Malcolm Gladwell is in the business of proving everybody and everything wrong. Using copious research, relentless reasoning and polished prose, Gladwell has become the single most popular and accessible science writer out there today. He has made a name for himself by going the counterintuitive route, essentially debunking all sorts of popular and traditional thinking in his books: 2000’s “The Tipping Point” (critical mass), 2005’s “Blink” (decision making), 2008’s “Outliers” (geniuses), 2009’s “What the Dog Saw” (a compendium of his uncollected work) and 2013’s “David and Goliath” (underdogs).
The brain behind the Revisionist History podcast, he’s also become a highly polarizing figure, hailed by many as a genius who breaks barriers and others as a hyped-up pop psychologist.
His new book is as polarizing as ever—and his most provocative yet.
“Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know” (Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2019, 388 pages) not only shows that we tend to trust other people all too much—but that not trusting them can have even more adverse effects. “That is the paradox of talking to strangers. We need to talk to them,” he writes. “But we’re terrible at it.”
At the heart of “Talking” is the 2015 incident regarding black motorist Sandra Bland, who was involved in an altercation after she was pulled over by a white police officer named Brian Encinia in Prarie View, Texas apparently for no reason: She killed herself in her cell days later. This is the prime example of what Gladwell calls “mismatching,” when two people see the signs but misunderstand them.
But many times in life, we are deceived by others because of what Gladwell calls “default to truth,” that we usually assume others are telling us the truth. A large part of the book is spent discussing policing, but, along the way, Gladwell works some pretty amazing stories into the mix: How a Cuban spy hid in plain sight in the Central Intelligence Agency, the story behind Neville Chamberlain’s disastrous meeting with Adolf Hitler, the importance of facial expressions on “Friends” (yes, the TV show), alcohol’s role in college date rape, the wrongful conviction of Amanda Knox, the complicated case against pedophile coach Jerry Sandusky, and the problematic assumptions in the suicide of poet Sylvia Plath, among others. It touches on some hot-button topics such as what happened in Ferguson, Missouri and within the USA Gymnastics team regarding child-molesting doctor Larry Nasser. In each case, Gladwell illustrates with observation, interviews and research how misunderstandings figured prominently. “Talking” is written so ridiculously well and dizzyingly researched: The “Notes” section alone makes for compelling reading.
There are so many “a-ha!” moments in “Talking,” but your mileage will vary on whether you are believer in Gladwell’s way of thinking. His most controversial element here is his point about “coupling,” how events need to be tied to context. In particular, Gladwell’s conclusions about the Bland case, the central event in “Talking,” has proven extremely divisive if not outright unpopular. He shows how a systemic failure, over a century of wrong-headed thinking, led to that moment. Because of the topics it tackles—their urgency and implications—“Talking” is also the darkest of Gladwell’s books, illuminating but also extremely disturbing. Who can you trust? How can you trust? Gladwell asks the most important question: Why should you trust?
Captivating
Regardless of your feelings about his points, it cannot be denied that Gladwell is a compelling and captivating storytelling, that his most powerful ability is to challenge the reader to think about the things they take for granted. As with his other bestselling books, Gladwell reminds readers with clarity that everything is complicated. The insightful and inspiring “Outliers” remains Malcolm Gladwell’s best book—but the excellent “Talking to Strangers” is almost as good, acting as a dark mirror, highlighting his sharpest point: “The fact that strangers are hard to understand doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.”
Available in paperback from National Book Store.
