Page 83 - Malcolm Gladwell - Talking to Strangers

Since I didn’t really fit in, I acted like myself, which pretty much made sure I never did.”
Matched people conform with our expectations. Their intentions are consistent with their
behavior. The mismatched are confusing and unpredictable: “I’d do things that would embarrass
most teenagers and adults—walking down the street like an Egyptian or an elephant—but that kids
found fall-over hilarious.”
Kercher’s murder changed the way Kercher’s circle of friends behaved. They wept quietly,
hushed their voices, murmured their sympathies. Knox didn’t.

Just listen to a handful of quotations that I’ve taken—at random—from the British journalist
John Follain’s Death in Perugia. Believe me, there are more like this. Here is Follain describing
what happened when Kercher’s friends met up with Knox and Sollecito at the police station the day
after the murder.
“Oh Amanda. I’m so sorry!” Sophie exclaimed, as she instinctively put her arms around her and
gave her a bear hug.
Amanda didn’t hug Sophie back. Instead, she stiffened, holding her arms down by her sides.
Amanda said nothing.
Surprised, Sophie let go of her after a couple of seconds and stepped back. There was no trace
of emotion on Amanda’s face. Raffaele walked up to Amanda and took hold of her hand; the
couple just stood there, ignoring Sophie and gazing at each other.
Then:

Amanda sat with her feet resting on Raffaele’s lap…the two caressed and kissed each other;
sometimes they’d even laugh.
How could Amanda act like that? Sophie asked herself. Doesn’t she care?
Then:
Most of Meredith’s friends were in tears or looked devastated, but Amanda and Raffaele made
smacking noises with their lips when they kissed or sent kisses to each other.
And then:
“Let’s hope she didn’t suffer,” Natalie said.
“What do you think? They cut her throat, Natalie. She fucking bled to death!” Amanda
retorted.
Amanda’s words chilled Natalie; she was surprised both by Amanda talking of several killers,
and by the coldness of her tone. Natalie thought it was as if Meredith’s death didn’t concern her.
In an interview with Knox, Diane Sawyer of ABC News brought up that last exchange in the
police station, where Knox snapped at Kercher’s friend and said, “She fucking bled to death.”
Knox: Yeah. I was angry. I was pacing, thinking about what Meredith must have been through.
Sawyer: Sorry about that now?

Knox: I wish I could’ve been more mature about it, yeah.
In a situation that typically calls for a sympathetic response, Knox was loud and angry. The
interview continues:
Sawyer: You can see that this does not look like grief. Does not read as grief.
The interview was conducted long after the miscarriage of justice in the Kercher case had
become obvious. Knox had just been freed after spending four years in an Italian prison for the
crime of not behaving the way we think people are supposed to behave after their roommate is
murdered. Yet what does Diane Sawyer say to her? She scolds her for not behaving the way we
think people are supposed to behave after their roommate is murdered.

In the introduction to the interview, the news anchor says that Knox’s case remains controversial
because, in part, “her pleas for innocence seemed to many people more cold and calculating than
remorseful”—which is an even more bizarre thing to say, isn’t it? Why would we expect Knox to be
remorseful? We expect remorse from the guilty. Knox didn’t do anything. But she’s still being