Melting Snow

Benefit of the Doubt

Tuesday, March 13, 2018
The "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"  prompt for DAY 1547
Abraham Lincoln said, “I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.”
What do you think are the pros and cons of trying to get to know someone better of whom we have a negative first impression?

Benefit of the Doubt

I think, what Mr. Lincoln is suggesting, that we don't judge others by the first impression. First impressions can be deceiving because we usually judge other people by some artificial criteria we've constructed in our own minds. We tend to judge people by color, religion, gender, party affiliation, national origin, gender identification, sexual orientation, etc. In many cases, we have constructed in our own minds about the way people in these pigeonholes are like and how they act. The problems is that our constructions or stereotypes are false most of the time. The first time we meet someone, we need to put aside our preconceived ideas. We need to spend enough time with the person to see what they are really like.