Critical Analysis of Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

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CRITICAL ANALYSIS of ARTICLE scrutiny The article at hand is an excerpt from a book published in 2005 entitled ‘Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking’ written by journalist Malcolm Gladwell. The purpose of the excerpt serves to inform readers of their unconscious predisposition to pass judgment. The author delves into the topic of how first impressions are generated by personal experiences and the environs from where people come. Gladwell categorizes this practice as “thin-slicing”. He provides readers with a definition of this term that may seem unfamiliar to many – “the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behaviour based on very narrow slices of experience”. The author goes on to discuss how these impressions can be changed with much concerted effort. The subject matter remains of current interest as the issues of racism, social inequality and stereotyping that are still very prevalent in societies of today come to the forefront when he states, “if you are a white person who would like to treat black people as equals in every way, it requires more than a simple commitment to equality. It requires that you change your life”. This statement may also suggest that while the article is written for a wide audience, the style is more geared towards the attitude of Caucasians to black minorities. This shows Gladwell as being somewhat biased and partial to the black man. After all, he is in fact a black man, though of mixed race. The passage flows in a logical and organized manner that is easy to follow and understand. Although there is no prominent evidence provided to support the author’s point of view about ‘thin-slicing’, there seems to be a number of research findings from where Gladwell arrived at his conclusions. Approaching the end of the passage he states that in the next section, he is going to “tell three stories about
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