Today, I just finished reading Blink by Malcom Gladwell. Blink is a book about the subconscious brain and it's impact on every decisions we make (and a good book everyone should read!).

Gladwell talks about a phenomena that he calls: "the Warren Harding Error". The Warren Harding error, in simple terms, is the Halo effect. Gladwell explains that we make assumptions about people just based on their appearance. In of the examples, he talks about how 80% of CEO's of the top 500 Forbes lists companies are males, white, and taller than 6'1". And, less than 9% of the CEOs on the Forbes lists do not meet any that criteria.

Gladwell gives endless examples of people, despite not being the best candidate, ending up in powerful positions just because he looks "he look like CEOs". (E.g., The Kennedy vs. Nixon presidential election.)

In another example, when trumpet players were being auditioned for a band with a curtain hiding the trumpet player, a woman was picked. However, when the women was auditioned without a curtain, it seemed that the judges didn't pick her because they associated the trumpet with a big, military man.

Obviously everyone, subconsciously or consciously, has preconceived notions and associations for people. I understand/know that.

However, Gladwell also mentions when dating, men and women say they are looking for specific traits, but when they find someone that has different traits, they "make exceptions" or "didn't know what they were looking for".

The dating world is different than the real world. But, why are very few people that don't meet the "physical criteria" for a CEO, CEOs? There are a lot of qualified, minority females and short, black males that would probably make great CEOs.

(Disclaimer: I'm actually white, but I'm curious to know)