24. Do you judge a book by its cover?
I think we all do, initially. Not snap judgments, necessarily, but a form of pre stereotyping from first impressions. An unconscious animal instinct: who is likely to attack, who is likely to not be a threat - fight/flight etc. However, I usually wait and see how people pan out. I avoid the sweeping judgments that many use i.e. he's got a multitude of tattoos, he must be delinquent; she's got a Gucci bag, she must loaded/married to someone who's loaded and so on. Some people are actually the very reverse of what you expected them to be. I dress very conservatively, but have quite unconventional tastes - another can project as being very way out but be one of the most stoic and grounded people you will ever meet.
I think that some people who make snap decisions about people are either very good at reading people quickly, or are blind to nuances of how people work. We are all unique and even the most uncomplicated people have a very different internal dialogue than what they project. Things are rarely what they seem, so I try to avoid judging a book by its cover.
