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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Listen to the Intro
Drunk Tank Pink summary
Adam Alter
And Other Unexpected Forces that Shape How We Think, Feel, and Behave
22 mins
What is Drunk Tank Pink about?
Drunk Tank Pink probes the hidden psychological and social influences that shape the way we see, think, feel, and act in the world.
Table of Contents
Drunk Tank Pink
summarized in 9 key ideas
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Key idea 1 of 9
Your name influences the life you lead by triggering strong mental associations in others.
Guess how many baby “Adolfs” there have been since the Second World War? Hardly any? You’re right.
Parents tend to steer away from names that have strong associations with negative concepts. And the world will forever associate any dear little “Adolf” with right-wing dictatorship.
Besides concepts, we also associate names with demographic information. This means that you can guess a person’s approximate age, gender, ethnicity and even social status from his or her name.
For instance, most people would presume that Dorothy is a white female, Fernanda is Hispanic, and Aaliyah is black.
Studies have even revealed a strong relationship between a mother’s education and the names she chooses for her children. For example, white boys named Sander are much more likely to have mothers who finished college than white boys named Bobby.
What’s more, names even have the power to influence important life outcomes.
For instance, a study showed that job applicants with white names (Emily, Anne, Brad) receive callbacks 50 percent more often than applicants with black names (Aisha, Kenya, Jamal), though their applications were equally strong. This indicates, disturbingly, that names can lead to racial discrimination and shape the life outcomes of the name-bearer.
So we know that our names affect how other people see us, but do they also influence our own behavior?
Most definitely!
Psychologist Jozef Nuttin demonstrated that people like the letters in their own name so much, that they tend to donate more often and more handsomely to causes that share their initials. This meant that after Hurricane Katrina left New Orleans in ruins in 2005, charitable donations from people whose names began with K increased by 150 percent.
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Best quote from Drunk Tank Pink
Labels are immensely powerful, shaping not only what we see but also events that havent actually taken place.
—Adam Alter
Who should read Drunk Tank Pink?
- Anyone who wants to learn about the hidden influences that shape their perceptions and behavior
- Anyone interested in how the weather and scenery affect their moods
- Anyone who thinks their behavior is mostly rational and free of influence from random factors
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