A leopard went to see an optometrist because he thought he needed an eye exam. “Every time I look at my wife,” he worriedly told the optometrist, “I see spots before my eyes.”
“So, what’s to worry about,” replied the optometrist. “You’re a leopard, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but you see, my wife is a zebra.”
Sometimes we make snap judgments, don’t we? Just like that optometrist, before he had the whole picture.
Some people make snap judgments about people with disabilities. I saw a woman yell into the ear of a deaf man after watching him use sign language ~ as if that was going to help. We might assume that a person in a wheel chair is incapable and treat him or her like a child, when actually that person might be a brilliant intellectual, and clever in dealing with the struggles of life.
We might make snap judgments about people of another race or culture, or snap judgments about a friend’s intentions, or snap judgments about a spouse’s responses.
According to a study by US psychologist Alex Todorov, people respond intuitively to faces ~ so quickly sometimes that the reasoning of their minds “may not have time to influence the reaction.” We size people up at a glance and decide quickly whether a person has traits we feel are important.
Why the brain makes Continue reading
Reaching the end of a job interview, the Human Resources Person asked a young engineer who was fresh out of MIT, “What starting salary were you thinking about?”
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