الزنزانة الوردية : والقوى الاخرى غير المتوقعة التي تصوغ طريقة تفكيرنا‎

by Adam Alter

بدأت الدورية الأكاديمية أورثومولكيولار سيكياتري إصدارها الأخير لعام 1979 ببحث كلاسيكي أشعل خيال حراس السجون، ومدربي كرة القدم، والآباء الساخطين. وقد وصف الكاتب، الأستاذ "إليكساندر شاوس"، تجربة بسيطة استعانت بـ 153 من الشباب الأصحاء، وباحث، ومجموعتين كبيرتين من الورق المقوى الملون، وحجرة مختبر جيدة الإضاءة، ولقد دلف الشباب الواحد تلو الآخر إلى المختبر ليشاركوا في اختبار قوة غير عادي، ولقد بدأت التجربة حين حدق الشباب إلى إحدى قطع الورق المقوى. وكان لون الورق المقوى الخاص بنصف الشباب أزرق داكنًا، وللنصف الآخر ورديًّا فاتحًا. وبعد مرور دقيقة كاملة، طلب الباحث من الشباب أن يرفعوا أذرعهم أمام أجسامهم، بينما يضغط هو إلى أسفل بالقدر الكافي الآخر ليجبر أذرعهم على الرجوع على جانبي أجسادهم، وحين استعاد الشباب قوتهم، دون الباحث بضع ملاحظات سريعة قبل أن يكرر التجربة، أولًا طلب من الشباب أن يحدقوا إلى قطعة الورق المقوى الأخرى ثم أعاد اختبار القوة مرة أخرى.

كانت النتائج متوافقة على نحو ملحوظ، فقد كان الجميع، باستثناء شابين فقط، يعانون وهنًا بدرجة أكبر كثيرًا بعد تحديقهم إلى الورق المقوى ذي اللون الوردي، وكادت مقاومتهم لقوة ضغط الباحث تكون معدومة، بينما حافظ الورق المقوى ذو اللون الأزرق على قوتهم كاملة، بغض النظر عما إذا كان تحديقهم له كان في اختبار القوة الأول أم الثاني ، وقد بدا أن اللون الوردي يستنزف قوى الشباب ولو بشكل مؤقت.

ومن أجل إثبات أن ذلك التأثير لم يكن مصادفة، أجرى "شاوس" تجربة ثانية؛ ولكن هذه المرة استعان بمقياس قوة أكثر دقة، حيث طلب من 38 شابًّا الضغط على أداة قياس تُعرف باسم دينامومتر (مقياس قوة التقلص العضلي)، وكان جميع المشاركين الثماني والثلاثين بلا استثناء الواحد تلو الآخر يضغطون بقوة أقل بعد التحديق إلى الورق المقوى ذي اللون الوردي.

بدأ "شاوس" في وصف القوة المهدئة والإعجازية للون الوردي الفاتح في المحاضرات العامة عبر الولايات المتحدة، وفي إحدى المحاضرات التي عرضت على التلفاز، قام أحد الفائزين بمسابقة مستر كاليفورنيا مفتولي العضلات بعدة تمارين يسيرة لعضلة الذراع العلوية لكنه جاهد في القيام بتمرين واحد بعد التحديق إلى الورق المقوى ذي اللون الوردي. وبالنظر إلى قوة اللون، فقد أشار "شاوس" إلى أن مسئولي الإصلاحيات يجب أن يفكروا في وضع المساجين المشاكسين في زنزانة ذات لون وردي، وقد قام اثنان من الضباط المسئولين في المركز الإصلاحي البحري الأمريكي في مدينة سياتل، واشنطن، بإعادة طلاء إحدى الزنزانات باللون الوردي. ولمدة سبعة أشهر، راقب الضابط المساعد "جين باكر" و القائد الأعلى "رون ميلر" دخول السجناء الوافدين حديثًا إلى الزنزانة الوردية غاضبين وهائجين وخروجهم منها أكثر هدوءًا بعد 15 دقيقة. وعادة ما يكون السجناء الجدد عدائيين، لكن لم يبلغ الضباط عن أية حادثة عنف خلال الفترة التجريبية التي استمرت لمدة سبعة أشهر.

وقد كرم المعجبون الضابطين المغامرين بتسمية اللون "بيكر - ميلر بينك"، وقد قامت إصلاحيات أخرى عبر البلاد بطلاء زنزانات باللون الوردي ذاته، وفي أحد مراكز الحبس الاحتياطي بسان هوزيه، كاليفورنيا، عانى بعض السجناء الشباب من ضعف شديد بسبب اللون الوردي لدرجة أنه كان يجب تقليل المدة التي يتعرضون بها لهذا اللون لتقتصر على بضع دقائق في اليوم فقط، وحين بدأت سجون المقاطعات الأصغر حجمًا في حبس السجناء الثملين المتسمين بالعنف أودعتهم زنزانات وردية اللون، وأطلق على اللون بشكل غير رسمي لون اسم الزنزانة الوردية.

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Science, Audiobook, Sociology, Business, Philosophy

254 pages, Paperback

First published January 9, 2013

About the author

Adam Alter is an Associate Professor of Marketing and Psychology at New York University’s Stern School of Business, and the author of Drunk Tank Pink, a New York Times bestseller about the forces that shape how we think, feel, and behave, and Irresistible, a book about the rise of tech addiction and what we should do about it.

Alter was recently included in the Poets and Quants “40 Most Outstanding Business School Professors under 40 in the World,” and has written for the New York Times, New Yorker, Wired, Washington Post, and The Atlantic, among other publications. He has shared his ideas at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity and with dozens of companies around the world.

Alter received his Bachelor of Science (Honors Class 1, University Medal) in Psychology from the University of New South Wales and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology from Princeton University, where he held the Charlotte Elizabeth Procter Honorific Dissertation Fellowship and a Fellowship in the Woodrow Wilson Society of Scholars.

Reviews

[Emma Sea · Rating 1 out of 5]

*face palm*

So much no.

The whole book makes huge sweeping judgements with no evidence and no references. This is so bad I cannot even. Ugh.

Look, the title of the book exemplifies the problem, here. The book is named after, and begins with, the "popular culture sensation" that visual exposure to the colour pink decreases male aggression, a premise that "emerged as the unlikely solution to a host of difficult puzzles, from aggression and hyperactivity to anxiety and competitive strategy." (p. 3)

But here's the thing: there is no evidence to suggest the color pink does that. Here's a link to an open access article reporting on a recent (2014) study of this very phenomenon:

Many prisons across Western countries recently began to paint detention cells in Baker-Miller pink to calm down aggressive inmates. This recent development is based on early findings of more than 30 years ago suggesting that Baker-Miller pink reduces physical strength and thus aggressive behavior. In the present study we question the applied methods of the original studies and run a highly standardized and controlled experiment to test the influence of Baker-Miller pink on aggressive behavior. The results do not replicate the original findings and thus challenge the recent adoption in many prisons. Implications and limitations of the experiment are discussed.

From the discussion section:

"In contrast to the early studies that often did not meet (high) methodological standards (e.g., Schauss, 1979; Pellegrini et al., 1981), in a highly standardized and controlled experiment, we did not find any differences between white and Baker-Miller pink painted prison cells in respect to rated aggressive level and actual aggressive behavior. Also, when testing several potential covariates no significant effects could be found. "

This book is unsubstantiated bullshit, that plays to every notion of 'common sense' and reinforces existing bias.

And the thought experiment on pp 224-226, in which two men "decide to reward their wives with a gift of cosmetics" is puerile and offensive.

[David Dinaburg · Rating 1 out of 5]

“Non-fiction subtitles” has been a particular peccadillo for me—a lot of the publishing industry’s marketing for nonfic subtitles serves to expand the target market of a book into the low-hanging fruit of the Self-Improvement section; they are so aggressively self-actualizing, so boldly declaratory, so omnipresent, that I now ignore them completely. That typically works; incredibly effusive subtitles for non-fiction books rarely have anything to do with the text itself. Drunk Tank Pink: And Other Unexpected Forces that Shape How we Think, Feel, and Behave is, unfortunately, not in that that category. Its pushy, de facto subtitle is an apt signifier for the what you’re about to get; bland text and mild suppositions supported by anecdote, weak sources, and poor citation.

A bridge is masculine to Spanish-speakers and feminine to German-speakers, so in one experiment Spanish-speakers described bridges as big, dangerous, strong, and sturdy, while German-speakers described bridges as beautiful, elegant, pretty, and fragile.

The non-specific endnotes give the reader no clue from where the data points were cobbled together; it is therefore a good thing that Drunk Tank Pink relies upon about twenty endnote citations per chapter—parsing which decades-old psychology textbook or recent marketing study conducted within NYU’s Stern School of Business isn’t that trying a task. In this case, the broad swath of pages that Drunk Tank Pink indirectly cites are from Language in Mind: Advances in the Study of Language and Cognition. The pages cited speak nothing of bridges (perhaps the underlying study that Language in Mind discusses does), but do offer this piece of advice on page 66: “Comparing studies conducted in different languages poses a deeper problem: there is simply no way to be certain that the stimuli and instructions are truly the same in both.” But that detail is irrelevant in Drunk Tank Pink, which fits facts to premises, ruthlessly culling any depth for the illusion of poignancy.

The certainty with which “evidence” is presented for the conclusions reached is astounding:

Labels go undetected as they frame how we perceive time and space, but they play their most cunning tricks when they paint a scene that doesn’t actually exist.

What happened to “consider the opposite?” That unwavering certainty is the major culprit in making Drunk Tank Pink unreadable—the views espoused are far from certainties. It is hubris to drop them onto a non-fiction reader without any sort of mitigating statements, and it infects the tone and tenor of the book like a toxin. Because there is no substance with which to engage, the reader feels slighted, ignored; Drunk Tank Pink cares not for your entertainment, nor your education, only in blasting out as many citations as possible without having to engage with them. Most chapters contain conclusions predicated upon statements that are tautological at best. The opinions, contested results—what would be considered the substance of most non-fiction works that deal in the joint marketing/psychology field—are elided to the point of non-existence, presented as definitive, authoritarian statements of fact:

The moral of the story is that plaintiffs and defendants should never blithely adopt the descriptions offered by opposing counsel.”

Drunk Tank Pink is a machine-translated textbook, a white paper of regurgitated studies culled of any human input except that all-important, unquestionable, dogmatic “conclusion.” “'I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken.' I should like to have that written over the portals of every church, every school, and every courthouse, and, may I say, of every legislative body in the United States." Thus spoke Judge Learned Hand in 1951, and business schools have not yet been exempted from that exhortation.

Nature restores your mental functioning in the same way that food and water restore your body. The business of everyday life—dodging traffic, slavishly making decisions and judgment calls, interacting with strangers—is depleting, and what man-made environments take away from us, nature gives back. There’s something mystical and, you might say, unscientific about this claim, but it’s heart actually rests in what psychologists call attention restoration theory, or ART.

ART is a scientific topic that has some studies that support it. ART does not need to be gussied up in “replenishment” language or held up against a hyperbolic parade of horribles culminating in “slavish” decision-making. The language is in fact so absurd that even the author—the narrative force upon whom a reader relies to explain the words they read—says that the words selected may seem inappropriate. That is the case. Mystical naturopathy is not an accurate depiction of ART; it is disingenuous and shows a blithe disregard for the reader and contempt for the trust supposedly vested in a non-fiction author.

[Symbols] are especially powerful because we process symbolic images very quickly—more quickly than we process the meaning of words—and they correspondingly embed themselves more deeply in our memories.

There is no further explanation for how this conclusion is reached, or any discussion on why the mind works this way from either a neurological or psychological standpoint. Rather, it leads into a tepid outline of a study conducted by the author, focusing solely on the results; the potential marketing metrics. There is absolutely no thought given to what a person reading Drunk Tank Pink might be interested in reading. It is as if the hypothetical reader were interested solely in conclusions to the exclusion of any sort of depth; a study guide for the author’s multiple choice midterm, perhaps.

Blue-green light waves are the shortest visible light waves, and they trigger a range of biological functions that regulate circadian rhythm. Natural light is rich in these blue-green short waves, which is why sunlight is an excellent natural cure for jet lag.

No citation for where this revelation comes from is in either the text itself or contained within the endnotes. Unsurprisingly to any reader who has trudged this far through Drunk Tank Pink , there is no discussion of why, or where, this factoid came from. Just fiat “science” promulgated from on high, a zealous future citation for the pitch meeting at Boeing to sell them blue-green shortwave cabin lights; ”Your Red-Eye flight just became a Clear-Eye.” That’s copy that can sell.

But [in academic prowess] colors play a surprisingly prominent role. For a start, people are far more likely to remember pictures of a place presented in color rather than in black and white, and memory is a critical component of intellectual performance. According to the psychologists who studied this phenomenon, we’re able to bury colored scenes deeper in memory, and to later retrieve them more effectively than identical scenes in black and white.”

The circular logic and appeals to authority notwithstanding, there is absolutely no content in the preceding passage. No discussion, no interpretation, nothing for a reader to look back and say, “Yes, I did pick something up from this book.” It’s this type of universalizing that runs rampant throughout Drunk Tank Pink; a dismissive arrogance of tone that holds marketing psychology sacrosanct at the cost of the reader’s engagement. Each chapter reads like a checklist combined with a CV; dry, self-congratulatory, and without any interesting details. Studies are listed but never discussed. It absolutely holds its reader in contempt, piling on vacuous filler to create a vehicle for marketing research study citations. Drunk Tank Pink is pure conclusion, from start to finish.

Subliminal covers the neuroscience better; The Winner Effect explains more about the processes; Sleights of Mind has a unique perspective to share; Priceless gives a more comprehensive discussion of most of the marketing studies referenced here. All four are more interesting to actually read. Everything Drunk Tank Pink does, another book does better and in less abrasive style:

No matter where you go, drunk tank pink and other cues will follow—and, having read this book, you’ll be in a much better place to identify them, recognize how they’ll affect you, and harness or overcome them to maximize your health, wisdom, wealth, and well-being.

Oh, and the actual story of drunk tank pink, the color? Well, its factual history is given a brief (surprise) synopsis during the prologue, but any discussion about how the color impacts “how we think, feel, and behave” is suspiciously absent. How, then, am I to maximize my health, wisdom, wealth, and well-being?

[Shaimaa شيماء · Rating 4 out of 5]

يتأثر الإنسان بما حوله بطريقة لا تخطر له على بال، يفاجئنا هذا الكتاب المدهش بالكثير من الدراسات والاستنتاجات التي تكشف عن القوى غير المتوقعة التي تصوغ طريقة تفكيرنا وشعورنا وسلوكنا.

الأسماء، التصنيفات، الرموز، تأثير الآخرين وسماتهم الشخصية، الثقافة التي نشأنا فيها.
الألوان، الاماكن، الطقس.

كتاب لطيف للغاية وجذاب ومثير لمزيد من البحث داخل الإنسان وخارجه.

"تشير الأبحاث التي وضحتها في هذا الفصل إلى أن الأسماء أكثر أهميةبكثير مما قد نتخيل استنادًا إلى الحدس فقط. فمن اسمك فقط، يكون الناس بعض الأفكار عن عمرك، عرقك وما إن كنت غنيا أم فقيرا، وقد يقررون أن يقوموا بتعيينك إذا كان اسمك سهل النطق ومنتقيا، أو يستبعدوك إذا كان اسمك غير سلس النطق أو يشكل ارتباطات سيئة، فالأسماء المناسبة، والأسماء العلم التي نطلقها على أنفسنا وعلى الشركات التي نديرها - ليست مختلفة تماما عن المسميات اللغوية التي نطلقها على الأفكار التي تملأ حياتنا كل يوم، والتصنيفات كالأسماء تشكل نظرتنا للعالم والأشخاص الذي نصنفهم مثل "أسود". و"أبيض"، و"غني" ، و"فقير"، و"ذكي" ، و"بسيط" يبدون بالكاد أكثر سوادا وبياضا، وثراء، وفقرا، وذكاء، وبساطة لأننا أطلقنا عليهم تلك التصنيفات".

تأثير حضور الآخرين
- بمجرد أن نتخيل أننا مراقبون، نبدأ في ملاحظة الطريقة التي نتصرف بها.
- يتشكل الكثير من أفكارنا وسلوكنا جراء التفاعلات التي نقوم بها مع الآخرين.
- كثرة المنافسين تولد منافسة أقل.

"البيئات القمعية التي تزاحم أفكارنا، وتعكر حالاتنا المزاجية، وتفسد سلوكياتنا.

يولد الازدحام الشديد الضوضاء، وجد الباحثون أن الهمهمات المستمرة في حياتنا اليومية تعوق الإبداع والتعلم، وأن الأطفال الذين عاشوا في الطوابق السفلية القريبة من ضوضاء الشارع لسنوات عديدة عانوا من صعوبات القراءة مقارنة بأطفال آخرين في نفس عمرهم، حتى الضوضاء في الخلفية التي تأتي من العيش في المدينة كانت كافية لإعاقة تطورهم الفكري.

كما تشير النتائج إلى ان العيش في المباني عالية الكثافة يعوق الكرم، ويثير الأمراض العقلية، وإدمان المخدرات، ويضعف من جودة الحياة بشكل عام.
حتى المرضى تحسنت حالتهم الصحية حين كانت غرفهم مطلة على الأشجار أكثر مما كانت مطلة على حائط صخري.

البيئات الحضرية مستنزفة للطاقة تجذب انتباهنا بطريقة محمومة، أما البيئات الطبيعية مثل الغابات والانهار والبحار فهي تظل ممتعة وتعطينا الفرصة لتجديد مواردنا العقلية المجهدة.

[Ryan Sloan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cognitive Science and psychology are favorite subjects of mine, so I was excited to read this book. It was enjoyable enough, but I have a couple bones to pick:

1) The way sources are cited was a bit frustrating to me. There is a wealth of bad popular science out there, and one of the ways to distinguish good science writing from bad science writing is the quality of the sources they cite, and the kinds of conclusions the writer draws from the studies. I'm not claiming this book is bad science (in fact, many of the cited studies were good ones I was already familiar with) but because the studies were just listed at the very end of the book, it was kind of a hassle to find the cited articles and do the sanity check on where it was published, etc. It sort of reduces my overall confidence, but that's the science geek in me talking. There were a couple of conclusions that he drew from studies that seemed to be a little dubious as well - treating fairly inconclusive results as more definite than I think they were.

2) There was a disappointing lack of depth in it all. He covered so much research in such a short time - it seemed like there were at least a couple on each of the 220 pages - that it felt like we were just flying through without really spending time to analyze and discuss the results. At times it comes across as if the author's using the book to say "look how smart I am! I've read all this research!"

[Nicky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Drunk Tank Pink is one of those pop psychology books that's fairly slightly, doesn't provide citations in-text, and presents a lot of experimental and theoretical thought as if it's a fact. Taking it for what it is, it's an enjoyable little survey of interesting facts, written well enough to keep the interest, and not getting into technical details which might bog down and confuse the interested but uninformed reader.

For me, since I've read a fair amount of pop psychology already, some of it rather higher standard, this had some anecdotes I hadn't heard, but mostly referenced research I already knew about, or had read about in a lot greater depth. (For example, for discussions on colour, skip this and go for Through the Language Glass, by Guy Deutscher, which has a much more thorough approach to the issues of language, labels and how we perceive colour.)

All in all, it was okay, but probably (for me) not worth the admission fee.

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m a fan of pop sci, so I got fairly intrigued by the title. I got through the ‘drunk tank pink’ prologue, which was OK-ish. But when I got to the bit about Vyacheslav Voronin, I realized that the book was poorly-researched. The author tells a story how the aforementioned guy named his baby with a row of symbols because his own name means “slave” in Russian and he didn’t want to give his kid a name which meant anything. The thing is, Vyacheslav ( which is a fairly common name in Ukraine) has nothing to do with ‘slave’. To the contrary, it means ‘the most glorious’ (слава (slava) means ‘glory’ in many slavic languages, Russian included). I’m Ukrainian, so you can understand my surprise. According to the author, this story was told by the guy himself, which surprises me because there’s no way a slavic language speaker would connect “slave” (раб / rab ) with the name Vyacheslav. It can be done only by an English speaker who confused the root of the English word with the root from the name which in the name’s “native language” means a totally different thing. OK, what about Voronin? Ворона (vorona) has nothing to do with slavery either, because it’s a bird - a raven. Or, the same root can refer to an adjective used to describe a black horse. Finally, if we get into the naming tradition in Kyiv Rus (a great medieval country whose center was in modern Ukraine and which comprised many Slavic territories, partly including modern Russia), nobody named their kids with names signifying bad things. If you take a look at essentially Slavic names, they are comprised of roots signifying good things. So yeah, if the author makes a statement, but doesn’t bother to check the etymology, I can’t really bring myself to take the rest of the book seriously.

[Christopher Dubey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Influential and important science. Weakly written book.

Early in Drunk Tank Pink, the author Adam Alter describes the color and research showing how exposure to this shade of pink enervates (decreases the energy) of people, both mentally and physically. This effect was then used to try to enervate opposing team players, reduce crime, calm psychiatric patients, et cetera.

That's exactly how I felt while reading this book. Enervated.

Alter cites a vast amount of research, anecdotal accounts, and facts from the news--regarding environmental, social, and cultural factors that subtly and often unconsciously shape our thoughts and actions. The research is intriguing and probably useful for many contexts.

Yet the book is all over the place. In dull, pedestrian language he moves quickly from one study to the next, one personal account to the next...and from one topic to the next. It becomes overwhelming and boring. Just like the color Drunk Tank Pink. It saps you.

There's no focus here. He goes from colors, to symbols, to lighting, to temperature, to peer pressure, to cultural norms. You'll be mentally drunk with a hangover.

Furthermore, he challenges very little of the research. Instead of logically considering confounding variables (other factors that may be the real reason for the effects), he accepts most of the studies' conclusions without question. And not only that, but he seems to accept the implications without question. For example, he cites research showing that people are more apt to donate to hurricane relief funds when the hurricane's name has letters from their name. So does that mean hurricanes should be named after people with the most common names? And wouldn't that backfire eventually when people realized that meteorologists were trying to psych them out? Another example: Wearing red makes people respond to the person with greater sexual/romantic interest. So people should wear red in their online dating photos? How will the color of your shirt maintain the relationship later on? There's just so many problems with the accepted implications.

I don't recommend this book.

[Laurie Willis · Rating 1 out of 5]

I agree with some of the other reviews that mention this author's unsupported statements. I worked in a hospital once where they had a pink room to calm down drunk or mentally unstable patients, and I was curious about the concept. The book started out fairly interesting, and it was believable that he was referring to actual research. When I got to the point where he said people like words typed with more right-handed letters on a QWERTY keyboard better than words with more left-handed letters I started to wonder. Really? What sense does that make? Most people today don't even know how to touch type, and the left hand types almost all of the most-used English letters - AERS. So, I started taking him with a grain of salt.

When I got to the point where he said that Catholic men can't "accomplish" the 7 sacraments unless they become priests, I knew he hadn't even asked a Catholic friend about this, and definitely didn't do any research. Just about any Catholic could tell you that there is no goal to complete all 7 sacraments and, in fact, a Catholic man is encouraged to get married (a sacrament) or become a priest (another sacrament) but not both! At this point I put the book down and decided to read something else. Too bad.

[Sourav · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yet another book on human decision-making and still captivating!

[Zahra tootfarangi · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب بازداشتگاه صورتی کتابیه که به شما میگه دنیای بیرون چجوری روی تصمیم‌ها، عملکرد، افکار، ارتباطات، احساسات و همه زندگیتون تاثیر میذاره. چیز هایی مثل اسم، فرهنگ، آب و هوا و...
من این کتاب رو دوست نداشتم. به همون دلیلی که اکثر کتاب های روانشناسی آمریکایی رو نمی‌پسندم. و اون علت اینه که کتاب پر شده از اسامی، تاریخ، اسم ایالات، تحقیق و مطالعه و...
من کتاب هایی رو می‌پسندم که یه تعادلی درش برقرار باشه. هم حرفاشو اثبات کنه هم بگه خب تحلیلش چیه. ولی این کتاب ها پر شده از تحقیق. شاید برای کسی که کارش مربوط باشه به تحقیقات جالب باشه ولی واسه منی که دارم سعی میکنم یه جهان‌بینی تازه یاد بگیرم جالب نیست. همون فهرست کتاب برای خوندن بس بود‌.

[Muhammad Ramezani · Rating 5 out of 5]

اولین بار آدام آلتر رو تو ویدئوهای سخنرانی تد دیدم و سخنرانی‌اش برای من به شدت جالب بود. (البته تاجایی که یادمه سخنرانی‌اش ارتباط خیلی کمی با موضوع این کتاب داشت و بیشتر در مورد استفاده روز افزون ما از تلفن‌های همراه هوشمند بود.)

لینک سخنرانی:
https://go.ted.com/CyNT
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این کتاب در زمینه رفتارشناسی اطلاعات جالبی می ده. از اینکه دید ما با گذشت سالیان سال هنوز نسبت به بعضی اقوام بده، چرا محله‌های شلوغ به طور میانگین باعث افت تحصیلی دانش آموزان میشه، نام‌گذاری چه تاثیری روی رفتار ما داره و... .
نکته‌ی جالب می‌تونه این باشه که ما شاید نتونیم تمام این‌ تأثیرات رو کنترل کنیم اما بعد از خوندن کتاب با افزایش آگاهی می تونیم یاد بگیرم و ببینیم که خیلی از رفتارهای ما و اطرافیان به خاطر همین چیزهایی کوچیکیه که ما قبلش نمی دیدیم. 😉😉
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پ.ن: کتاب به اندازه کتاب‌های اقتصاد رفتاری برای من جذاب نبود اما پر از نکته‌هایی بود که خیلی‌هاش رو تو خودم موقع خوندن کتاب دیدم. 😊

[Fateme Sadeghi · Rating 4 out of 5]

در واقع امتیاز واقعی من ۴.۵ ستاره است.
کتاب بسیار خوبیه در مورد چیزهایی که روی رفتار و انتخاب های ما موثر هستن و ازشون بی اطلاع هستیم.
خوندن این کتاب باعث میشه این موارد رو بشناسیم و شاید منجر بشه انتخاب های مناسب تری داشته باشیم.
کتاب پر از مثال و نتایج تحقیقات و بیان نمونه است که به یاد سپردن همه اونا غیر ممکنه از طرفیم حداقل برای من اینطوری بود که مدت زیادی طول کشید تا کتاب رو بخونم چون مطالب زیادی داشت و لازم داشتم کتاب رو آروم آروم بخونم و در موردش فکر کنم.
چون بیشتر نمونه‌ها مربوط به فرهنگ های دیگه بود نیاز بیشتری برای تفکر داشتم تا بتونم نمونه های اطراف خودم رو پیدا کنم و مسائل کتاب رو تعمیم بدم.
کتاب ارزش دوباره خوندن رو داره.

[Negar · Rating 3 out of 5]

این کتاب تلاش میکند که با بیان مثال های مختلف از تحقیقات آماری انجام شده، تاثیر پارامترهای ساده درونی، محیطی و اجتماعی از رنگ و آب و هوا تا
نمادها مثل پرچم برتصمیمهای کوچک و بزرگ ما را توضیح بدهد. در انتهای کتاب آمده است که با دانستن این تاثیرات میتوانیم ذهن خود را بهتر کنترل کرده و تصمیمات بهتری بگیریم.
متن کتاب بعد از چند فصل خسته کننده میشود چون تحقیقات پی در پی بیان شده اند و با اینکه تا حدی مکانیزم های فیزیولوژیکی توضیح داده شده اند ولی جای خالی مکانیزم های روانشناسی حاکم بر تصمیم گیری دیده میشود.

[Hewram · Rating 4 out of 5]

تصمیمات و رفتار ما به طور کامل آگاهانه و بر مبنای تفکر و باورهایمان نیست و بخشی از آنها تحت تاثیر عوامل ناخوآگاه ذهنی (نامها، برچسب ها، نمادها)، فاکتورهای اجتماعی (حضور دیگران، خصوصیت های دیگران، فرهنگها) و مادی پیرامون (رنگها، مکانها، آب و هوا) است. در این بین فاکتورهای مادی پیرامون یعنی سه فصل آخر برایم خواندی تر بود.
جدای از موضوع کتاب برایم جالب بود که در غرب این همه آزمایش و بررسی عملی بر روی مسایلی به ظاهر کم اهمیت صورت گرفته و نتایج کاربردی داشته اند.

[Brian Clegg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Going on the subtitle, which I had to because the title meant nothing to me, I was concerned this would seem to be yet another of the long string of books we've had looking at particular emotions and how the brain produces them. Instead it is far more fascinating because it's observational rather than theoretical. About, for instance, the way that bright pink decor seems to calm people (hence the title - this effect seems not to have reached the UK where I suspect prison governors might resist painting their cells pink), or the way that names influence our perception of people.

This is a genuinely fascinating book, exploring the many psychological experiments that demonstrate how human behaviour is influenced by factors beyond our control and often beyond our awareness. Adam Alter includes more obvious inputs, like Maslow's hierarchy of need, or the tendency to prefer those who are like ourselves, but also many factors that influence us in subtle and unexpected ways. Whether it's the way the ability to see yourself in a mirror makes you less likely to cheat, or the way that some optical illusions don't work as well with African tribespeople as they do New Yorkers, because the Africans live in a world with few straight lines so aren't fooled by fake perspective effects that the New Yorkers can't resist, there is so much here to find interesting.

While I think Alter goes too far in his conclusion in saying that after reading this book you'll be in a better place to 'maximize your health wisdom wealth and well-being' - and let's face it, that wording suggests a tongue firmly in the cheek - you will be genuinely amazed the number of times and situations when your perception and behaviour is likely to be subtly altered by influences you aren't even aware of. One remarkable suggestion is that because of a right hand bias, most of us prefer words that are typed with the right hand on QWERTY keyboard. So apparently we particularly like words like n00b and woohoo (Alter's examples). I don't know about you, but these aren't among my favourite words - and for that matter, it's hard to see how this can influence someone who isn't a touch typist. But it's still great fun.

My one concern, and the reason that this book has four stars rather than five, is that the author never mentions the reality that much research in psychology is of relatively poor quality. In the manner of a tabloid newspaper jumping from a trial with cells in a lab to say that a substance cures cancer, Alter seems to take all the evidence as if it were fact. Sometimes the effect he describes appears subtle - perhaps a five per cent change - but he never explores statistical significance. And in at least one example, he cites an experiment as if it's meaningful without pointing out it has since been shown that the effect only occurs in the artificial environment of the lab, and isn't repeated when the experiment is undertaken in a real world situation.

There is even an example of being a little fast and loose with evidence in the book. It shows a series of three photos of the same face, but with the features modified so that they display characteristics typical of black and white faces, and something in between. Alter makes a big deal that people see the faces as darker or lighter, depending on the characteristics even though they're 'identical in tone.' He points out 'If you cover up the facial features with your hand and focus only on the foreheads you'll be able to see that the faces share an identical skin tone.' The trouble is, this is a test of a very subtle reaction, where people will pick up on tiny visual queues - and his observation is selective, a classic error in soft sciences like psychology.

While it's true that the foreheads all have the same tones, it's not true of the rest of the face. For some reason, on the 'black characteristics' face, there is a shadow across the cheeks that extends all the way to the lips. On the 'white characteristics' face, this shadow is only on the very edge of the face. As a result, around a quarter of the skin area is significantly darker on the 'black' image - plenty enough to make someone see this face as darker skinned. Being selective about your data is a cardinal sin in science and undermines the authority of the book.

Overall then, Drunk Tank Pink is great fun with lots of fascinating observations of the strange ways that people behave. This is material that has a real impact on the way we understand human behaviour and perhaps how we should react to it. But you need to apply a pinch of salt to the 'scientific' conclusions, as there is definitely an aspect of tabloid science at play.

[Nazrul Buang · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got a copy from a special book giveaway by my local library. Judging from the numerous praises by foremost psychologists, I decided to add this to my collection.

'Drunk Tank Pink' explains how human behavior can be shaped by extenuating and/or environmental factors. Using the famous 'drunk tank pink' theory (or hypothesis, depending on how valid you think the finding is) that suggests how using a specific shade of pink can calm a person as an example, author Adam Alter presents other examples and elaborates the sheer power of influence that such factors have on us.

'Drunk Tank Pink' belongs in the same category of genre as books by say, Dan Ariely. The main takeaway of the book is that people aren't always rational or even aware of their irrational behavior, and some seemingly trivial factors - the facial features of a man of color versus that of a white man, one's name, the weather - can serve as significant triggers that influence people.

I used to love such psychology books. They often make for interesting reads, since they're about exposing people's quirks and revealing some counter-intuitive truths about the actions of humans. But these days I'm more discerning about them for one main reason. Nassim Taleb, a prominent critic of psychology literature, points out the overarching flaw in almost all of them: they are constantly subjected to confirmation bias, and they often rule out other possible reasons for an individual's behavior, especially when such trials are conducted in convenient controlled environments that often don't reflect the messy real world. Since coming across this statement, I've begun to become more skeptical about psychological hypotheses (especially those based on clinical trials) and learn to offer benefit of doubt for any claim.

And this is where Alter's book comes under heavy criticism. As I read his illustrations, I can't help but point out how debatable almost all his findings are. Nominative determinism? More like self-fulfilling prophecies. People behaving in certain ways? You'd think it's the weather, but you can't disprove if it's something else. The book is a poor man's 'Influence' by Robert Cialdini, since almost all the contents are derivative of others' findings and Alter simply summarizes everything under the overarching theme of environmental factors influencing human behavior (even when sometimes, his cited references aren't about that). It simply iterates what many people (especially those who have read other psychology books before this) already know, and doesn't offer anything new in return.

There's also another big problem with the book: it's terribly unfocused on what kind of book it sets out to be. From the onset, 'Drunk Tank Pink' sets out to be a psychology book concentrating on how external forces shape our behavior. Clear enough. Then it goes into sociology, particularly about how cultures shape our behavior. And then he even goes into history. Oh, and meteorology too. I get where he's coming from, but by going into realms outside his field of expertise and superficially touching these subjects, he's merely using other references to bolster his claims (convenient, right?). Some of his references have also been subjected to their own share of criticism, so by using them he's also rendering his own claims more questionable. But of course, he doesn't explore this part explicitly.

'Drunk Tank Pink' is a catchy book that I admit is interesting to read. But it's also not without plenty of contentious claims, Steven Levitt-style. Speaking of Levitt, it's more about pop psychology much written in the same vein as Steven Levitt's wildly popular (read: overrated) 'Freakonomics'. Fans of 'Freakonomics' would find Alter's book just as entertaining, but more discerning readers who know how complex humans can be (e.g. me) would recognize how biased Alter's theories are, especially towards environmentally controlled trials. Alter attempts approaching each finding with rigorous methodology, but as Taleb would clearly state, rigor doesn't equate to validity. And not to mention again, the book suffers from an identity crisis, coming off first as one type of book but then dabbles into other fields and (amazingly) signs off in an epilogue that touches on chaos theory.

As a final caveat, Alter does not specializes in psychology, history, behavioral economics, racism or sociology; he is from the marketing faculty, hence most of his claims are written from a marketer's point of view (perhaps *that* is why the book is interesting to read). I'd say approach this book with caution; it's superficially fun but substantially pedantic.

[Booksreview96 · Rating 5 out of 5]

تابستان ۱۴۰۰این کتاب بابررسی مجموعه ای تحقیقات و ازمایشهای علمی که در سراسر دنیا انجام شده بهمون نشون میده که چطور لنزهای مختلفی که بنا به محیط، افراد پیرامون و سبک زندگی در طول روز باهاشون سروکار داریم نگاه ما به زندگی رو تغییر میدن.
اسم کتاب از ازمایشی گرفته شده که نشوندهنده ی تاثر عجیب رنگ صورتی روی مجرمان خشن بوده.
سراسر کتاب پر از مجموعه ازمایش ها و تحقیقاتیه که ثابت می کنند ما در واقع اونقدری که فکر می کنیم مستقل نیستیم و در حقیقت«هریک از ما محصول در حال تحول، سه عالم» هستیم: عالم درون ما، عالم میان ما، عالم پیرامون ما
بخش اول کتاب به بررسی تاثیر عالم درون میپردازه؛ اینکه چطور نام های ما، با روان یا ناروان بودنشون می تونن در موقعیت های شغلی و تحصیلی ما موثر باشند. پیشنهاد می کنم این بخش رو والدین ایرانی که مدام در جستجوی عجیب ترین اسمند حتما بخونن. من بعنوان معلم همیشه از صدا زدن و حرف زدن با بچه هایی که اسامی روان تری دارند لذت می برم.☺️

تو همین بخش از برچسبها هم حرف زده شده و بعنوان چیزهایی که «بدون ردپا می آیند و نحوه ی درک ما از زمان و مکان را شکل می دهند» ص۶۵ حرف زده شده. تو این بخش از ازمایشی حرف زده شده که در اون تصادف یکسانی رو به تعدادی از افراد نشون دادند ولی ازمایشگر قبل از نشون دادن از کلمات متفاوتی مثل مالیده شدن و کوبیدن استفاده کرده و در نهایت اون افرادی که لفظ کوبیده شدن رو شنیده بودن تصادف رو مرگبار تر مشاهده کردند.
«برچسب ها بی اندازه نیرومندند؛ آنها نه تنها چیزهایی را که می بینیم ، بلکه وقایعی که حتی در حقیقت رخ نداده اند را هم شکل می دهند. » ص ۷۱

در این بخش از نمادها هم مثال هایی آورده شده که نشوندهنده ی قدرت اونهاست. برای مثال قبل از ظهور هیتلر صلیب شکسته این همه معنای نژادپرستانه ای رو که امروزه همراه داره نداشته. و البته سه نماد مهم رو هم معرفی میکنه: پول که تحریک کننده ی حس قدرته؛ پرچم که تحریک کننده ی حس خشونت و میهن پرستیه و نمادهای مذهبی که باعث کاهش خودانگاره و تحریک حس راستگویی میشن. این بخش برای من خیلی چالب بود چون نشون می داد که چطور نمادهای مذهبی و صرف بودن در کنار اونا باعث میشه که انسان خودش رو بدتر از چیزی که در واقعیت هست ببینه و حالا تصور کنید ادمهایی که دائما در معرض چنین نمادهایی هستن چه خودانگاره ی ضعیفی پیدا می کنن.


در بخش دوم کتاب از دنیای میان ما گفته شده. در این بخش ما می فهمیم که چه مقداری از درک جهان پیرامون ما در واقع ناشی از درکیه که بصورت جمعی داریم. مثلا وقتی که از ما پرسیده بشه سرده یا گرم خیلی راحت می تونیم جواب بدیم و مستقل فکر کنیم اما اگر به ما گفته بشه که مصرف برقمون مناسبه یا نه نیاز به اطلاعاتی از دیگران داریم تا در مورد خوبی و بدی مصرف خودمون تصمیم بگیریم.در این بخش از کودکانی که مدتی طولانی رو در انزوای اجتماعی به سر بردن استفاده شده تا ثابت کنن که «وقتی ما قادر نباشیم تفسیر خودمان از دنیا را با تفسیر دیگران از دنیا تطبیق دهیم، به طور معمول حس واقعیت را از دست می دهیم.» ص ۱۱۱
و در واقع «بسیاری از اموری که به عنوان واقعیت ملاحظه شان می کنیم محصول مستقیم معیارهایی اند که توسط افراد پیرامون ما تعیین شده است»ص۱۱۲
بخش جالب دیگه ای در این فصل در مورد ازمایشیه که نشون میده وقتی افراد زیادی برای کمک وجود دارند فرد کمتر تمایل به کمک داره و در حقیقت باعث پخش شدن مسئولیت میشه.

بخش سوم کتاب در مورد دنیای پیرامون ماست؛ دنیایی که در اون رنگها و نمادها و رفتار دیگران به شدت تاثیرگذاره. مثلا اگر ما وارد مکانی بشیم که آشغال زیادی روی زمین ریخته شده امکان آشغال ریختن ما هم چند برابر میشه. و همونطوری که نویسنده ی کتاب میگه در حقیقت «نسخه ی واحدی از ما وجود ندارد.» ص ۲۶۰

خوندن این کتاب بهمون کمک میکنه که منشا خیلی از تعصبات و افکار عادیمون رو بدونیم و اینقدر سرسختانه در برابر تغییر مقاومت نکنیم؛ همه ی ما در یک بازداشتگاه صورتی به سر می بریم که روی تک تک افکارمون تاثیر میگذاره؛ (less)

[Marian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I--finally--got around to finishing this book. (Finally--not because I didn't like it. But because I was reading several others at the same time.)

I enjoyed this collation of current studies that describes the effect that our environment has on our mood, health, and actions. Some of this information you may have heard or read before if you pick Scientific American Mind, but much was new to me. There is a little of the typical biases that one finds in these type of books. The author spends times discussing how the color red affects sexual attraction. He links it in women to reddening of the skin during ovulation. Well, hello Mr. Alter, we are not all pale-skinned. But I guess only northern Europeans were studied. (Despite this, he does have a section on how cultural differences affect the results of some studies. Just not in this section.)

That said, it is an interesting book. There is some discussion on why Southerners are more resistant to gun control. We learn that the Japanese experimented with illuminating high crime areas with blue lights and found that crime decreased. (The assumption is that criminals associate blue lights with the blue of police lights.) We read that a trip to Chinatown affects your anticipation of change in the stock market versus your anticipation of steady growth or decline. We read that a child raised on the third (and noiser) floor will probably have lower SAT scores than a child raised on a higher and quieter floor.

Of course knowing all this affects how you are affected. Adam Alter does describe the various theories why any one environmental variable might cause a human reaction. Research is still proceeding and theories are still being formulated -- especially where remedies may help sufferers.

[Henry Manampiring · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really recommend this book to EVERYONE. It is full with amazing studies and experiments that reveal we have very little control of ourselves. We are constantly influenced subconsciously by a lot of things in life. From our name, other people, color, even the weather, we get influenced all the time without realizing it.

This book is HIGHLY readable. It's not boring or tedious, and often feels like Malcolm Gladwell's book on turbo. Illuminating and entertaining at the same time.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another really interesting book about the psychological forces at work on our minds. What is refreshing about Drunk Tank Pink, and works quite well for it, is the structure of the book. Adam Alter neatly divides his examination into three parts: the forces that affect our own minds (within us); the forces that influence our social relationships (between us); and those that shape our interactions with the wider world (around us). This tripartite structure gives a direction to his discussions of how colours and other environmental forces. The lack of this direction in other mind books often results in fascinating stories, that feel rambling and leave the reader without an understanding of wider contexts. Alter's success in avoiding this pitfall marks him as an author who commendably makes life easier for his readers.

I'm on Twitter:@Dr_A_Taubman

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another one of those neurology books that are all the rage nowdays. In the tradition of Malcolm Gladwell or Daniel Pink, Adam Alter walks us through scientific studies which show that the colour pink has a calming effect and why New Yorkers are so reluctant to help people who are bleeding to death.

Maybe I've just read too many of these; it seems like the same studies are presented in each book. And the conclusions in this book seemed particularly trite: racism still exists, people are more likely to help each other when they feel some responsibility over the situation, colours affect moods, etc. Unless you really love these sorts of books and you've already read all the "top tier" offerings, give this one a miss.

[Sadegh · Rating 3 out of 5]

خیلی جمع و جور اگه بخوام تو یه جمله لب کلام کتاب بازداشت‌گاه صورتی رو بگم نهایتش میشه همون اثر پروانه‌ای:
"آیا بال زدن یک پروانه در برزیل می‌تواند تندبادی در تگزاس به راه اندازد؟"
نویسنده تو سه بخش سعی کرده که مبتنی بر شواهد و آزمایشات؛ تاثیراتی که از سوی اسامی، برچسب‌ها، نمادها، فرهنگ‌ها، رنگ ها، اماکن، آب و هوا، حضور افراد و... به شکل پنهانی و ناخودآگاه تصمیمات، رفتارها و احساسات ما رو شکل میدن به اثبات برسونه و در این راه گاها خیلی اغراق آمیز رفتار کرده. در مجموع کتاب بدی نیست و ارزش مطالعه داشت ولی خب، شاهکار نیست.

[Shiva.At · Rating 5 out of 5]

یک اثر فوق العاده در باب روانشناسی اجتماعی با ترجمه روان پیشنهاد میکنم حتما این کتابو بخونید :)

[Annie Keimig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drunk tank pink: This book is chock-full of different studies on the human brain and the subtle changes we go through on a minute-to-minute basis depending on our surroundings and stimuli. How color, sound, symbols, our own names, and even barometric pressures affect the way we feel and act, and how society uses these studies on the different elements to control how we feel. The namesake: drunk tank pink: a shade of pink they found subdues people for some strange reason, is used in prisons and drunk tanks across the world to help decrease fights and help irritated or irrational people calm down in minutes. At times this book was a textbook, and at times it was a guidebook on how to avoid the dangers of advertising. I felt the writing could have flowed better, but this book had so many interesting studies in it that I didn’t really even care about the writing. I had stickie notes in half the pages by the end just so I could go back and think about some of the studies mentioned again. 4/5 ⭐️

[Lissa Malloy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s pop sci, what is there really to say? I enjoyed most of this book. It was light but interesting and each section was backed by named studies, many of which I’ve previously heard about and read. I would have rated it higher if it were not so apparent that the author never intended anyone but a man to read this book. The careful treatment of race lulled me into false confidence only for any and all mentions of women to feel completely “feeeeemales”. Barf. Really soured the whole thing for me. I probably should have taken the hint from the first mention of “the effects of beautiful women” in the intro when my skin tried to crawl off my body. We are people hello

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The real subtitle of this book should be: How Men React to Being Surrounded By/ Seeing Pictures of/ Playing Chess With a Beautiful Woman.

"How old are the men?" you ask. "What is their race, socio-economic status, degree of education?"

Oh, who cares? The important thing is that the woman is always simply "beautiful," and she makes stuff happen to (apparently all) men. This book felt like it was written in the mid-1960's from all the ridiculous gender biases and giant leaps of (or over) logic.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but I eventually tired of it. Freakonomics and Blink are in the same genre and so much better.

[Chelsea Robichaud]

While some studies seemed to make sense for the topics discussed I found myself rolling my eyes at others. Also, too many studies for one topic seemed to contradict the others?

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. It was good narrative, from a pop science perspective but just left me wanting more, especially with regard to critical appraisal of some of the studies (e.g. small n, statistically significant but not necessarily meaningful differences).