Page 116 - Malcolm Gladwell - Talking to Strangers

Encinia pulled over Sandra Bland. But before we do, we have one last thing to consider—the
strangely overlooked phenomenon of coupling.
1 There was plenty of experience with waterboarding at the Navy SERE school, however. There, the training philosophy was a
little different. “The Navy’s view was that people go into that situation expecting that they can hold out, that they can be cocky.
When that happens to you [not holding out], you’re devastated and you don’t bounce back,” Mitchell said. “So, part of what
they try to do in the Navy school is show people that you really will capitulate at some point. But your job as an American
soldier is to resist to the best of your ability.” The Navy wanted to show their trainees how bad things could get. The Air Force
felt their trainees were better off not knowing that.
2 In another, larger study, Morgan found that 77 out of 114 soldiers falsely identified their interrogators in a photo lineup—and
this was 24 hours after interrogation! When these soldiers were asked how confident they were in their responses, there was no
relationship between confidence and accuracy.