The Warren Harding Error: In Need Of Depth - Essay Example

?“The Warren Harding Error In Need Of Depth Introduction The article “The Warren Harding Error: Why we Fall For Tall, Dark, and Handsome Men,” by Malcolm Gladwell, is an informative and interesting article that talks about the influence of mental associations on the decisions that human beings take in their day-today lives. The aim of this critique is to understand the intention of the author and to find out if he has anything new to offer regarding the social behavior pattern of human beings. Malcolm Gladwell states that the subconscious habit of judging other people on the basis of their physical characters has led people to commit errors that cause serious damage to their personal and social lives. The author has explained his point of view in an interesting way. He has backed his claim with valid psychological tests and researches conducted by experts in the field of psychology and sociology. Hence, the article “The Warren Harding Error: Why we Fall For Tall, Dark, and Handsome Men,” is an excellent article which has a potential to convince the readers that their decisions, opinions and judgments about other people are not based on the rational thinking and factual information, but are based on the physical characters of people and the mental associations that are related to them. The Subconscious Associations Malcolm Gladwell is a well known author who has worked as a staff writer for ‘The New Yorker.’ Gladwell is not a psychologist or an expert in sociology. However, his work is based on the researches and tests conducted by experts in the field of psychology and sociology. Hence, even though he is not an expert in social sciences, his claim has validity as the claims made by him are based on the evidences provided by experts in the field of psychology and sociology. According to Malcolm Gladwell, race gender and physical appearance of a person play an essential role in deciding his chances of getting ahead in every area of his life. This is because people have a tendency to judge and form opinion about others on the basis of their physical characters like skin color, gender, age, appearance, height etc. Sadly, the subconscious associations regarding the physical characters are so strong that people end up judging other people on the basis of associations despite of knowing that the associations are meaningless. The information provided by the author is meaningful and useful for the development of society. However, there is nothing ‘new’ that the reader gets to learn from the article. Many of the researches and studies in the field of psychology and sociology have already proved the fact that people have a tendency to judge other people on the basis of their race, ethnic background, nationality, skin color etc. Prejudice and discrimination has been discussed in many sociological and psychological studies. Hence, the only strong point of the article is that it has allowed the reader to ‘experience’ the author’s claim with the aid of the ‘implicit association test’ (IAT), which is a tool that studies mental association of a person. Strength of the article Malcolm Gladwell has claimed that people have preconceived ideas, notions and opinions about other people with certain skin color, cultural background, height and gender. He says that people take their decisions about other people on the basis of the preconceived ideas and prejudice. To convince the reader about his claim, Gladwell has used a test called as ‘implicit association test’ (IAT). The test is designed to show how people form connections between two ideas that they are already familiar with, rather than forming new connections between two ideas. Gladwell has done an excellent job in proving his claim right with the aid of the IAT because the test is not only valid, but is also practical. The IAT, which Gladwell has used to demonstrate his claim, is designed by psychologists Anthony Greenwald, Mahzarin Banaji and Brian Nosek, to study the effect of subconscious beliefs and behavior on people’s decision makings and choice. Hence, this test is valid. Moreover, Gladwell has not only described the test to the reader but has also encouraged him to participate in it. When the reader takes the IAT given in the article, he realizes that Gladwell is correct in claiming that people’s preconceived notions and ideas about physical attributes are extremely strong and hence, it takes more time and conscious effort for them to form association between two ideas which they are not familiar with (eg. male-family, female-career, European American-bad, African American-good). Hence, the reader gets a first hand experience of Gladwell’s claim. The IAT makes the reader to ‘experience’ Gladwell’s claim and appeals to his emotions by making him ‘feel’ the strength of mental associations. Moreover, the interesting thing about the IAT is that it is not just a memory test. It is a practical test that makes the reader to take decision regarding the examples given in the test. For example, when the reader is asked to put the name ‘John’ in category of female or male, he is asked to take a decision. By doing this, the test measures not just an abstract idea of the reader but also predicts his behavior in spontaneous situations. This makes the reader agree with the author’s claim that the mental associations do not remain limited to mind but also play a major role in their decision making. Hence, IAT is an excellent method to convince the reader about the effect of their mental associations with the physical characters of a person like skin color, gender etc. Interestingly, Gladwell has not taken the aid of just one test to back his claim but has also mentioned other researches to strengthen his claim. Weakness of the article Gladwell claims that people who have good physical characters like good looks, white skin, broad shoulders etc., have a great advantage over people with average looks and physical characters. This is because people associate good looks with good qualities. Gladwell has given an example of how tall people have an advantage over short people when it comes to getting a promotion. Once again, Gladwell has backed his claim with the aid of a longitudinal research conducted by Timothy Judge in which he studied people to see how physical height influences the chances of getting better salary. His study aimed to prove that tall people end up getting better salary in spite of having mediocre qualities and lower qualifications. Gladwell has also mentioned that 58% of the fortune 500 company CEOs are six feet or taller, when only 14.5% of the male population in the U.S. is six feet or taller. He used this sample to claim that people believe that tall people are more capable and intelligent than short people and hence, chose them for higher positions. However, this claim seems a little far fetched and weak as researches have revealed that people who have good personality do feel confident and strong about themselves. Hence, the self-esteem and the social confidence of tall people are genuine and not fake. Moreover, Gladwell should have included more samples to back his claim. One cannot conclude that tall people have more chances of getting to the top position just on the basis of sample of Fortune 500 CEOs. The quality and the quantity of the sample used for this claim are weak and unacceptable. Gladwell needs to expand his research to get to the depth of this claim. Personal Reflection Gladwell’s intention in writing the book is to make people aware of the errors that they make in their lives and let them know that these errors can harm their lives by making them to take wrong decisions. Galdwell has given the example of President Warren Harding to prove that people make errors by choosing a leader on the basis of his looks. Gladwell has backed this claim with the aid of a research conducted in 1990 by a law professor from Chicago, Ian Ayres, which proved that salesman’s attitude towards customer’s appearance affect his sales negatively. However, Gladwell’s claim lacks depth as there are many leaders who have attractive personality and still, are good administrators (eg. Obama, Clinton, Indira Gandhi, Churchill etc.). It is also important to note that their strong and attractive personalities have played an important role in making them influential and powerful leaders. Hence, the reader fails to incorporate the information given in the article in his life. This article would have been more powerful if Gladwell had focused only on prejudice and discrimination rather than including the topic of association between the ideas of ‘tall’ and ‘leader.’ Conclusion Malcolm Gladwell, through the article “The Warren Harding Error: Why we Fall For Tall, Dark, and Handsome Men,” has successfully convinced the readers that their decisions are strongly influenced by beliefs and ideas associated to physical characters. However, he has failed to convince the reader in believing that attractive personality has nothing to do with good leadership qualities. Gladwell’s study about social behavior pattern of human beings seems half hearted and shallow. Moreover, there is nothing new that the reader gets to learn from it. Hence, even though Gladwell’s article is interesting and fun to read, it lacks depth and focus. . Work Cited Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking. New York: Little Brown and Company, 2005. Print. Read More