Thursday, May 11, 2006

Taller Is Better?? An unbiased perspective

"[A]s he stood among the people he was a head taller than any of the others."
- 1 Samuel 10.23

What qualifies a man to be king of Israel? Of course he must be chosen by God, but the thing that impresses everybody about Saul is his height. Does a tall man lead more effectively than a short man? Napoleon Bonaparte's men didn't think so.

So there was a bias at that time in favor of tall men as leaders; American presidential elections show the same bias. To be sure, some tall men turn out to be great leaders, but Saul's case turns out poorly, as we'll see in the coming days.

Have you ever met someone and formed a snap judgment about him? Sure you have; so have I. Are your judgments always correct? Saying "yes" suggests that your perceptions of the guy were forever colored by your initial impressions.

In a few weeks, we'll see some better criteria for evaluating leaders.

(mostly written 5/11; posted 5/13)

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