Judging people by their looks and speech - Essay Example

22 November Judging People by Their Looks andSpeech It is somehow sardonic to say that people should not be judged according to how they look or speak. After all, people judge others consistent with manifold aspects: race, age, sex, appearance, speech, etc.; and that is the resounding truth. Most of the time, people consider this issue in the light of morality or legality rather than the value of the judgment. Nevertheless, this is not a case of whether judging others’ speech and appearance is right or wrong; this is an inquiry as to why people judge other people’s looks and speech; and, how do people judge others in relation to these aspects?

By and large, pre-judgmental state of mind does not exist at all. Whenever someone sees or hears a person, that someone judges the other instantaneously. In other words, there is an apparent inevitability involved in judging others, in this case, according to appearance and speech. As a matter of fact, “Empirical research has shown that the vocal cues of a message have an influence on both how physical and psychological aspects of the person behind the voice are perceived and on how the message is interpreted” (Imhof 19).

Hence, it is impossible not to judge others; also, people are judged by others based on how one perceives and interprets the vocal indications released. For example, if someone speaks English in a nasal, garbled and choppy way, one would think he is a Chinese, Japanese, or any other non-native speaker. Correspondingly, people judge others based on their appearance; although this is ubiquitous to some degree, “reliance on appearances may actually make us worse at predicting the characteristics of others” (Olivola et al. 323). Furthermore, the proliferation of visual media and technology like computers and the internet signifies that appearance has become the prime basis and source of clues in judging people, even before we meet them (Olivola et al. 315). People oftentimes surmise your birth origin based on your appearance rather than on your speech more frequently.

For instance, a fair-skinned person with slanted eyes would most likely be deduced as Asian, particularly a Chinese or Japanese. This happens everywhere - at the store, in the workplace, in school, at the hospital, etc. As a matter of fact, an English ethnic slur chink is significantly used to refer to a person from East Asia, which is often used offensively to refer to the size of the eyes of East Asians: small and slanted (Hsu, “No More Chinks in the Armor”). Hypothetically, this comes short of soundness in that not all people with small and slanted eyes are Chinese, much less, an East Asian.

Without due confirmation, people usually say “she must be an Indian” or “he must be an African” based mainly on colour. As discussed earlier, appearance is a prime source of clues for a person’s background; thus, people do not actually pay attention to other things like clothes or jewellery; but, instead, they will bend their attention to your looks and the way you speak. This kind of perception, somehow, has an element of logical fallacy and mistaken inference especially when people try to make a sweeping generalization of a particular person or a group of people based on speech and appearance.

Oftentimes, these stereotype inferences are misguided and ignorant. Similarly, as long as physical attributes show, there is no point of tricking other people regarding your ethnic background. Equally, in guessing other people’s ethnic background, it is important to have a decent, interpersonal communication with the person involved in order to preserve respect, and to preclude erroneous deductions. Works CitedHsu, Huan. "No More Chinks in the Armor." Slate. Slate, 21 February 2012. Web. 22 November 2012.

Imhof, Margaret. "Listening to Voices and Judging People." The International Journal of Listening 24.0 (2010): 19-33. Print.Olivola, Christopher, and Alexander Todorov. "Fooled by First Impressions? Reexamining the Diagnostic Value of Appearance-Based Inferences." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 46.0 (2010): 315-324. Print.