I finished my second Malcolm Gladwell book this weekend - blink. It's a very good book on par with The Tipping Point. Not sure which one I like better as they are both food for thought for curious people. The book deals with what goes on inside your unconscious when you make a split second decision. One cool topic was "thin slicing". A study was done where a psychologist (www.gottman.com) interviewed couples...hundreds if not thousands of them. He video taped the interviews (30 minutes) and then played them back frame by frame looking for micro expressions and charting their feelings based on facial expressions and body language. He was able to predict whether the couple would still be married a set time in the distance with uncanny accuracy. He got so good at it that he could "thin slice" a conversation he overheard or just a very short clip from one of the interviews and still predict divorce while only dropping slightly in success rate of prediction. Another group of scientists mapped every facial muscle and every expression you can possibly make and then named them in a coded fashion (Facial Action Coding System which is now taught and studied). They also look for micro expressions and can predict lying better than any machine by simply reading faces and almost disregarding what is being said. They were able to watch tape of a famous Russian spy case where the accused was acquitted. Watched at regular speed you couldn't see anything, but when slowed down and examined - they could catch the micro expressions of the man actually smirking for hundredths of a second before he lied. It's really cool stuff. Another theory is that we stop mind reading when our hearts go above a certain rate so we stop making good decisions and rely on our most basic instincts. An entire chapter is dedicated to the killing of Amadou Diallo by 4 police officers. It's theorized that as their adrenaline and heart rates increased - they stopped paying attention to external clues about what was really happening at the time of the shooting. I can't do it justice in a few sentences, but it's very interesting to read what went through each officer's mind at the time of the shooting. Everything seemed plausible from the way they described it, but in the big picture - it made little sense. Those are just a few of the concepts talked about. There are many more. I totally recommend it.
