I really enjoyed the von Rueden reading. The break down of the differences in leadership between SSSs and LSSs, especially when looking at physical qualities and other traits that made leaders in these societies, reminded me a lot of the trait theory of leadership. Like with this reading, when learning about the trait theory of leadership in my LDST 102 class, I was fascinated in the implications of it in current society. Being politically minded, I related a lot of examples back to political circumstances. Prior to my LDST 102 class or this reading, I already knew the fact that the taller presidential candidate tends to win. I was also aware of the arguments regarding level of attractiveness affecting the perception of candidates (think Nixon vs. JFK debate). After learning about the trait theory of leadership, the reasons as to why these preferences exist and the changes that appear to be occurring in them began to make more sense. However, even after learning more about trait theory of leadership, I did not realize how ingrained into society these preferences for leaders are. The evolutionary aspect of the preferences deriving from SSSs fascinated me but also made me wonder if these preferences are capable of changing on a wide scale.

The part of the preferences that I focused on the most with these questions are the physical attributes. The physical attributes of taller, masculine, stronger, etc… all relate back to men, making me question the possibility for women to acclaim high political power, particularly the American presidency, while these preferences still stand. In the 2016 presidential election and during the 2020 democratic primaries, we saw women rise to new levels of political recognition by being the first female nominee from a major political party and through, at one point, being a front-runner in a crowded democratic primary. However, each time, these women were beaten out by men that were taller, more masculine, etc… than the women. With that as the basis, I think that it is interesting to look at these physical preferences and determine if they are in any way, shape, or form decreasing. In tracking the way the preferences are decreasing (assuming they are decreasing given recent strides by female politicians), I think that you would be able to determine the point when these evolutionary preferences would no longer play a role in political leadership. Then, since they would no longer play a role in political leadership, the same findings could possibly be translated to the private sector and leadership within business.