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By

Anthony Beshara, Ph.D., President of Babich & Associates

Blink is the classical, one of a kind book by Malcolm Gladwell that discusses the human phenomenon of “thinking without thinking.” The author offers terms such as “adaptive unconscious,” which defines the mind’s ability to quickly and quietly process a lot of data and jump to an immediate conclusion. "Thin slicing" refers to the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behaviors based on very narrow slices of experience.  "The locked door" describes the secret life of snap decisions that we may not really know why we make, even when we analyze reasons. "Priming" is embedding instructions in the subconscious of someone else, influencing their decisions without their knowing. 

 

The central theme of the book is that we, more often than not, make snap decisions about most everything, even to the point that we justified those decisions with what we consider to be "logic" after we make them.  We all have a tendency to make snap decisions and then justify those decisions with reasons that we either rationalize or even invent.

 

Sometimes, these unconscious decisions are good ones and sometimes they are bad ones. Amazingly accurate, good, predictive decisions are cited.  For example, John Gottman, a research psychologist, can predict within 95% accuracy the likelihood that a couple's marriage will last another 15 years, after viewing only an hour of their personal interaction.  A Greek sculpture purchased by the Getty Museum proved to be a forgery after several very experienced art historians, upon looking at the statue, instantly knew that it was not real, but could not readily articulate why they felt that way.  Their instincts were in fact later confirmed by more solid evidence.

 

By the same token, very poor decisions can be made by our unconscious "rapid cognition" The author cites how the "Pepsi challenge" caused the Coca-Cola Company to produce a "new" Coke, that turned out to be a failure. The Pepsi challenge was a "taste test" given to the public between sips of Pepsi and sips of Coca-Cola.  The immediate "sip" of the sweeter Pepsi caused people's adaptive unconscious to choose it over Coke.  But as it turned out, after drinking a whole bottle of Pepsi, a can of Coca-Cola was preferable to most people.  So, the "thin slice" of the sip of Pepsi was not indicative of the correct, long-term decision of Coca-Cola being preferable by most people to Pepsi. 

 

Gladwell chronicles the accidental murder of Amadou Diallo on the night of February 3rd, 1999 by three policemen in lower Manhattan.  This is a detailed description of how three policemen "thin sliced" a black man, at midnight, running from them, reaching for an object in his pocket and was shot 41 times and killed by the policeman. Diallo was neither armed nor a criminal.  The policemen, for all kinds of reasons, made a number of poor snap decisions. 

 

The message of this book is that we need to pay attention to the split-second decisions and judgments that we make in forming impressions and the evaluations of people.  We can't keep ourselves from making those split-second, unconscious decisions.  But we can make efforts to be aware that those decisions may be wrong.  Quality decisions can only come from concerted effort and lots of time. 

 

So you ask, "What does all this have to do with interviewing and hiring?” Feature these situations:

 

Blink.. “I know a good employee by just looking at the resume!”....Blink... “Three jobs in three years…got to be an unstable person!”…Blink…. “This candidate didn’t write their resume right…can’t be a good accountant!” …Blink… “This candidate hasn’t worked for anyone I have ever heard of.”…Blink… “Can’t interview this person…has been a manager…just moved to Texas…I didn’t understand their objective…owned their own business…hasn’t been a manager…had a typo on the resume so he can’t be a good sales person”…Blink… “I just didn’t like the way the resume looked.”…

 

Blink…hmmmm, from an Ivy League school…must be smart….Blink. played professional sports…played college sports…must be a competitor. Blink... first name is "Kisha," or "Patel"... we will have a cultural problem. 

 

Blink... a tall, handsome, young white guy.... must know what he's doing. ... Blink... attractive, young, white female.... must be good at what she does....Blink... older, short, balding, slightly overweight man with thick rim, coke bottle glasses..... Can’t be very good. ...Blink... older, slightly overweight, rather plain woman.... probably not that good at what she does.

 

Blink.... didn't look me in the eye during the interview... must not be very good. ...Blink... didn't answer one or two of my interviewing questions exactly like I would.... can't know what they're doing. ...Blink... didn't interview well...must not be a professional. ...Blink... didn't write a thank you note... must not be a good engineer. ...Blink..."he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke the same cigarettes as me." (Mick Jagger)

 

Well, you get the idea.  Look around your organization and think about some of the poor performers that were going to be so great when you initially interviewed and hired them.  Or think about the ones you had to let go, who, looking back, sounded and looked so good when you interviewed them. Now think of some of your better performers that you hired in spite of your “blink” initial reaction to them. 

 

None of us is ever going to keep the blink experience, the “thinking without thinking,” snap decision, phenomenon from happening, especially in the interviewing and hiring environment.  The lesson is to put our tendency to blink in perspective.  Realize that our initial reaction to resumes, initial interviews and even subsequent in-depth interviews are subject to our innate, snap, unconscious, prejudices.  We can never completely dismantle or deny those prejudices, and it is fruitless to try. We can, however, recognize them and counter their effects.

 

Blink....I need to think about this!