Blink

by

Malcolm Gladwell

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John Gottman
Psychologist and researcher who developed such sophisticated techniques for interpreting couples’ interactions that he could predict, with 95 percent accuracy, whether a couple would still be married in 15 years.
Bill
One of the subjects interviewed by John Gottman, husband of Susan.
Susan
One of the subjects interviewed by John Gottman, wife of Bill.
Brian Grazer
An important American movie producer, who claims to have decided that Tom Hanks would be a box-office star within a few seconds of meeting him.
Tom Hanks
Academy Award-winning American actor and movie star.
Sigmund Freud
Influential Viennese psychologist who developed the idea of psychoanalysis.
Vic Braden
World-class tennis player, and later coach.
Iyengar Fisman
Researcher who studied the psychology of speed-dating.
Raymond Fisman
Researcher who studied the psychology of speed-dating.
Harry Daugherty
Early 20th-century lobbyist and political “king maker,” often credited with the election of President Warren Harding.
Warren Harding
29th President of the United States, often considered to be one of the worst American presidents.
Bob Golomb
Highly talented car salesman who Gladwell uses as an example of the importance of social cues and facial expressions.
Paul Van Riper
Decorated military veteran whose improvisational leadership style during the Vietnam War led to his inclusion in a 2000 Pentagon war game.
Brendan Reilly
Chairman of the Cook County Hospital in Chicago, whose controversial organizational techniques have been crediting with significantly reducing the number of improper heart disease diagnoses.
Lee Goldman
Controversial doctor and medical researcher who developed a “decision tree” for diagnosing heart disease.
Joseph Kidd
War veteran whose mental health records were used in a psychological experiment.
Kenna
Ethiopian-American musician whose career never quite took off, in spite of the glowing reviews he won from producers, writers, and other music insiders.
Craig Kallman
The former president of Columbia Records.
Dick Morris
Influential political pollster, and a key campaign adviser to Bill Clinton.
Bill Clinton
42nd President of the United States, sometimes criticized for being too reliant on polling data.
Louis Cheskin
Influential business researcher whose findings about the importance of packaging have been used to market thousands of goods and products.
Gail Civille
Professional food taster for the company Sensory Spectrum.
Judy Heylmun
Professional food taster for the company Sensory Spectrum.
Amadou Diallo
Guinean immigrant who was killed by four plainclothes police officers on the night of February 3, 1999, triggering a national debate about racism and stereotyping in the police force.
Silvan Tomkins
Pioneering psychologist of “affect theory,” the idea that humans externalize even their subtlest emotions through facial expressions.
Paul Ekman
Psychologist and student of Silvan Tomkins, and another pioneer of affect theory.
Harold Philby
Soviet spy whose trial is a good example of how the human face externalizes secret emotions.
Peter
Autistic adult whose reaction to the human face inspires Gladwell’s theory of “temporary autism.”
John Hinckley
Would-be assassin who tried and failed to shoot President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
Ronald Reagan
40th President of the United States.
Abbie Conant
Professional trombone player, and an early beneficiary of symphony orchestras’ blind audition process.
Sergiu Celibidache
Director of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.
Julie Landsman
French horn player for the New York Metropolitan Opera.
Andre Agassi
World-class tennis player.