Insight: The Power of Instant Decisions - Malcolm Gladwell. The Power of Instant Decisions: Intuition as a Skill

Malcolm Gladwell

The power of instant decisions. Intuition as a skill

Translator V. Logvinova

Edited by Ph.D. psychol. sciences E. Krainikova

Editors N. Nartsisova, L. Selezneva

Project Manager E. Gulitova

Technical editor N. Lisitsyna

Proofreaders L. Gordienko, A. Lutsenko

Computer layout M. Potashkin

Cover design S. Timonov

All rights reserved. No part of the electronic version of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including posting on the Internet or corporate networks, for private or public use without the written permission of the copyright owner.

Malcolm Gladwell is the author of the international bestseller Geniuses and Outsiders. He previously worked as a journalist and wrote about business and science for the newspaper. Washington Post, currently collaborating with the magazine New Yorker. Malcolm Gladwell was born in the UK, raised in Canada, and currently lives in New York City.

Acknowledgments

Several years ago, before I wrote this book, I grew my hair long. I used to always cut my hair very short and conservative. And then, following a whim, I decided to let go of the real mane that I wore in my youth. My life immediately changed dramatically. I started getting tickets for speeding, which had never happened before. They began to take me out of the queue at the airport for a more thorough search. And one day, as I was walking down Fourteenth Street in midtown Manhattan, a police car pulled up to the sidewalk and three police officers jumped out. As it turned out, they were looking for a rapist who, according to them, was very similar to me. They showed me an identikit and a description. I took one look at it all and told them as kindly as I could that in fact the rapist was nothing like me. He was much taller, much bigger, and about fifteen years younger than me (and, in a futile attempt to make it a joke, I added that he was not nearly as good-looking as I was). All he and I have in common is a mop of curly hair. After about twenty minutes, the police officers agreed with me and let me go. Against the backdrop of global problems, I decided that this was a banal misunderstanding. African-Americans in the United States constantly endure far greater indignities than this. But I was struck by how vague and absurd the stereotyping was in my case: there was nothing really obvious, such as skin color, age, height or weight. It was just about the hair. The first impression of my hair swept aside all other considerations in the pursuit of the rapist. This street episode made me think about the hidden power of first impressions. And these thoughts led to the creation of “The Power of Instant Decisions.” Therefore, I believe that before I thank anyone else, I owe it to three police officers to express my gratitude.

And now my sincerest thanks to, first, David Remnick, editor New Yorker, who showed nobility and patience in allowing me to work on “The Power of Instant Decisions” alone for a year. I wish everyone a boss as good and generous as David. Little, Brown, the publishing house that treated me with great respect when I submitted my book The Tipping Point to them, was no less generous to me this time. Thank you, Michael Pietsch, Jeff Shandler, Heather Fein, and most of all, Bill Phillips. These are the people who skillfully, thoughtfully and cheerfully turned my manuscript from nonsense into something harmonious and reasonable. Now I want to name my firstborn Bill. A huge number of his friends read the manuscript at various stages and gave me invaluable advice. They are Sarah Lyall, Robert McCrum, Bruce Headlam, Deborah Needleman, Jacob Weisberg, Zu Rosenfeld, Charles Randolph, Jennifer Watchell, Josh Liberzon, Elaine Blair and Tanya Simon. Emily Kroll conducted a study on the physical height of corporate directors for me. Joshua Aronson and Jonathan Schooler generously shared their academic experiences with me. The excellent staff at the Savoy Restaurant tolerated my long periods of sitting at the table by the window. Kathleen Lyon kept me happy and healthy. My favorite photographer in the world, Brooke Williams, took my signature photo. A few people, however, deserve special recognition. Terry Martin and Henry Finder (as with The Tipping Point) provided extensive and extremely helpful criticism of my early drafts. I'm happy to have such smart friends. Susie Hansen and the incomparable Pamela Marshall made the text precise and clear and saved me from confusion and mistakes. As for Tina Bennett, I would have suggested that she be named CEO of Microsoft, or run for president, or be given some other similar appointment so that her intelligence, knowledge and generosity could help solve the world's problems - but then I no longer had would be an agent. Lastly, I thank my parents, Joyce and Graham Gladwell. They read this book as only a mother and father can: with passion, open-mindedness, and love. Thank you.

Introduction

A statue that had something wrong with it

In September 1983, an art dealer named Gianfranco Becchina approached the Paul Getty Museum in California. He stated that he had come across a marble statue dating back to the 6th century BC. e. The statue was a kouros - a sculptural image of a naked young athlete with his arms extended along his body and his left leg extended forward. Currently, approximately two hundred kouros are known, and most of them were found in burial places in a severely damaged form or only in the form of fragments. However, this specimen, about seven feet tall (a little more than two meters. – Note ed.), preserved almost perfectly, which in itself is surprising. This was an exceptional find! Gianfranco Becchina asked ten million dollars for her.

The Getty Museum workers were in no hurry. They took the statue to themselves and began careful research. It did not differ in style from other kouros, in particular from the so-called kouros of Anavissos from the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, which made it possible to roughly date it and determine its place of origin. Beccina did not know exactly where or when the statue was discovered, but provided the Museum's legal department with a set of documents relating to its recent history. Judging by them, since the 1930s, the kouros was in the private collection of a certain Lauffenberger, a Swiss doctor, who at one time acquired it from a famous Greek art dealer named Roussos.

Malcolm Gladwell (born 1963 in England) is a Canadian journalist, pop sociologist, author of several best-selling books, staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, and one of the most influential people in Time magazine's top 100.

Complexity of presentation

Target Audience

Anyone whose work depends on the ability to make important decisions, as well as those who are interested in psychology.

The book describes an analysis of the decision-making process, for which the author uses scientific material, and also touches on aspects of politics, business, medicine, art, and design. Every person has intuition, and you definitely need to listen to it. The author explains the patterns of unconscious decisions that need to be used wisely for yourself, and analyzes the factors that distort this process.

Let's read together

People often have to process large amounts of new information, sometimes contradictory, and have little time to do it all. To correctly assess a situation, the brain needs two strategies: a strategy of logical and meaningful cognition, when we think about information and draw conclusions, and a strategy when the brain comes to a certain conclusion, but is in no hurry to report it. The adaptive unconscious is the part of the brain that is responsible for making instant decisions.

There are stressful situations where haste is beneficial, since any snap judgments and first impressions offer significantly more effective ways to adapt to the world. Insight makes it possible to see the correctness of instantly made decisions against the background of those that we make carefully and thoughtfully.

The unconscious is a force, but an imperfect one: we scan incoming information internally, analyze the veracity of each situation, but it also happens that our instinctive reactions conflict with feelings, interests and emotions. Should you trust your instincts or should you still exercise caution? Insight poses this as the next challenge. The failure of the ability to quickly perceive lies in a consistent set of causes that can be identified and understood. We ourselves learn to choose the moments when the voice of the internal computer is important, and when it is worth ignoring it. The ability to draw instant conclusions and evaluate first impressions can develop endlessly; the main thing is to learn how to manage this process.

We have to live in a reality in which the quality of a decision depends on the time and effort spent on it. The author calls “thin slicing” the ability of the unconscious to find patterns in situations or behavior, taking into account thin layers of lived experience. These snapshots answer questions more clearly than any lengthy reflection.

An experiment conducted by psychologist Samuel Gosling illustrates how thin slices work in making judgments about a person's personality. The psychologist administered a large test questionnaire to 80 college students to determine personality characteristics along five dimensions: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. Those who did not know each other performed better because they were able to understand someone more deeply than those with whom the person had known for many years.

We are more likely to be biased about ourselves, and therefore, when assessing personality, it is not possible to ask others to tell us what they think about themselves. The ability to make thin slices is the basis of our existence: we do it when meeting strangers, in a situation of rapid decision-making, when circumstances change dramatically. Close attention to detail gives us a comprehensive answer in a couple of seconds. Any immediate conclusions relate to the unconscious, to everything that happens “behind a closed door.” People are unaware of the impact of something on their behavior and are almost never aware of this ignorance. Therefore, it is important to admit our ignorance and say “yes, I don’t know” more often. We often act on autopilot and have difficulty overcoming various stereotypes.

Psychology pays much attention to the role of unconscious associations that shape our judgments and determine behavior. One type of study is the Implicit Association Test, developed by Anthony J. Greenwald, Mahzarin Banaji, and Brian Nozek. It is based on ideas that are in a certain relationship in the brain and which we connect with each other more quickly than two unfamiliar ideas. For example, doctors working in the emergency department collect and analyze information beyond what is required. It is this information that gives them confidence, which ultimately affects the accuracy of decisions made, because its excess confuses the brain, which gives the wrong answer. The author talks about two important lessons:

Successful decisions are based on a balance between conscious and instinctive thinking.
To make the right decisions, a limited amount of initial information is required. Thus, when making thin sections, we can unconsciously cut off all that is unnecessary.

As for marketing research, it is not always possible to identify true consumer behavior; marketers are not able to predict it. Many years ago, the Coca-Cola company conducted several tastings, the result of which was consumer preference for the product of their competitor Pepsi. Coca-Cola changed the recipe, introducing customers to a new product called "New Coke", which promised to be a bestseller, but did not. The failure was explained by the fact that the tests were carried out under the wrong conditions. The buyer must initially get used to an unfamiliar product, only then does he have a chance to like it.

When we want to avoid making erroneous spontaneous judgments, we must ignore any irrelevant and irrelevant information. The fastest and most important forms of cognition are our judgments and impressions of others; we always make assumptions about what another person is thinking or feeling.

Best Quote

“It is the thin slices that make the unconscious so mysterious, and this is the most difficult thing to understand in the process of rapid cognition.”

What the book teaches

The human mind produces spontaneous judgments in a few seconds, and in certain situations the subconscious mind works better than rational thinking. But sometimes it leads to the wrong choice and unfair evaluation by other people.

The nature of spontaneous decisions is based on innate, situational and acquired qualities. These solutions can be trained and developed.

People often struggle with interpretation because they are too quick to explain something that cannot be explained.

Unconscious attitudes may not coincide with the conscious values we put forward.

From the editor

Why is it sometimes so difficult for us to make a decision in choosing one option or another, why does this process require tension and provoke fatigue? Psychologist, Gestalt therapist, trainer Ksenia Shulga describes 10 reasons that prevent us from making a choice: .

The ability to quickly make decisions is especially important in an extreme situation, when our life depends on the speed of reaction. Survival Specialist David Richardson explains how the thinking of people who do not give up in critical circumstances is different, and how to develop it in yourself: .

How to avoid a painful process and put off solving your problems until “better times,” even if they require surgical intervention? Social psychologist, teacher, master's degree Alexandru Banarescu offers as many as five “harmful” tips to cope with this task: .

Annotation

The police shot an innocent man. After a year of research, experts were unable to establish the fakeness of the statue. Warren Harding, a mediocre and unlucky politician, was elected to the presidency of the United States in 1921. Why did these fatal mistakes happen? Could they have been avoided? In his fascinating book Insight, Malcolm Gladwell, author of the bestselling book The Tipping Point, examines the decision-making process. Using rich material from the fields of art, science, design, medicine, politics and business, he reveals the patterns of unconscious decisions and analyzes the factors that distort this process. The book will be of interest to psychologists, political scientists, marketers - all specialists whose success depends on the ability to make important decisions (sometimes under conditions of acute time pressure), as well as a wide range of readers interested in the latest achievements of psychology.

Don't rack your brains - catch a glimpse of the truth!

Acknowledgments

Introduction. A statue that had something wrong with it

Chapter 1. The theory of thin slices: how to achieve a lot knowing little

Chapter 2. The Closed Door: The Secret Nature of Instant Decisions

Chapter 3. The Warren Harding mistake: is it worth losing your head at the sight of tall, handsome brunettes?

Chapter 4. Paul Van Riper's Great Victory: Building the Structure of Spontaneity

Chapter 5: Kenna's Dilemma: Is It Possible to Find Out What People Really Want?

Chapter 6. Seven Seconds in the Bronx: The Subtle Art of Mind Reading

Conclusion

Notes

Don't rack your brains - catch a glimpse of the truth!

In his bestselling book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell revolutionized the way we think about the world around us. Now in “Illumination” he changes our ideas about the inner world. Insight is a book about how we, without thinking, make decisions in the blink of an eye, sometimes quite complex ones. Why do some people find it easy, while others find it impossible? Why do some people listen to their intuition and win, while others follow logic and make mistakes? How does our mind work and why are the best decisions sometimes difficult to explain in words?

In Insight, Malcolm Gladwell talks about a psychologist who predicts whether a marriage will last after observing a couple for a few minutes; about a tennis coach who knows that a player will double miss before the ball even touches the racket; about art critics who recognized a fake at first sight.

But there are also fatal “insights”: the election of Warren Harding as US President, the release of New Coke, the murder of a random person by police officers. The author shows that the best decisions are made not by those who process more information or spend more time thinking, but by those who have mastered the art of “thin slicing” - the ability to isolate a small number of significant factors from a huge number of variables. Drawing on recent advances in sociology and psychology, Malcolm Gladwell is changing the way we think about decision making. You will never relate to your intuition the same way again.

In his new book Insight, Malcolm Gladwell examines the process of unconscious decision-making, drawing on a wealth of material from the fields of art, science, design, medicine, politics and business. This is not just useful, but also fascinating, exciting reading, opening the door to the little-studied world of the unconscious, full of secrets. The book will be of interest not only to specialists whose successful work depends on the ability to quickly make important decisions (psychologists, marketers, recruiters, politicians, negotiators), but also to a wide range of readers.

Malcolm Gladwell is the author of the international bestseller The Tipping Point. He previously worked as a journalist and wrote about business and science for the Washington Post, and now collaborates with the New Yorker magazine. Malcolm Gladwell was born in the UK, raised in Canada, and currently lives in New York.

Acknowledgments

Several years ago, before I wrote Insight, I grew my hair long. I used to always cut my hair very short and conservative. And then, following a whim, I decided to let go of the real mane that I wore in my youth. My life immediately changed dramatically. I started getting tickets for speeding, which had never happened before. They began to take me out of the queue at the airport for a more thorough search. And one day, as I was walking down Fourteenth Street in midtown Manhattan, a police car pulled up to the sidewalk and three police officers jumped out. As it turned out, they were looking for a rapist who, according to them, was very similar to me. They showed me an identikit and a description. I took one look at it all and told them as kindly as I could that in fact the rapist was nothing like me. He was much taller, much bigger, and about fifteen years younger than me (and, in a futile attempt to make it a joke, I added that he was not nearly as good-looking as I was). All he and I had in common was a big head of curly hair. After about twenty minutes, the police officers agreed with me and let me go. Against the backdrop of global problems, I decided that this was a banal misunderstanding. African-Americans in the United States constantly endure far greater indignities than this. But I was struck by how vague and absurd the stereotyping was in my case: there was nothing really obvious about it, such as skin color, age, height or weight. It was just about the hair. The first impression of my hair swept aside all other considerations in the pursuit of the rapist. This street episode made me think about the hidden power of first impressions. And these thoughts led to the creation of Illumination. Therefore, I believe that before I thank anyone else, I owe it to those three police officers to express my gratitude.

And now my sincerest thanks, first, to David Remnick, New Yorker. Showing nobility and patience, he allowed me to work only on Insight for a year. I wish everyone a boss as good and generous as David. Little, Brown and Company, which treated me with great respect when I submitted my book The Tipping Point to them, was no less kind to me this time. Thank you, Michael Pietsch, Jeff Shandler, Heather Fein, and especially Bill Phillips. These are the people who skillfully and thoughtfully turned my manuscript from nonsense into something harmonious and reasonable. Now I want to name my firstborn Bill. A huge number of his friends read my manuscript at various stages of completion and gave me invaluable advice. They are Sarah Lyall, Robert McCrum, Bruce Headlam, Deborah Needleman, Jacob Weisberg, Zoe Rosenfeld, Charles Randolph, Jennifer Watchell, Josh Lieberson, Elaine Blair and Tanya Simon. Emily Kroll conducted a study on the physical height of corporate directors for me. Joshua Aronson and Jonathan Schooler generously shared their academic experiences with me. The wonderful staff at the Savoy Restaurant put up with me as I sat for hours at a table by the window. Kathleen Lyon kept me happy and healthy. My favorite photographer in the world, Brooke Williams, took my signature photo. There are several other people who deserve special thanks. This is Terry Martin and Henry Finder. As with The Tipping Point, they provided extensive and extremely helpful critiques of my early drafts. I'm happy to have such smart friends. Susie Hansen and the incomparable Pamela Marshall made the text precise and clear and saved me from confusion and mistakes. As for Tina Bennett, I would suggest that she be named CEO of Microsoft or that she run for President or some other similar appointment so that her intelligence, knowledge and generosity can help solve the world's problems - but then I would no longer have agent. Lastly, I thank my parents, Joyce and Graham Gladwell. They read this book as only a mother and father can: with passion, open-mindedness, and love. Thank you.

Introduction. A statue that had something wrong with it

In September 1983, an art dealer named Gianfranco Becchina approached the Paul Getty Museum in California. He stated that he had come into possession of a marble statue dating back to the 6th century BC. e. It was a kouros - a sculptural image of a naked young athlete with his arms outstretched at his sides and his left leg extended forward. Currently, approximately two hundred kouros are known, most of them found in burial sites, severely damaged or only in the form of fragments. However, this specimen, approximately seven feet high, is almost perfectly preserved, which is surprising in itself. This was an exceptional find! Gianfranco Becchina asked ten million dollars for her.

The Getty Museum workers were in no hurry. They took the statue to themselves and began careful research. In style it did not differ from other kouros, in particular from the so-called...

Quote

Malcolm Gladwell

ointuition is a very complex human tool...

Quote
"The Power of Instant Decisions" is not just about celebrating the power of first glance. I'm also interested in those moments when our intuition lets us down...

Malcolm Gladwell

What is the book “The Power of Instant Decisions: Intuition as a Skill” about?
In this book, Malcolm Gladwell analyzes the decision-making process. Using rich material from the fields of art, science, design, medicine, politics and business, he reveals the patterns of unconscious decisions and analyzes the factors that distort this process.
The author claims that we make all decisions at first sight - in two seconds. “The Power of Instant Decisions” is a book about those first two seconds.

Why The Power of Instant Decisions is Worth Reading
o every day we solve some problems, look for answers to questions, make important decisions and sometimes we do not find an explanation for all these decisions, this book will help answer the question “Why?”;
ointuition is a very complex instrument of the human subconscious, little is known about how to control it, Gladwell is trying to explain the inexplicable using clear examples and experiments;
o in some situations, intuition, the subconscious, the first impression let us down, leading to mistakes, but, according to Gladwell, there must be an explanation for this, which is why he looks for and analyzes factors that lead to wrong steps.
Who is this book for?
The book will be of interest to psychologists, political scientists, marketers - all specialists whose success depends on the ability to make important decisions, as well as a wide range of readers interested in the latest advances in psychology.

Who is the author
Malcolm Gladwell is the international bestselling author of The Tipping Point and Geniuses and Outsiders. Previously worked as a journalist and wrote about business and science for the Washington Post, and now collaborates with the New Yorker magazine. Malcolm Gladwell was born in the UK, raised in Canada, and currently lives in New York City.
2nd edition.

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The police did not understand the confusion and shot the unarmed man. Over the course of a year of research, specialists were unable to establish that the statue was fake, but one researcher realized this instantly. Warren Harding, a mediocre and unlucky politician, was elected to the presidency of the United States in 1921, but voters liked him so much. Why did these fatal mistakes happen? Could they have been avoided? When should you trust your first impression, and when should you think about it? In his fascinating book, Malcolm Gladwell analyzes the decision-making process. Using rich material from the fields of art, science, design, medicine, politics and business, he reveals the patterns of unconscious decisions and analyzes the factors that distort this process. The book will be of interest to all specialists whose success depends on the ability to make important decisions (sometimes under conditions of acute time pressure), as well as to a wide range of readers interested in the latest achievements of psychology.

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The given introductory fragment of the book The power of instant decisions. Intuition as a Skill (Malcolm Gladwell, 2005) provided by our book partner - the company liters.

Acknowledgments