Malcolm Gladwell's Blink

I'm about a third of the way through Malcolm Gladwell's book called Blink. It is about the subconscious decisions we make, and some of the scientific findings that he shares just blow my mind. Here is one I found particularly interesting. I'm not sure what way this relates to ministry, but it is interesting none the less.

In one study a group of students were brought in to try to make sentences out of mixed up words. Half of them had words mixed in like: angry, frustrated, and mad. The other half had words mixed in like: kind, patient, and relaxed. there weren't enough of these words to be consciously noticeable. After the test, they were told to see a professor for the results, and every time they would find the prof in the middle of a conversation. The group with angry words waited an average of about 5 minutes before interrupting. The group with nice words almost all were still waiting patiently after 10 minutes. The strange thing is that none of the people involved in the study had any idea that the words they had just looked at affected their patience.

Makes you really want to be careful what you put in your brain, because based on this study, it will affect you, even if you don't realize it.

Things like this just blow me away. I feel like I understand the decisions I make, but according to Gladwell, we don't truly understand why we make the decisions we do. He shares all kinds of studies that back up his statement as well. I'll share more when I finish the book, but so far, it is really interesting.