Twilight (II)

Last semester in Psychology, we held a unit on Social Psychology, which is the study of interactions between humans. One thing we talked about was the natural instinct to judge people's mental abilities based off of their physical aspects. Similarly, Bella states about the Cullen family, "I couldn't imagine any door that wouldn't be opened by that degree of beauty" (32). As wrong as I think this sounds, it is so true. People are judged based on looks. And it's not just their personality or morality that is questioned but also their mental depth.

I can't tell how many times I've had adults that I don't really know say how intelligent I must be based off of a 30 second conversation. They don't know me. All they see is a semi put together young lady who maintains eye-contact and smiles politely. That's all I give them to work with, and yet I've already been judged and classified.

Back in the fall, I went to several scholarship competitions. The one thing I learned (besides the fact that I SUCK at interviewing!) was that the better dressed, nicer looking students had a greater chance of winning the scholarship money. Every person in that room got there based on grades, class rank, and SAT scores. Everyone was smart, and everyone deserved the money. However, as soon as you walked in the room to meet people for the first time, you automatically dismissed people as "no way will they get it" based on their attire.

Unfortunately, this unfair practice remains quite common in everyday situations. The bad thing is that some people since they look nice, give the impression of being smarter, which can make their job/workload easier. How curious it is that our brains automatically connect physical appearance with brain function!