I was browsing a Beijing bookstore for some interesting books, when I found Malcom Gladwells “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference”. I had wanted to read that book for a while, so I was quite happy to find it. I can easily recommend that book for everyone in fact. It is about the point in time where something rare or unique becomes common. It tries to explain the mechanics behind social epidemics and (intended or unintended) viral marketing.
Well..next to that book, I found his first book, “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking”. I hadn’t heard anything about it, but I bought it too. It is not quite as good as The tipping point, but it also serves some very interesting points. It is about split second decisions, both good and bad.
The books refers to a test made by some scientist at Harvard. The test can show the implicit associations people have between certain groups of people and other things, like positive or negative feelings. The most interesting test is their race test where you have to categorize pictures of respectively black and white people, and certain words in the categories “black or negative” and “white or positive”. After a while the categories changes. What is interesting about the test is that a large portion of people have an automatic preference for white people, compared to black. Whether they like it or not, and want to admit it. I consider myself liberal and don’t see myself have a preference for some race to another. But nonetheless the test shows that I have a moderate or slight automatic preference towards white people. Even Malcom Gladwell, which is half black, had an automatic preference for white. So the test shows how much influence our social and cultural environment have on us.
I also tried their gender test, where the genders where compared with science and liberal arts. That test gave me this result:
“Your data suggest a strong association of Male with Science and Female with Liberal Arts compared to Female with Science and Male with Liberal Arts.”
You can try these tests here
October 28th, 2006 at 21:30
If you haven’t already, I would suggest you read “The Dice Man” and “In Search for the Dice Man”, both by Luke Rhinehart. They’re about a man who lets a dice decide his actions (and the second book is about his son who is in search of him). They are very thought provoking (and at times disturbingly graphic), but if you read them with the notion of giving up control they might make you think. They did make me think at least.
November 2nd, 2006 at 22:20
I have heard about those books but never actually read them. I will put them in my list then…