We make judgments of people everyday based off of the way they look and sound. We make these assumptions based off of our opinion and perception of the individual. Did you know however, that most of the time through our interactions we make judgments without even realizing. For an example, you see a girl at a bar that you think is pretty. You use a form of passive observation to recognize the features that make her so beautiful to you. Passive observation is solely based on observation of sight and sound. It does not require any interaction or verbal communication to to engage in passive observation and it is an aspect of life that affects us all every day without us consciously knowing. When you see someone who seems dangerous, or just a potential threat you begin to feel afraid and threatened. In reality you don’t know this person or what their motives are, but you feel afraid based off your first judgment of that individual.
Furthermore, we feel a need to reduce our uncertainty about another person whenever we meet them. I ask you this rhetorical question and that is; have you ever purposely questioned a person on a social or physical aspect that they possessed? Your answer is most definitely yes, because it is in our human nature to ask questions when we are unsure. This is our interactive form of observation and we use it daily to see if we may be compatible with the person we are talking to. We may bring something up that interests us and we want to see if the person we are talking to shares a commonality with us.
When face to face conversation isn’t enough we tend to actively try and make observations. By active I mean we may ask another person what they know about the person we have an interest in and see if their judgments on that person are the same as are own. In today's day and age we may use social media to reduce our uncertainty about a person and see how they live their lives outside of your presence. Regardless of the situation, or how kind we try to others we will always make judgements and sometimes they are good and harmless, but other times it can stir up conflict if not interpreted the correct way.
Pay close attention to your observations and the communicate to others, until next time.
https://www.utwente.nl/en/bms/communication-theories/sorted-by-cluster/Interpersonal-Communication-and-Relations/uncertainty-Reduction-theory/