YOU ARE JUDGED BY HOW YOU LOOK, GUEST POST BY CHILD ISH

This is a guest post by Child Ish Behavior. Child Ish is known throughout the Jblogosphere for his astounding work on Social psychology. If you want, you can check out my guest post on his site, where I tackle a topic on social psychology.

If you walk around long enough in the real world you will learn to discriminate. You will learn to make off the cuff impressions of people without even hearing one word out of their mouths. Most of the time, you will be right. The first impression you get from a person is usually the one that rings the truest. It takes a lot to change a first impression; it is way easier to keep the good impression once earned. People are much more likely to overlook the small faults, so long as the original impression of the person is positive in their mind.

The other day I was in the city taking care of business and I noticed how each person dressed a different way. Men, Women, Children- I don’t think I saw one person dressed the same way. It truly astounded me. Each person got up in the morning and decided to put on something unique.

As I continued to observe I noticed that not only were people’s cloths unique for each individual, their facial expressions were unique as well. Each person displayed expressions that were all of their own. While there were some similarities between people, there was the working expression of concentration, the shopping expression of exhilaration, and the bored expression of the commuter nation, in general though, each person exhibited something unique about themselves.

Just by walking down the street, looking at the facial expressions and clothing that the people were wearing, I was able to make on the spot first impressions of all the people I passed. Lazy, zealous, kind, stupid, ambitious, flirty, happy, sad, confident, modest, careless, curious… The list goes on. I was even able to construct little stories about all the people that went by; where they came from, why they came to the city, where they were going- all just from one glance, all from that one first impression.

I don’t know if the story I constructed was the truth, but it remains true in my mind until I know otherwise. Since, I am not likely to pass the same person again, that impression remains with me. I will forever view the people in my mind’s eye based on that one glance.. It is for this reason that people who care about what others think of them pay attention to their outward appearance. While you may not think it is important, and while you may think that it’s what’s inside that counts, people don’t see your inside. All people see is the view you display to the public, and while you may not be able to control what all people think, you can put your best foot forward when it comes to your outward appearance. I cannot tell you how to dress, but I can tell you that you are judged by how you do.

This post is sort of an answer to my post on being judged by others.