Blink #1

1.) Harding rose within the Republican party and eventually became president not by being qualified or a good candidate, but by being good looking and confident.

2.) People were in error in electing Harding because he was not the best candidate for the job he was elected based on looks and not on anything that was necessary to be a president.

3.) The IAT has the purpose of testing whether or not someone has an affinity to one race over another. It does this by using a series of pictures and the subject has to associate the pictures to words.

4.) The computer has the advantage of forcing a lightning fast reaction and also being able to calculate the reaction time of the person taking the test.

5.) Gladwell was mortified that his results indicated that he had a preference toward European Americans over African Americans. This came as a shock seeing as Gladwell was half black himself.

6.) No matter how many times the test was repeated, the answer always pointed toward a slight preference toward European Americans.

7.) Our subconscious may form underlining opinions about our environment, but it is only the background and we have a level of thought and opinion above it that is capable of overcoming the subconscious.

8.) Gladwell says that there is very little outward manifestation to ones preference. Unless that person is Trent Lott. When in a position of power these slight preferences can become an issue.

9.) When a person (not including models) is hired for a position based on looks and not experience or skills then the entire project suffers and if someone can be hired based on looks, what's the point of earning skills anyway.

10.) Golomb's ability to thin slice people and adapt his sale strategy to what he believes is best suited allows him to sell more than his competitors because he constantly changes.

11.) The results of the Ayres study show that slight preferences toward one race over the other are observable and can manifest themselves but are for the most part benign.

12.) Scores on the IAT test can be changed by reviewing positive material about the otherwise non-preferred group. (e.g. to raise a score for African Americans one would read about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., etc.) Test scores are proven to rise slightly when the method is applied.