Name: Drunk Tank Pink
Rating: 4.2 (60 reviews)
Author: Adam Alter

What’s in it for me? Learn what factors affect your behavior.

The old wives’ tale says that you should never show a red rag to a bull as it will provoke the animal to attack you. But did you know that the same advice applies to you? Although you probably won’t charge at someone in a red shirt, your behavior toward them may very well be affected by their wardrobe choices.

In fact, you are constantly being subliminally affected by forces within you and around you – far more so than you can ever begin to imagine. Certain names trigger negative feelings, labels can create false memories, being watched makes you more honest, and being in a crowded place can even make you less helpful.

In these blinks, you will learn how your thoughts and actions are shaped by factors such as the colors around you, the letters in your name, the climate in your country, and the people in your surroundings.

You will also discover

why bright pink is a naturally occurring sedative;
why female lap dancers earn more money when they’re ovulating; and
why hitchhikers should wear red.

This is a Blinkist staff pick

“I am always interested in the subtle things that shape people’s behavior. From pink prison cells to your initials, these blinks present astounding facts on what influences the human mind.”

– Laura, German Editorial Lead at Blinkist

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.

The labels we use shape what we see, bias our judgments and create false memories.

“Black,” “white,” “rich,” “poor.” We are constantly giving labels to the things and people that fill our everyday lives. But how do these labels affect us?

Most importantly, labels shape the way we view the world.

Symbols are so powerful that they inspire reactions without us even being aware of them.

Try to close your eyes and visualize the swastika. For most people in the West, this simple composition of straight lines triggers purely negative feelings.

This illustrates the power of symbols in influencing people and generating strong reactions.

The mere presence of other people changes our thoughts and behavior.

In 1970, a 13-year-old girl called Genie was rescued from parents who had forced her to spend her whole life immobilized and in complete isolation.

Her condition?

Our basic drives for safety, love and reproduction influence our thoughts and behavior.

We all eat, drink, breathe and (strive to) reproduce. And when this has been fulfilled, we also want to be assured that we have safety and love.

According to the psychologist Abraham Maslow, these are our most basic needs, and they guide our actions far more than we think.

Our culture greatly influences the way we perceive the world around us.

From chess clubs to global regions, the cultures we are part of influence the way we perceive the world.

This was demonstrated in an experiment where Chinese and American students were shown different photos with a central object against a background. Later, they were shown another series of photographs and asked whether they had seen the central objects before. The Chinese students had a harder time remembering whether they had seen the central objects before, when the objects were presented against new backgrounds, while the Americans had no difficulty with this task.

Colors play a powerful role by affecting us physically and evoking associations.

Do some colors affect you in certain ways? Does blue make you think of clear skies and put you more at ease?

The colors in our surroundings have been shown to actually affect us physically.

Our physical location and surroundings also play a distinct role in shaping our thoughts, feelings and behaviors.

Whether you live in a city or on a farm, your physical location and surroundings can affect you powerfully. Depending on whether you’re in a place that’s quiet, noisy, empty or packed, your thoughts, feelings, and behavior will change.

One of the dimensions that guides our actions is the crowdedness of our surroundings.

The weather has a powerful effect on our mood and behavior.

Be it sunshine, rain, sleet or snow, every time we leave our home, we expose ourselves to the weather. So the weather shapes every moment we spend outdoors, and this has some serious consequences for our behavior.

One of these consequences is aggression.