Seven Seconds in the Bronx

Judgments and impressions

If you put your hands over a babies hand a baby will looking into your eyes to see what you’re thinking most emotions can be read on your face

“41 Shots” Bruce Springsteen song references this incident

• Officers were found innocent
• Most mind reading is not black and white most are grey

Germany Laughs at US!

Get it us and U.S. lol

Germany is laughing at us because they think we are fixated on padding and softness. They think between our over padded car cushions to Mickey Mouses fat white hand glove were obviously obsessed haha

Gift of Expertise

Experts judge things differently because they are experts in that field.

Introspection destroyed people’s ability to solve insight problems. Studies show that making people think about Jam turns them into idiots!

In this case we trick our own minds making ourselves unable to explain the reasons behind why we dislike something.

Triangle Test (I want to try this on my friends)

1/3 out of 1,000 gets it right!

The triangle tests uses any 2 sodas and 3 cups. For example pour some Coke into two cups and then pour Pepsi into one cup. Ask the tester which cup is the odd one out.

If you do this test don't tell the tester anything about it before hand, separate them use 3 dark cups that are identical don't label with numbers or letters and when presenting the cups to them present it in a triangle shape.

Drinking a lot of cola and thinking about cola is very different!

Music is no longer about faith anymore. Market research doesn’t take experts opinions about music anymore - they take the average music listener.

Coke and Pepsi Challenges

The real trick!

During a taste test people preferred Pepsi over Coke because Pepsi has a sweeter taste. Coke drinkers couldn't believe they liked Pepsi more however, no one ever drinks just a sip of soda. When one sip is tasted yes Pepsi is preferred - when the whole can is drank more people prefer Coke because its not so sweet. (This of course was never brought to anyone's attention!)

Don't let your eyes fool you!

Studies show that different packaging make people “think” the food inside tastes different.

When sprite cans were created with more yellow on them people honesty “thought” they tasted more lemon. When the sprite cans were created with more green on them people honesty "thought" they tasted more lime. Sprite never change the soda formula just the coloring on the Sprint cans.

Cook County Hospital

The hospital still has the heart attack decision tree on the wall because of its powerful 95% accuracy rate

A group of psychologist were asked to consider the case of a 29 year old war veteran, Joseph Kid. They were given basic information and then asked to answer questions regarding his childhood. After they were given more information on Kid's life and were allowed to change their answers if necessary.

It was determined that when the psychologies knew less information about Joseph Kid they were able to answer more questions correctly!

Music referenced in the book

Kenny Rogers “Gambler”

U2 “Joshua Tree”

Kena “Free Time”

Verbal Overshadowing

The left side of your brain deals with words while the right side deals with pictures

When asked to pick someone out of a line up you most likely can – this uses the right side of your brain, however once your asked to write down a description of that person your thought process has to move to the left side of your brain idea is distorted

Several people were asked a series of puzzles. When those people were asked to explain themselves 30% fewer puzzles were solved!

The act of taking something apart makes you lose the meaning

Insight is like a flickering candle that can easily go out

Fight the Warren Harding Errors!

President Warren G. Harding, (29^th President) moved up in the ranks based on his looks! He is thought of (by most) the worse President we have had up to this point.

Male CEO’s were a shade under 6ft. CEO’s as a group are 3 inches taller. Average male is 5’9 a third are 6’2

Unconscious biases – "Warren Harding Error" being a short male is the same as minority statistics. A inch of height is worth $789/year
People don’t know they are doing the "Warren Harding Error" but they are!! FIGHT IT

Priming Experiment

 Put your mind in a "smart zone" before you take a test. Write down things like what it would mean to be a professor.

Studies show that students whom were asked about their race before an exam did worse or better (black vs. white) We didn’t know that this had such an effect!

Studies show that people who were primed with polite comments acted polite vs. people who were primed with rude comments acted rude. Both groups were unaware that their behavior had been affected.

Gladwell believes this "free will" is actually an auto-pilot being affected by our outside environment more than we know...

If your aware of the fact that your being primed it won’t work!

All of these experiments must be approved by a board because they affect the behavior of the person being studied so much

Damage in the ventralmena area causes a disconnect between what you know and what you do (autism) This idea is similar to drug addiction. Addicts know very well the consequences of their behavior but they fail to act accordingly its because of a brain problem.

Doctors - - the good and the bad

More and more Doctors are being sued based on the single fact of how they display their care for their patients.

By reviewing the tone of a conversation between a Doctor and their patient Gladwell can tell if they are sued more than average. Doctors seem to be sued less if they give you an agenda up front, act concerned and listen.

We have a hard time excepting snap judgments because often the person doesn't have a good explanation their judgment - they say something like, I just know or I can feel it. We should except each other’s snap judgments more often.