Attraction and Personality

As much as none of us want to admit it, appearance has something to do with the way that we look at people.

However, I want to interrupt my line of thought there, and note that I’m not talking at all about race, simply physical beauty or lack thereof. Because if we really want to get into this, I think that so many black girls I know are beautiful, as are the Asians I know. I’m not going to discriminate because of race (and I’m just a little touchy on the race topic right now with the reverse racism that I’m facing right now. I’m sick of being called a racist solely because I’m white, and years ago white people hurt black people. But some African Americans forget that it was not all white people that enslaved them, just as it is not all African Americans that look down on Caucasians. As a matter of fact, just as Caucasians persecuted them, many saved them in the Underground Railroad. But that’s another argument for another time.)

Going back now, to my original point, I think our perception is skewed because of our level of attraction for people.

We tend to let people we find more attractive get away with more. I’ve found personally, that the way people act, plus the way people look determines my opinion on them. I don’t necessarily have drop dead gorgeous friends, or think higher of one or the other based solely on appearance, but my point is, whether we like to admit it or not, it is a factor.

I think in the world of online communication, though, it’s easier to get away from the appearance part of relationships. We don’t really see people face to face anymore (as often, again depending on who you are) to get that bias. We have photoshop to edit the pictures, and camera effects, and fake pictures, etc. We don’t have to show ourselves. Good or bad? I’m not really sure. There’s an argument for both. It’s good to get rid of the appearance bias, however, I still prefer face to face communication over online communication unless I don’t want to talk to someone. Then it’s easier to ignore, etc. But I mean, the computer has so little personality to it, that you can’t even see the handwriting of the person you’re talking to! But with personality, comes with a bias.

If we’re looking to create a bias-free world, I guess we’re getting closer with the computer (minus the fact that as of now we still have our own opinions, and we still have some ways to see what we look like). Good or bad, take it for what it’s worth.

This is your world today.