Riya was about to enter the classroom on the first day of college. She stepped on the shoe of a man who was about to exit the class. The man was well dressed and held 2 books in their hand. She apologised; however, the man left without saying a word. She thought that the professor was quite rude and looked arrogant; however, throughout the course, she found out that he was the most polite and helpful professor. We all have judged someone in our lives based on their look,s but have you ever thought why we do so? Even though we are taught “Don’t judge a book by its cover”.
Do we judge to survive?
The Gibson’s theory of object perception, often referred to as the ecological approach to social perception, suggests that people’s faces provide useful information about how they might interact socially (Gibson, 1979). The most common example is a baby face or a cute face of a baby would always generate a response of approach(Berry & McArthur, 1986) while an angry face would generate a response of avoidance or defence (Balaban, 1995). However, that theory also states that it is common to overgeneralize one’s perception.
However, this behaviour is more useful in adaptation for survival than the errors produced by over-generalisation. Also, generalisation across facial features and expressions is only an example of the cognitive mechanism of stimulus generalisation, which is essential for survival and adaptation. While stimulus generalisation is a broad mechanism. Also, life would feel mechanical if we had no expectations from our environment because we tend to generalise the existing information. Indirectly, the form of the basis for our existence is “feelings”
Do Looks Really Not Matter?
Have you ever been on a date with a beautiful person and you have been mesmerised, but then the person was rude to the waiter, and now you don’t like the person? – Well, researches reveal that people with more attractive faces are judged more positively. This phenomenon is very popular and is commonly known as ‘attractiveness halo’(Eagly, Ashmore, Makhijani, & Longo, 1991). In fact, young children and infants also show similar reactions as adults to faces that vary in attractiveness – this suggests that these impressions have causes more than cultural influences. (Michael R. Cunningham, Roberts, Barbee, & Druen, 1995)
- The Halo effect: Sometimes people tend to generalise attributes, like if someone is beautiful, they must also be a good person, or they must have many positive or desired qualities.
- The Horn effect: Halo effect can be positive as well as negative, commonly known as the reverse Halo effect or Horn effect. As the Halo effect tends to overshadow negative qualities with positive ones, the Horn effect tends to hide the positive ones with the negative ones. Like if someone is not so good-looking or not well-dressed, they must be a bad person or dangerous (it depends on the perception of an individual). (Nicolau, Mellinas and Martín Fuentes, 2020)
People tend to use these mental shortcuts in order to reduce cognitive load, even though the attractiveness of an individual is not related to their other qualities. These mental shortcuts are also known as heuristics. They help in reducing the resources spent on judgment, hence preventing cognitive overload in day-to-day life.
Why do we like smiling people?
We all remember ‘the look’ that our mom gave us when we were young – it meant ‘ you are in trouble, Kid’. When people show emotions through their facial expressions, we are not only able to judge their feelings but also their behaviour and personality traits. For example, when someone looks happy, we often think they are friendly and confident. On the other hand, when someone appears angry, we usually see them as less friendly but more confident. Facial expressions of sadness or fear often lead us to think that a person is neither very friendly nor very confident (Hess, Blair, & Kleck, 2000; Knutson, 1996; Montepare & Dobish, 2003).
This idea can be supported by Darwin’s view that emotional expressions form evolutionary adaptive values for social interaction (Darwin, 1872). Hence, it could be stated that facial expressions might provide information about a person’s potential behaviour via their affective state.(Ekman,1997)
Read More: Impact of Personality Traits on Cognitive Abilities
How Cultural Beliefs Shape an Individual’s Judgement?
Every culture has its own beliefs and ideologies that have been passed down from generation. Like popular Indian beliefs that “black cats are bad luck” or “people with long fingers are better artists”. Repeated exposure to this ideology from childhood can lead to the development of a mental belief that it is true to some extent. Even if the person consciously denies them, these beliefs tend to affect our judgment unconsciously. Albert Bandura stated that people learn behaviours and attitudes by observing others and their actions. We as kids tend to imitate others, especially our elders- this imitation unconsciously affects our perception of the world.
Cognitive Bias behind judgment
Todorov and colleagues in their research stated that the cognitive mechanism behind judgment is highly efficient and operates unconsciously. They also demonstrated that judgment of factors like trustworthiness, competence and aggression takes only a fraction of a second.
Memory recognition bias: Various research in past has identified a recognition bias where individuals tend to believe they remember that attractive people have positive traits and unattractive people have negative traits, even when the actual information presented does not support these beliefs.
People also tend to generalise based on their experience and memories. For example, if an individual has been good to them in past and if they encounter someone with similar features and personality, they automatically assume that they must also be good. However, there is still no research supporting this hypothesis. Hence, it can be concluded that judging individuals by their appearance is not just a societal-induced phenomenon or just insecurities, it is a complex process with an evolutionary history by which the brain manages the information, ideas, facts, etc, efficiently forming an elaborate mental framework.
Read More: Human Psychology Theories on Personality Development
Is it bad to judge someone?
The answer to this question is complex, as judgment is an inherent, automatic process. It is part of cognition and has helped us survive over the years. However, being habitually judgmental is often driven by internal psychological factors, such as self-esteem, which can be detrimental as it may affect your relationship with yourself as well as others.
Why is my gut feeling about people always correct? I can understand, please, just by their face.
The tendency to search for, interpret, and remember information in a way that confirms our pre-existing beliefs is called Confirmation Bias. Once we have a judgment or belief about someone, we unconsciously seek out evidence that supports it while ignoring evidence that contradicts it. So it might be possible that you are remembering only the events and qualities you want to remember.
Question Explained by Experts
Question: How do cultural beliefs and upbringing shape the way we judge appearances?
According to Counselling Psychologist Radhika Juneja, historically, judgements regarding appearance served survival and reproductive significance. Humans are biologically wired to associate biological qualities such as fertility, health, and genetic fitness with physical traits of waist-to-hip ratio for women, shoulder-to-hip ratio for men, and height in men. These physical cues served to indicate a higher probability of successful reproduction for women and the ability of a male to protect and provide. Other physical cues, such as body movement, micro-expressions, posture, and gait, also provided dynamic information about the chances of having a healthy offspring.
Reference +
Rohner JC, Rasmussen A. Recognition bias and the physical attractiveness stereotype. Scand J Psychol. 2012 Jun;53(3):239-46. doi: 10.1111/j.1467- 9450.2012.00939.x. Epub 2012 Mar 15. PMID: 22416805
Shaikh R. Why Do We Judge and Compare? Understanding the Psychology Behind Human Behaviour 2024.medium
Nicolau JL., Mellinas JP., Fuentes EM., The halo effect, Encyclopedia of Tourism Management: EDWARD ELGAR PUBLISHING
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Zebrowitz LA, Montepare JM. Social Psychological Face Perception: Why Appearance Matters. Soc Personal Psychol Compass. 2008 May 1;2(3):1497.
doi: 10.1111/j.1751-9004.2008.00109.x. PMID: 20107613; PMCID: PMC2811283.
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