This will probably be a short blog today… it stems from an article I read in psychology today by Abigail Fagan in their most recent magazine, along with some previous thoughts before reading the article… plus I am probably mixing in some common sense that most people are aware of.
I guess it I write this just so make us more aware of our biases can be based on very intricate details… not even on a greater cultural scale and things like that. But, the article talks about how we treat people that look similar the same way or how sharing a name with someone can change your attitude towards both people.
For instance, if you have had bad encounters with people named Tyler, you will most likely approach me and other Tyler’s with greater caution. Even if you aren’t aware of it, we all generalize a lot. Same thing with people of certain builds or down to the smallest of features. I have found myself even generalizing people by the sound of their voice…. It’s amazing you can hear someone’s voice and think something as far flung as, this person is probably a cheater.
What can be weird sometime if how much our generalizes aren’t always wrong in a way… some people may talk a certain way because they have been emulating the same type of person or something like that. Or how we grow into our names within a society… is it to say that the name Tyler may be treated a certain way almost identically in completely different grade schools? Would be an interesting study.
We tend to get a lot of our generalizations from movies as well, where we see this type of person or that type of person acting a certain way… whether they are usually the hero or the villain, or a bully or the bullied… Can a tv show or movie where a person named Tyler is a bully, seen by millions of children across the country, affect thousands of Tyler lives? Are they now subconsciously generalized throughout the country, making it more difficult to form that good first impression?
It is just a bit fascinating how all these different factors affect us and different relationships… how we may initially view somebody… How all the Tyler’s of the world are helping to shape my own encounters of the world. If they are doing good, chances are people will be more likely to come in thinking that I am most likely a good guy you know?
But, what is so amazing is we are generalizes so many things to help shape the world a certain way, putting people with different nose shapes in different groups, left handed people, the style of dress… there isn’t much on the table.
Obviously, it can lead to even disastrous effects potentially when people may generalize an entire race, culture or religion… I felt those were the more obvious ones.
I thought it was interesting… and maybe it can help you realize sometimes your initial reaction to someone might be because of some kid that looked the same or had the same name in the 5th grade treated you mean. Perhaps it may make us a big more open minded with meeting people.
Generalization is part of our survival mode as well though, it helps us to try and survive in this world… sometimes 6 out of 10 people that act a certain way may be dangerous, you know? So, I am not saying to go completely against your instincts anyways… like 6 out of 10 isn’t great numbers, naturally you should be a little on high alert. Your brain is doing some odds calculating for sure when you meet people… not that your brain might be operating off some miss information…
It’s like when I look at Bobby Fischer later in life… when he started getting really racist and supporting some hate groups a bit, people couldn’t even hang out with him anymore… In a weird way, he may have still been thinking logically… he just believed all the information given to him and that he was listening too. I could see if you believed a lot of stuff that gets peddled out of certain groups for whatever reason, you may come to hold very negative views, and act in a certain way. For better understanding I say that… people do that on all sides…
It’s important to have all the information and honest and trustworthy sources, giving out proper evaluations of what is going on in the world… Also sharing good solutions to problems, that try to find the path of least resistance first… Acting more from the heart and the angle of self-defense.
Well this blog post ended up changing into something all-together haha, my just gets going… I wanted to talk about how I found it amusing that we may just a person by the shape of their nose and ended up talking about bobby Fischer in his later, darker days. You can still tell I am fascinated with Bobby Fisher and want to defend him best I can, he is a treasure! I am fascinated by many chess players actually!
You should watch some documentaries about the current champ, Magnus Carlsen, the Mozart of Chess… He can play like 10 different games of chess in his head without even looking at the boards… plus he seems like a really nice guy!
theeclecticschizophrenic.com 