Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

The ornithologist David Sibley says that in Cape May, New Jersey, he once spotted a bird in flight from two hundred yards away and knew, instantly, that it was a ruff, a rare sandpiper. He had never seen a ruff in flight before; nor was the moment long enough for him to make a careful identification. But he was able to capture what bird-watchers call the bird’s “giss” – its essence – and that was enough.

This book, from which the above quote is taken, cannot even remotely be considered a “bird book”. So why should it be of interest to birders and reviewed here? The author’s primary point is that snap judgments, based on sub-conscious thoughts, can be incredibly accurate, even bordering on prescient. And, as Mr. Sibley so ably demonstrated, that can be very relevant to birding.

The book consists primarily of real-life illustrations of this concept. Some of them are not very surprising, such as police work. Others you would never think of, like selling cars and food marketing. Seriously – food marketing. All of them were incredibly fascinating. However, other than the brief account of Sibley’s encounter with the Ruff, none deal explicitly with birding. But some of the principles here can still be applied to our hobby (or to a lucky few, profession).

One example is an effect called verbal overshadowing. As an illustration of this, think of the face of any stranger that you’ve seen recently. You would probably be able to pick that person out of a police lineup. But what if you were first asked to describe that person in as much detail as possible? According to a study, you would now do a lot worse at picking the face out of the lineup. That unexpected finding is due to the fact that the right side of the brain thinks in pictures, and the left in words. The act of describing the face in words serves to displace the actual visual memory. What are we birders usually told to do immediately when faced with an unknown bird? Take notes – either in a field notebook or verbally into a recorder – and then use both the notes and our memory to pick the bird out of a lineup (aka field guide). Does that sensible act, the one we think will help us make a correct identification, actually hinder that process? Honestly, it doesn’t seem like it would, but weirder things have been known to occur. I would love to see the results of a study that seeks to resolve this issue as it pertains to bird identification.

I was really hoping that the book would include some sort of practical advice or exercise that could be used to help master this skill. Alas, the only such advice was to become an expert in the field. I guess there really isn’t any shortcut to the mastery that experience brings.

But even if a birder recognizes the value of these gut reactions, is aware of the potential dangers, and has put in the time and effort that leads to mastery, there is still a problem with using them to identify birds. What bird checklist committee would accept it? But that’s a whole different discussion.

The concepts and examples presented in this book make for great reading. The possibilities are incredible; just keep in mind the potential pitfalls. Even though this book does not offer practical advice directed specifically to birders, it is still very much worth investigating.