Malcolm Gladwell Response

      What stood out to me in the chapter The Warren Harding Error: Why We Fall For Tall, Dark, and Handsome Men was the reality of implicit association with appearance and how we think of people. Malcolm Gladwell stated in the chapter that our unconscious values may be very different than our conscious values. Without us knowing, our minds jump to conclusions. It was fascinating to see and learn things about people that the average individual wouldn't have realized. The message to take away from this chapter is to be extra mindful of your judgements. Individuals need to contemplate before making decisions about others.

     

       A good leader is sometimes influenced by our thoughts of physical attractiveness. When choosing a leader, they need to have good qualities that stand out. Some good qualities include: hardworking, patient, trustworthy, helpful, brave, kind, and determined. Physical features should be an unimportant quality in determining whether an individual would be a good leader. We should not make an assumption about someone based on their looks. Many people have unconscious biases that are hard to eliminate. If one really wanted to control their unconscious bias, then it would be a daily choice to be particularly conscientious of the unconscious bias. When making judgements, we should not thin-slice. We need to think more deeply and try to understand people and what their backgrounds are better. Don't make hardline opinions until you have given the person an equal and fair chance.  Once again, we need to look for good qualities in a leader and never associate looks with a good leader.

Leadership skills

       After taking the IAT tests (race and career), my results showed I had a strong preference to European American children compared to African American children. I was actually very shocked with these results. I don't think of myself as racist at all and I was very surprised. I have always wanted little African American children of my own so I was blown away by the outcome of the test. In a way, I guess this makes sense because I am always surrounded by European American people and rarely ever by African American people. 

Picture from IAT race test

I also took the gender family career IAT. My results were moderate automatic response to male with career and female with family. This is not shocking to me since my family experience is that I live with a dad who works, and a mom who stays at home and cares for her family. I don't get that feeling of bias though because there is both male and females working around me.
      
      

Picture from IAT career test