Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Judgement and Prejudice
In the world of too many social bondings and interactions, it is very easy to get biased about a person. Although I do not completely believe in the idea of 'first impression is the last impression', I admit that the 'first' impression is generally the most tender one.. It is like a baby's view of the world - pure, innocent and unbiased which gets defaced by the millions of opinions of the people around you.
It is not that you don't have a mind to have your own opinion of the person, but your thoughts do tend to get shaped by your environment - after all that's how you've grown for years! In fact that would be one of the natural instincts of a social being.
But here is the deal - if you want to judge a person purely to the root, don't go by what people have to say. Follow the first voice of your heart. The second may be tampered by someone's opinion or your own prejudice.
On the other hand, never use a small time interval to judge a person. How can you possibly know the person in, say, a few days or months? You only discover AN aspect of his living.. all the other aspects are left out! For example, a person who seems to talk rubbish at work may not actually be that bad at home or elsewhere, just that he can't frame his sentences properly.. or a person who you thought is moody because he whistles may not actually be that moody at all!
Whatever you see in a person is only one aspect of his life. You can only possibly know other aspects when you stay with him for some time.. That is possibly the reason why your mother knows you the best - because she has seen almost all aspects of your life!
In a nutshell, believe in the first voice of your heart and stand by it until you have discovered the person - don't take hasty decisions.
So next time when you decide to have an opinion about some person, ask yourself if you've really understood him/her.
Remember, it takes years to understand a person... but minutes to misunderstand him!
It is not that you don't have a mind to have your own opinion of the person, but your thoughts do tend to get shaped by your environment - after all that's how you've grown for years! In fact that would be one of the natural instincts of a social being.
But here is the deal - if you want to judge a person purely to the root, don't go by what people have to say. Follow the first voice of your heart. The second may be tampered by someone's opinion or your own prejudice.
On the other hand, never use a small time interval to judge a person. How can you possibly know the person in, say, a few days or months? You only discover AN aspect of his living.. all the other aspects are left out! For example, a person who seems to talk rubbish at work may not actually be that bad at home or elsewhere, just that he can't frame his sentences properly.. or a person who you thought is moody because he whistles may not actually be that moody at all!
Whatever you see in a person is only one aspect of his life. You can only possibly know other aspects when you stay with him for some time.. That is possibly the reason why your mother knows you the best - because she has seen almost all aspects of your life!
In a nutshell, believe in the first voice of your heart and stand by it until you have discovered the person - don't take hasty decisions.
So next time when you decide to have an opinion about some person, ask yourself if you've really understood him/her.
Remember, it takes years to understand a person... but minutes to misunderstand him!
# posted by Dhaval @ 1:30 AM 
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I see this as full of interesting contradictions.
So, the first contact is the one without any bias - but it is also a very small sample.
The longer you sample the more accurate it becomes but humans tend to get influenced by others' opinions. Thus the 'impression' gets colored by mix of opinion and environment.
A very interesting trade-off though.
Although the nutshell solution may not do anything to change the image. You may have a prejudiced first impression and then observational bias kicks in and you notice only what you want to notice.
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I see this as full of interesting contradictions.
So, the first contact is the one without any bias - but it is also a very small sample.
The longer you sample the more accurate it becomes but humans tend to get influenced by others' opinions. Thus the 'impression' gets colored by mix of opinion and environment.
A very interesting trade-off though.
Although the nutshell solution may not do anything to change the image. You may have a prejudiced first impression and then observational bias kicks in and you notice only what you want to notice.
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