Why Malcolm Gladwell thinks we’re biased
Anthony Painter
Blink and you miss him
Last night, a few years after everyone else, I read Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink. Somebody shamed me into reading it. I am so glad I did. The book, to re-cap for everyone else in the world who has read it, is about how our adaptive unconscious interacts with our conscious to make decisions: sometimes wisely, sometimes erroneously.
One example he gave was about the Implicit Association Test which measures our unconscious attitudes to race etc. Most people have an unconscious preference for white over black people. I decided to put myself to the test. Bear with me there is a broader political point coming.
I did the race test and it came out with the result that I have a moderate preference for white over black people. I’m not really surprised by this given the world in which we live. Before you hurl abuse at me, let me just say a couple of things for context….
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