Everyday, we are surrounded by people who are different, or who at least look different than us. Some seem tall, others seem short, some dress in certain ways. We instantly make conclusions about a person’s personality and character based on their appearance. But why? Why should we continue to let other peoples’ judgement be a problem? Why not change? We should stop looking at people and immediately judging them without even getting to know them. 

Let’s think about the danger of making conclusions on someone just based on a first impression. According to Dosomething.com, 70% of girls between the ages 15 and 17 have low self-esteem based solely on their appearance. This can end up with them participating in negative activities like bullying, smoking, and drinking.

In an article from “The New York Times,” a study investigating why we judge others was done by Princeton psychology and neuroscience professor Susan Fiske. The study shows why our brains judge others even if we are not aware of it. Fiske told “The New York Times” that our brains have two main dimensions that most stereotypes fall into: whether a person seems safe or whether a person seems dangerous. Fiske explained that when a person sees a woman with “baby-like” features, the brain automatically thinks the person is safe, but when we see a person who is big, strong, and has tattoos on their face and body, the brain thinks the person is dangerous. 

Sophomore Sarayu Varanasi understands this sentiment. “Honestly, if I see a stranger out in the street wearing dark clothing, has tattoos, and seems like a mysterious person, I would think they are dangerous,” Varanasi said. “I would look the other way and run. I mean they might be a nice person, but all the TV shows, movies, and books I read say ‘big men with tattoos are dangerous’ so yeah, I would run.” 

Why do people judge a person based on their looks? Varanasi said that because of all the shows and movies we watch, we are influenced to judge a person based on their appearance. For example, in the movie Mean Girls, we see popular girls are shown to be “beautiful,” making it seem like if you are beautiful you aren’t popular.  “If you see a character with a bubbly personality, they give them bubbly clothing, and so I think our brains got used to that and so we started doing that in real life,” Varanasi said.

Sophomore AJ Seshadri agrees. “I think that when people see a person with darker clothing, they might go into the conclusion that the person is edgy,” Seshadri said.  “Because of some movies, people can base opinions on how we act.” 

We judge everybody we see, whether we mean it or not. We may think a person acts a certain way because of their outfit. Whether they wear black or pink, they don’t need to be stereotyped. “What you wear can symbolize who you are, but people can still jump to conclusions about the type of person you are,” Seshadri said.  

We should stop judging people by their appearance because it can hurt them and us physically, mentally, and emotionally.  According to rehabriversedge.com, when we judge others, we train our brain to judge ourselves, making a negative impact on our minds. This leads us to set a scale to find where we fit and causes stress to both ourselves and others. So, although it may be hard to stop judging someone based on their looks, if we try, we can finally stop being short-sighted and find out more about someone’s personality before we judge. Maybe then we will finally start seeing someone for who they really are and possibly even befriend them in the end.