Case studies pulled from international headlines, scientific research and pop culture references are the tools veteran author Malcolm Gladwell uses in his new book “Talking to Strangers,” examining the how and the why people misjudge people they don’t know.
“That impulse to look at really simple, trivial things and start running away with some grand conclusion is something that we all are prone to and we need to watch,” Gladwell said on CTV’s Your Morning Monday.
The mega-hit television show “Friends” was used as an example of how people make poor judgment calls about others using the “matching” tool. “Matching” denotes the idea that when someone experiences an emotion, their facial expressions and body language will reflect what they are feeling on the inside.
“I took an episode of “Friends” and gave it to someone who is an expert in facial expressions,” Gladwell said. “I had them go through two minutes of this incredibly complex interaction between Joey and Rachel and Monica… what I was trying to do was [determine whether] whenever they feel an emotion inside, is it registered on their face?”
The answer is “always and perfectly,” he said. “The question is – is that the way things are in real life?”
The answer is no, said Gladwell.
“In real life that’s not the way it happens, people don’t display their emotions on their face perfectly and accurately,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons that we make so many mistakes, particularly with strangers.”
“We expect their facial expression to match what’s going on inside their heart, and it rarely does,” Gladwell said.
One of the most well-known international criminal investigations was used as a case study for this phenomenon – the Amanda Knox murder trial.
Knox was convicted and imprisoned, but eventually acquitted, for the murder and sexual assault of her British roommate Meredith Kercher in the Italian town of Perugia in 2007.
“The whole reason she was convicted was because the way she behaved in the wake of her roommates’ death did not match what people’s expectations of what grief ought to look like,” said Gladwell. “So the Italian police jumped to the conclusion that she was guilty.”
“We have an expectation… if you’re looking at me in a manner that I perceive as bored, I would get very upset,” said Gladwell. “But maybe the way that interest registers on your face is just different from other people’s.”
Politics are not exempt from this phenomenon either. When asked about the upcoming Canadian federal election, Gladwell agreed that while the candidates are attempting to “match” themselves to an entire country – the public should not get hung up on a leader’s outward appearance.
“We should focus on what people do and say and not the way they look when they’re doing things and saying things,” he said. “Let’s not get carried away with body language and facial expressions, let’s focus on what we can know with certainty, which is what someone believes.”
