Blink
Book Review by Adam Chan

The result was both groups experienced identical physiological responses. What would you make of this? What Ekman is describing on the physiological basis, how we thin-slice other people. We can all mind-read effortlessly and automatically because all the clues we need to make sense of someone or some social situation are right there in the faces of those in front of us. Nevertheless, we may be able to mind-read like Ekman but if we were aware we could, it would probably give you many strong hunches about what decisions you would make.

Except when things are happening too rapidly or stressfully, some of us run out of whitespace, rendering us temporarily inability to discern what is right in front of us or mind-read which, sometimes lead to lapses in judgment or even doing things that will never at all being done when there is time to sort things out in the mind. That could very well happen to Sean Caroll and his fellow police officers that night at South Bronx.

So much from so little. Temporary autism - Pg 226

The inability to mind-read is analogous to the condition of autism, which to some psychologist is known as “mind-blind”. Autistic people find it difficult, if not impossible to do things that come naturally to normal people like interpreting verbal and non-verbal cues such as gestures or facial expressions. Not to mention putting themselves in others’ head. They simply could not draw understanding from all these external stimuli other then the literal meaning of words.

The movie Rain Man demonstrated this condition in the most beautiful way when the autistic played by Dustin Hoffman was not able to understand the difference between the wetness on his lips and a kiss on his lips. NYPD has numerous statements describing in great details and accuracy of process of some crimes e.g. shootouts. Some police officers were able to provide so much detail as if the entire process was slowed down into frames when being interviewed by statement recorder.

How can our mind remember that much detail? This space in time when our minds can process so much information is the whitespace. NYPD has factored whitespace into the training, creating many realistic and tight scenarios thus allowing the police officers to handle such situations in composure. Some police officers are made to patrol alone as this will compel the on patrol police officer to slow down before diving into actions, eventually generating more whitespace. Between Diallo and Caroll that night, there was no whitespace and no mind-reading, only a body with bullet ridden holes and a black wallet.

Conclusion

Listening with our eyes - Pg 250

Abbie Conant, a professional musician would never be known to the world if not for the snap judgments by the panel of assessors during his audition. Out of eleven applications she made to various orchestral for a role in violin playing, she received one response from the Munich Philharrmonic Orchestra.

The audition was carried out with the panel of judges and candidates isolated by screens to remain objective. Abbie, played a classic German tune but she missed a note. She was certain then of packing her bags to leave right after she had played. The Orchestra director after hearing Abbie played, decided to stop the audition and sent away the rest of the candidates without listening to them. The director simply wanted Abbie and no others. The director and the rest of the judges assumed they will see Herr Conant (Herr is gentleman in German) but they saw Frau Conant (Frau is woman in German), they believe a lady, also a Japanese could never play, let alone to play with soul.

Despite the judges’ initial resistance, Abbie’s performance surpasses their expectations and also won numerous praises from other great classical musicians. The director had made a snap judgment that was proven correct over time but due to his biasness, he resisted his own snap judgment by finding many unsound reasons to get rid of Abbie. She continued to outshine and the director could no longer ignore the visibly success she had brought to the orchestra, he was reminded the words he said during Abbie’s audition i.e. “That’s who we want!” Abbie was saved by the screen.

I was right again! Isn’t that familiar? Decisions that were weighed cautiously did not produce results whereas those made in a blink brought the most rewards. We are schooled to take a step back but in reality, we often take more than one. This do offers us no certainty in achievements. It isn’t hard to believe such moments of snap judgments made the difference between life and death. The hardest part is for most of us to accept the snap judgments as the way to go.