From the Goethals/Allison reading, I found the idea of the primacy effect and the implications of human brains to “fill in blanks” on individual’s character to be interesting.  The idea of the primacy effect reflects an individual’s tendency to create a positive or negative opinion toward another person given the qualities that are experienced during one’s first impression.  Essentially, individuals tend to judge other’s character based on first impressions.  This is what lead to the Warren Harding Error noted by Gladwell; individuals falsely associated Harding as a good president based on his good looks (and the good qualities associated with them) when in reality he was a terrible president.  It makes me curious about the quality of first impressions and worried for the lasting effects one’s impression may have toward others.

I also found it interesting that when exposed to a set of characteristics, humans try to complete the pattern by filling in assumptions of others’ character.  People’s perceptions of others are often not accurate, and when perceptions are not holistic, individuals make assumptions to make it whole.  I was reminded of this idea during my reading of the Stanford Prison Experiment.  Even though the prisoner and guard roles were simulated and the whole prison was an experiment, each participant made assumptions of the other participants to create a whole perspective of the individual defined by their role.  The participants saw the other participants around them as their assigned roles, making the experience more realistic.  It just shows the power and influence that can be manifested within the human mind from a simulated situation, let alone the implications it has for real society.