I generally like Malcom Gladwell’s work – I find his books to be a good mix of theories applied to real world events and issues.
One takeaway from this book is that people are very bad at telling if someone is lying to them, if that person seems like they’re telling the truth. The opposite is also true – if a person seems like they’re lying, we rarely believe that they are telling the truth. Because humans evolved to live in groups, we benefit overwhelmingly from trusting others, even if we are occasionally burned by someone who is lying to us.
The way that Gladwell approaches Sandra Bland’s arrest and death draws the conclusion that it was an issue of misused policing strategies, along with mismatched cultural communication styles. It ignores the obviously highly suspicious circumstances around her death.
Gladwell writes about the Brock Turner case, and the Jerry Sandusky case as mismatched interactions between strangers. It feels like he’s saying these high profile sex crimes is just an issue of misinterpreting the intentions of a stranger.
Gladwell also writes about suicide rates by town gas in England in the 1960’s. Town gas was a major method of suicide, because the carbon monoxide levels were higher, which made it more lethal. By switching from using town gas to natural gas, they removed a lethal means of suicide and saw suicide rates plummet.
I didn’t like Talking to Strangers – it wasn’t quite as intriguing, it felt like each of the situations he examines didn’t tie together very well, and there were several parts where it felt like he was making excuses for people who have harmed others.