Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

[bobbyburns]

ritalinkid, does that book only give examples of deliberate priming, or are there examples of naturally occurring things that direct the mind's behavior?

 

[RitalinKid]

No, bobby, he doesn't give in naturally occurring examples. I'm sure someone's written a book on it somewhere. Bobby, have you considered majoring in psychology? You seem really interested in the subject, but then again, who doesn't want to know how the mind works?

I just ran across one subject where he seems to jump to a conclusion too quickly. He states that we all have a positive prejudice toward taller people, citing research he did of Fortune 500 CEOs and IAT experiments. IAT results show hidden bias. For example, the author's mother is black, but he, as with most black people, still has strong negative associations with black people. Anyway, so IAT results show people favor tall people, and 60% of Fortune 500 CEOs are six feet tall, compared 14% of the general population. However, he doesn't say if they've ever tested the leadership skills of tall people to see if they differ from that of shorter people. Yes, the IAT shows that people in general have a bias toward tall people, but is it a justified bias? Does looking down on everyone else help a person develop the mindset of a leader? Do we want to be lead by tall people, or have we somehow noticed tall people being good leaders without knowing it? I suspect it's just a bias, but that's not concrete until you know something about the leadership skills of tall people. If anyone knows anything about a correlation between leadership skills and height, let's hear it.

 

[novella]

ok. I kinda see what you're saying, but I don't want to read something into it that isn't there. I honestly don't see the connection between feeling the effect you have on someone and understanding your relationship to him or her.

Well, let's take crying. I know that if I cry when I'm discussing something with my husband, it upsets him. He feels helpless. He doesn't like to feel helpless, so he starts to feel manipulated. I've learned that over time. The overall effect isn't for the better, so I try not to do that. Naturally, sometimes I cry anyway, just because I do. But I understand that in our relationship, how I behave in such an instance is something I can try to control and make a better outcome (and also not upset him and bring in more negative feeling).

 

[bobbyburns]

I'd say that kind of relationship is a false relationship. again, it goes back to pleasure/pain... basically, you feel sorry for someone in pain, meaning you've taken their emotions and turned them around on yourself. it's like your husband getting upset because he saw you crying. alright, first off, he placed himself in your shoes, then he perceived that in all probability it would suck to be you, and finally he felt helpless. I still see something not right that; mainly fear. it's like feeling sorry for someone who's getting robbed and thinking it's compassionate. the not-wanting-them-to-get-robbed part might be a compassionate response, but the feeling-sorry thing is the self reacting to pain. it seems like instead of feeling sorry, why not just the understanding that, "it's his money, and he needs it". the reason I say this is, emotional sympathy has both a beginning and an end. it's in the absence of understanding that we tend to fall back on these low-energy forms of motivation.

 

[RitalinKid]

ritalinkid, does that book only give examples of deliberate priming, or are there examples of naturally occurring things that direct the mind's behavior?

I found some deliberate examples this weekend. I stayed at a Hampton Inn, and when the elevator doors closed, I was greeted with a big sign that said nothing but "smile." Then, the sign that hangs from the door knob that usually says, "Do not disturb" was replaced by a sign that simply says, "dreaming." The slip of paper that lists the channels, which I stole and am using for a bookmark, has a single word at the bottom of each side, relax and recharge. It smells like a priming campaign to me.