Books

They always said, "don't judge a book by its cover."  And even as a little kid, that made me wonder...isn't that what the cover is there for?  I mean, we could have thousands or even millions of books on library shelves all over the world with white covers and black lettering (or vice versa, which I think would be a lot more elegant).  That way, in order to see if you were interested or not, you'd have to open the book, or read a description, or something.  And that just complicates the whole process.

People work the same way.  You can tell certain things about them just by the way they look.  You can tell me that's stereotyping all you want, and I'm not going to deny it, but it's a good way to figure things out.  That's what first impressions are all about, and anyone who's ever prepared for an interview has heard "first impressions are important."  So there someone goes, contradicting absolutely everything we thought we knew about judgments and appearances and how the outside doesn't tell you what's inside and all that lovely nonsense, simply when we go out into the so-called "real world" to get a job.

The bottom line is this: first impressions matter.  We do use covers to judge books (and people) consciously or otherwise because it's an easy indication.  Certain habits or accessories or clothing styles immediately give away people that you are likely to not be friends with.  That's not a problem.  And maybe sometimes it's wrong, maybe the person who looked to be the polar opposite of yourself ended up as your best friend, and that's okay because that happens too.

This isn't a certain kind of thing.  It's approximate.  Relying too severely on the conclusions you draw from stereotypes may mean you miss out on a lot.  Refusing to stereotype may make you rub up against the wrong kinds of people.  It's a balancing act.  Judgment is good in limited quantities, you just have to know when to give things a shot and maybe have a chance at overruling that initial impression.