Explained: Why we misunderstand strangers

What made Chamberlain think he could trust Hitler? Or, for that matter, why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? American author Malcolm Gladwell addresses several such situations in his new book.

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know is a journey through history and news stories to argue that something is very wrong with the strategies we use to make sense of people whom we don’t know. Because we don’t know how to talk to strangers, Gladwell argues, we are inviting conflict and misunderstanding.

Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

In Chamberlain’s case, he writes, he “was acting on the same assumption that we all follow in making sense of strangers. We believe that the information gathered from a personal interaction is uniquely valuable”.

He suggests that talking to strangers requires “a willingness to look beyond the stranger, and take time and place and context into account”. Which may be good advice generally, NPR notes in its review — “but some situations are just more complicated than that”.