Flanagan’s article brought up a lot of interesting points. I neither agree nor disagree with what she says because the points she brings up in her arguments make sense but they are not necessarily what everyone will agree with. I would say I’m neutral, however, I think I would lean towards the disagree side more. I understand where she’s coming from, that people should have a right to self-medication but prescription laws are there for a reason. Which is to prevent and alleviate overdose epidemics from people who abuse their medication. Changing the prescription requirements could potentially lead to a greater, dangerous outcome.

I found this reading to be very interesting as I have taken the IAT in a previous leadership course and enjoy this topic. For my IAT test I took the Weight (‘Fat-Thin’ IAT). It required the ability to distinguish faces of people who are obese and people who are thin. It often revealed an automatic preference for thin people relative to fat people which is what my results from my responses suggested. I was not surprised by my results. This may particularly be because fitness and staying in shape is such a huge part of my life and so I already had a feeling going into taking this test that I would have a preference for thin people over fat people.

I have never heard of mindbugs concept before until after reading the chapter “Mindbugs” in the Blindspot. I found this concept to be very intriguing especially when the chapter discussed the idea of faulty memory. When it revealed the consequences of false memories, I never would have really thought it about like that.  For example, faulty memory of a witness in a criminal court case can be harmful and dangerous in our criminal justice system; misinformation has led to many cases of wrongful incarceration. This clearly is a major issue, so how would we go about determining the accuracy of someone’s eyewitness testimony other than checking video surveillance (if it’s not there) for proof.