Talking to Strangers

by

Malcolm Gladwell

Sendhil Mullainathan Character Analysis

Sendhil Mullainathan is an economist who led a study between 2008­2013 in which a computer program was created to assess the records of 500,000 defendants tried in New York State. The program then determined which 400,000 of the defendants were least likely to commit a crime if released on bail. The results of the study determined that the computer program was better at assessing which defendants were less likely to commit a crime than a human judge. Gladwell presents Mullainathan’s study as evidence that humans are fundamentally bad at reading strangers.
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Sendhil Mullainathan Character Timeline in Talking to Strangers

The timeline below shows where the character Sendhil Mullainathan appears in Talking to Strangers. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter Two: Getting to Know der Führer
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...question, Gladwell consults a study conducted between 2008 and 2013 by a Harvard economist named Sendhil Mullainathan . Mullainathan and his research team assembled the records for over 500,000 defendants tried in... (full context)