First Impressions

Everybody judges. It's our human nature, we can't help it. Or can we? This is what I personally wanted to learn from this project. Some questions I've always wondered are: Why do we judge? What are we judging? What affects do first impressions have? Can judging be prevent? Finally, I know the answers.
Our group started out by asking ourselves some key questions. These questions were: What are your first thoughts when you first meet someone? Who do you judge? Are you judged? What matters most? The inside or the outside? What really matters? These questions were used in our survey that we handed out to students among our school. These questions also helped us form our challenge which was to not judge a book by its cover.
A survey and multiple internet sources have proven that the majority of people judge people by their exterior instead of their interior. The first thing a person notices about another person is the color of their skin, their weight, their sex, age, and the clothes they are wearing. Many people also tend to stereotype people before they even talk to them. They will automatically think they are a prep, nerd, ect. by what they appear to be on the outside.
One interesting thing I noticed from our survey was that it was easy for everyone to say that they felt judged by everybody else. When asked who they judged, the majority people were in denial and claimed that they do not judge others. The people who answered no often contradicted themselves in the next question. The question asked what they first noticed about a person. Many people answered with external features such as hair, clothing, and if they're good looking or not. We found very few people who thought about peoples' personalities before their looks.
To prove a point and experience peoples' reactions our group conducted an experiment where we would dress as different stereotypes. The stereotypes we chose were teen mom, obese, preppy, high class, and promiscuous. We all met up at the mall on November 26. We used surveys and video cameras to capture the reactions to our stereotypes.
It was very interesting to see peoples' reactions. We received very many weird looks and comments. Reactions to the teen mom were often shock. People thought teenage girls were too young to have kids. Surprisingly, there were people that would approach the teen mom and ask her questions such as how old the baby was and if they could see it. It seemed that many people did not want to associate with the obese person and often stayed clear of the person. The preppy person did not receive very many odd looks until the person was seen in a goth store. Then the preppy person looked out of place. The high class person drew attention when they were in stores that didn't seem up to their standards. The promiscuous girl received many looks, many males who were shocked by the outfit she was wearing in public. What I thought was most interesting was when we were all standing in one group together. People stared at us as if they were thinking that we shouldn't be together. Since we were different stereotypes people didn't think we should be able to hang out together.
Studies have shown that it is natural to judge a person. Humans are curious so when we see somebody our brain does its best to categorize the person to our understanding. This is okay, but what we need to think about is what we are judging about the person. It makes a huge difference if you are judging the person's inside or outside. The inside is what really matters. Even though it may be hard to not judge a person by the outside, it is doable, and definitely worth the effort.
Our challenge to others is not to judge a book by a cover. Of course, we are not talking about an actual book, we are talking about real, living, breathing human beings! It is not as hard as it sounds. You just have to simply not be so quick to react. When you first see someone, don't think about what kind clothing brand they're wearing or how they should do something different with their hair. Instead stop and think about the good things! Ask yourself questions such as : Are they a person of integrity? How do they treat those around them? How do they apply their skills and talents? Questions like these will help you judge a person by the inside instead of the outside.
If everyone is able to accept this challenge and really work hard at it, our world is going to become a better place. Everyone deserves to be thought of as the person that they really are, not as the person they appear to be on the outside. Please, next time you have thoughts running through your mind about a person's appearance, stop and remember what really matters.