Merry Sunday!

Do you know that the first time you meet someone, within the first few seconds, you form an impression about them? From the simple way they talk, gesture, smile, or even blink, your mind begins to build how you see them and what you think of them. This is why it is said that first impressions matter a lot.

Now, first impressions lead to what builds up the mental picture you have of a person. With each interaction, you continue to paint this picture clearer and clearer, drawing conclusions about who they are.

However, do you also know that once you have painted this mental picture of someone, everything they do just naturally fits into that picture?

Take, for example, if my mental picture of you is “a liar,” everything you do or say would seem to fall into being “a lie.” It makes one unreasonably biased.

I was having a conversation with someone today, and as we argued back and forth about how we previously saw each other, it hit me that we had both been biased. We held on to the mental picture we had formed at some point and only noticed details that supported that picture.

We were wrong about each other for a long time, and it made me wonder how many people I have misjudged simply because I skipped logic and held on to what I thought they were once upon a time. In psychology, this is called confirmation bias. It is the tendency to notice and interpret information in a way that confirms one’s preexisting beliefs or ideas.

Dearest reader, my father would often say, “Never inherit enemies.” Well, allow me to paraphrase that: “Never conclude on a person based on the mental picture you had of them yesterday.” People and situations are vast and multidimensional, and you might just be writing someone off based on a fraction of who they truly are.

P.S. Your mental picture of a person isn’t all there is to that person. Be gracious enough to experience people fully before concluding.

@favvy_Okwans🖤