Blink Response

Blink addresses many different themes we have talked about in class, but one I found most fascinating, and one that Blink gave an interesting viewpoint of, is the theme of race and equality. Blink uses scientific studies to reveal how humans view race. One study shows that when participants are instructed to give their race before taking a test, African-Americans who are involved score considerably lower than African-Americans who aren’t instructed to list their race. I remember taking the ITBS and filling in the test booklet with lots of information about my background, including race. This causes me to consider how accurate test results really are and if they really reflect how knowledgeable a student is. After all, marking down your race before a test doesn’t affect how smart you are. This also makes me wonder how many other aspects of society, especially ones that could influence inaccurate stereotyping, are affected by minor details like this that we have simply overlooked.

    Another common theme we have discussed in class is about the American Dream. For many, the idea of being successful is having a lot of money or running a company. A disturbing study mentioned in Blink suggests that achieving this dream might be easier for some than others-- not because of hard work toward achieving this goal, but because of one’s genetics. The study reveals that white men of above-average height are more likely to become the CEO of a company than men of average or below average height and of other races. In reality, the height or race of a person doesn’t affect how knowledgeable or strong of a leader they are. There is something wired in the human mind that says, “He looks strong and he is white. He must be a great leader.” I think we should use this knowledge of our uncontrolled bias and work towards creating a system in which this bias does not affect our decision making. Maybe performing job interviews over the computer without actually seeing the candidate in person would reduce the effect of this bias.

    Overall I thoroughly enjoyed Blink and I would recommend it to students with the option of reading it in this class next year. The book encourages the reader to question the common methods we use in society to get information, such as mentioning your race before a test, and even how previous experiences influence our subconscious to change our attitudes and how we act towards others. On the other hand the book was slightly repetitive in that it was all about different studies that sort of proved the same concept that unconscious is a greater influence on how we act and view the world.