you know that no matter how much you try you just cannot replicate a genuine smile? That’s because there are certain muscles in your face that you can’t control. That’s just one of the nuggets I picked up from Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink

Much has been written about Gladwell and his latest book. Most of it of course are glowing reviews and it’s hard not to agree. Gladwell serves up tons of interesting anecdotes and cases. It reminds me of how Oliver Sacks made neurology so fascinating. These men are gifted not just with mastery over their respected fields but each are also very talented storytellers. How else could Gladwell make the story of the New Formula Coke and the Pepsi Taste Test of the 80s like it was a plot from a Grisham novel?

It is in Gladwell’s telling that make stories of how we make subconscious, very complicated decisions infinitely interesting. Gladwell illustrates this phenomenon in such cases as speed dating, pop music, hospital emergency rooms, and even through an infamous police killing (which inspired Bruce Springsteen to write American Skin).

His very first case is that of how art experts had a very strong reaction to a statue at the very first instance of exposure to it. They could not explain immediately what was wrong - just that they had a very strong negative reaction to the statue. Later, it was uncovered that the statue was a very good fake.

These cases though are not merely examples of gut instinct. Gladwell interviewed experts - very knowledgeable, experienced people. Their decisions are not based on personal taste. Their expertise are so ingrained in their being that it becomes second nature to them. If a gourmand is a lover of food, then these are their equivalent in the field of art, psychology and even music.

One of the more interesting people in Blink (and there are lots of them) is Paul Ekman. Ekman has mapped and mastered the human face that he can tell so much about that person’s personality just by studying his face. One of Ekman’s anecdotes was that involving former US President Bill Clinton:

Ekman recalled the first time he saw Bill Clinton, during the 1992 Democratic primaries. “I was watching his facial expressions, and I said to my wife, ‘This is Peck’s Bad Boy,’”Ekman said. “This is a guy who wants to be caught with his hand in the cookie jar and have us love him for it anyway. There was this expression that’s one of his favorites. It’s that hand-in-the-cookie-jar, love-me-Mommy-because-I’m-a-rascal look. It’s A.U. twelve, fifteen, seventeen, and twenty-four, with an eye roll.

“I knew someone who was on Clinton’s communications staff. So I contacted him. I said, ‘Look, Clinton’s got this way of rolling his eyes with a certain expression, and what it conveys is “I’m a bad boy.” I don’t think it’s a good thing. I could teach him how ont to do that in two or three hours.’ And he said, ‘Well, we can’t t ake the risk that he’s known to be seeing an expert on lying.” Ekman’s voice trailed off. It was clear that he rather liked Clinton and that he wanted Clinton’s expression to have been more than a meaningless facial tic. Ekman shrugged. “Unfortunately, I guess, he needed to get caught - and he got caught.”

Ekman’s research has been used to study schizophrenia and heart disease. It has even been used in animation by the people who did Toy Story and Shrek.

To be sure, Blink isn’t a how-to book. It serves to make us aware though, that no matter how much we guard against it, we are subjected to biases. If you think you’re exempt, try it out on this Implicit Association Test from Harvard. Let me know how you did. I was surprised at my score.

Blink is a very educational as well as entertaining book. I’ve always been fascinated by how the mind works and how creative people approach problems. This book didn’t disappoint. If you only read it for the stories, then I’m sure it’ll be time and money well spent.