Why do we feel so compelled to judge people by their appearance rather than by their attributes and talents?

Question

It was the sixties and a group of producers, educators, sociologists and the like were meeting at a fine hotel to discuss the plans for an educational program. It was in the fledgling stages and no one was sure if the idea would even take off. As these "fine, upstanding" people came together to discuss the plans of this program which would eventually reach legendary proportions, a man walked in. Somewhat bedraggled, with a beard, leather vest and sandals he caused a bit of a stir and some nervousness among the other attendees. At the time a terroroist group, "The Weathermen." was very active in bombing buildings and creating havoc. This man strongly resembled their look and dress.

One of the attendees, the leader of the group, kept looking over her shoulder and finally nervouslly asked her companion, "How do we know that that man isn't here to kill us?"

Her companion answered, "He's not, he's Jim Henson."

Answer 1

Interesting story. Given the situation, most people would have been nervous. Wouldn't you?

Maybe it's part of what keeps us alive. Being aware of differences in our environment protects us from harm. We really need to see what's out of the ordinary to be ready to defend ourselves. Very Darwinian.

It takes time to get enough information to get the real picture of what someone is all about. Appearance is just one of the first things we react to in forming an initial judgment about someone or something in deciding if they might harm us.

Answer 2

Is appearance not an attribute? I think one's dress can tell us a little about them. After all, many people dress a certain way for that very reason, to tell the world a little about themselves. For instance, maybe Jim Henson was a free spirit type of guy. The problem comes when people put too much stock in that one attribute. Also, problems occur when the judging person does not really know what a certain type of dress signifies.

Answer 3

Appearances matter, because we rarely tap into our intuition which readily offers us info about the person at soul level, so we have to rely on external sources of information about the person.

Perhaps we do the same with ourselves. Giving our appearance more importance than the strength of our character or our soul for that matter, we think appearances matter in the real world so they do for us, after all we create our own reality.

Unlike Jim Benson of course, the man who thought what he was good enough as he is within, as babies think. You never see a new born baby fussing over his looks, or his wrinkles, he is happy just to be born again.

No wonder, we go to extra ordinary lengths to save our appearances, even go for an image makeovers, forgetting that it is the inner you that matters, in the end.

Answer 4

As human beings, we don't pace oursleves, we just rush in like a bull in a china chop.

Instead of taking the time to find out what a person is like on the inside, we are quick to judge what they are like by looking at their physical appearance.

It is something quite unavoidable, and everyone does it, often not even realising they are. If people took more time to find out about a person's inner attributes, the world would be a very different place. Unfortunately, it is not in our nature to do so.

We are only human after all!

Answer 5

Because what we see has an impact upon us, and many in society are driven by visual stimulation first and foremost.
It doesn't make it right or better, and it's good to see a person like yourself asking a question like this. Ultimately, your question is what fuels thought that should make our world a better place for everyone.
As your example well indicates, one cannot judge a book by its cover. Yet it is so sad that many still do this and don't take the time to know what the essence of somebody is before pre-judging them solely upon how they look.

Answer 6

I've read this story before and I honestly think Jim was one of the greatest geniuses of our time. It is still so sad to think of him gone.
And the main question of judging, especially refers to women from my standpoint. Two men meet and they shake hands and say,"How ya doing? Nice weather." But women meet and they only think to themselves,"Oh my God, look what she's wearing. Who does she think she is?" Their whole attitute is different to one another. I don't understand why society has made this? It this true of other countries? I try so hard not to do this, and still find myself doing this at times. I would love to hear some more insight on the matter.

Answer 7

It takes too long to get to the soul of everyone you meet. You meet too many people in a day to possibly get to know them well enough to formulate a judgment on anything else but appearance in most cases.

Most people do judge books by their covers -- if they didn't,. all those blurb writers and cover artists would be out of a job. (So would all those stylists that celebraties employ.)

Answer 8

Your appearance is the mirror of your soul. You can tell the difference between a homeless person and a succesful business person by the way they dress. Your dress code tells everything about you.

Answer 9

When u first meet a person, it's only the beauty with which we can judge him because we don't know him.
But later when you get to know the person your attitide towards different people can change. Towards good or bad, that depends on the person.

Answer 10

As the old saying goes, it's easier to judge the book by it's cover than to look inside & discover what it's really about.