Malcolm Gladwell Response

I realized a lot of things while reading through this chapter by Malcolm Gladwell. It really surprised me that our minds can automatically make decisions even if they aren't necessarily true. Our mind makes these decisions without even thinking about it, our mind just takes them in as true. Personally, I feel that there are two takeaway messages. One, what you think may not always be true. And two, don't judge a book by its cover. Yes I know this term is overused and a but cliché but this chapter really gives good meaning to the saying. I think in our discussion about leadership there are a lot of things we need to take into consideration. We need to look at all aspects of the leader. Aspects like attitude, intelligence, common sense, trustworthiness, reliability, and much more. We also need to ask ourselves how can we benefit from having this person as a leader? How will he/she help us? We need to try to look away from our unconscious biases when judging a leader. Personally I do not believe we can undo our unconscious biases, but i do believe that if you think about the subject multiple times you will realize your bias and be able to look away from it momentarily. Unconscious biases are choices or ideas our brain makes automatically without really giving it good thought. I think your unconscious biases are stuck in your head and will stay there. 

I took an IAT (Implicit Association Test). The test would show me if I have any preferences in peoples skin tones. My test revealed that I have a moderate preference to light skinned people rather than dark skinned people. I was surprised to hear this, I guess when it says that your brain makes the association automatically it is true because I have never noticed it or even really thought about it. I never realized I had this bias, to be honest we all probably have tons of unconscious biases that we are not even aware of!