“Things are the way they are because they were the way they were.”
- Fred Hoyle
Do you think it is human nature to categorize people?
Tunnel Vision
2012/05/12 07:53:21
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Do you judge people before you have truly gotten to know them? Many of us make snap judgments on others based solely on appearance alone. Is this normal? Is it something that we all do naturally or is it learned behavior to put labels on other people?
Top Opinion
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Philo-Publius 2012/05/12 11:56:29I have forgotten the face of my Father.
+12Without committing irrevocably to one or the other answer (because I simply do not know for sure), let me offer here my much firmer belief that, even if this is the case that it is nature, it is the case by habit and not by law, and that such habits can be changed as people themselves change; as a 'tipping' or saturation point is reached, wherein new ways of viewing others emerge and become just as natural to us, and just as firm.
:P
Anyhoo, I think it's instinct to assess others based first upon appearances, but its also very primitive to just stop analyzing there, and simply assume that one knows all one needs to know.
That's just wrong, yo.
*lolz
This, exactly.
I don't think labeling people or categorizing people is necessarily a bad thing. I personally wish I had a label for my sexuality, a category to identify with. But that's just me, I can totally understand if it doesn't work the same way for others.
Also, I think some labels don't work, like, say, 'emo', because they try to define your whole personality, as well as other labels do that just put a name to one aspect of your personality.
The problem occurs when people don't have enough categories to sort them and end up -- as you've noted -- prejudging people without really getting to know them.
I keep the 'like' and 'dislike' categories open until after I've talked with someone for a time and gotten to know who they are.