When you judge people about something, you do not normally judge them on that thing alone. You also judge them on “correlated traits”. For example, there is this popular adage (that was popular when I was in IIT) that goes “beauty times brains equals constant”. This implies that anyone who is above average in terms of looks is likely to be below average in terms of mental capabilities. Whether such a correlation exists is not known, but by instinct if we someone beautiful, we assume that the person is not great in terms of mental ability (in my later years at IIT, we recognized this limitation of the model and proposed “beauty times brains times availability equals constant”, acknowledging that beautiful intelligent people exist, but are most likely taken).
There is no end to such correlations, which usually make rounds around college campuses. For example, there is the “he is the partying types, so is unlikely to be a good worker”. Now, while it is true that the amount of time available to most people is constant, and that heavy partying can come at the cost of working, such an adage discounts the fact that some people could simply be better time managers, or don’t care much for some axis apart from partying and working (sleeping, for example!), which allows them to be good at two things that people are normally not good at!
It is common for people to judge people. However, thanks to implicit correlations of traits that are built into people’s minds, when you get judged on one thing, that is not the only thing you are judged on – you are also judged on the things that are correlated with that!
Time for more examples. Once my parents saw a friend of mine very evidently flirting with a girl. They immediately judged him as being “a flirt” and branded him thus. While judgmental, there is no mistake in that judgment – he was indeed a flirt, and would gladly admit to it. But then my parents, using their inbuilt correlation filters, went one step ahead. “He is such a flirt”, they told me, “We don’t think he is a good person. You should not hang out with him any more”!!
Back in 2005, in IIMB, I had stood for elections to the Academic Council. At a party a week before the elections I happened to get wasted, and ended up talking to people inappropriately. The next morning, as I’m trying to get over my hangover, I heard “dude, how could you get wasted if you are standing for elections?” I have no clue how getting wasted at one party would make me a bad Academic Councillor! I must mention I lost the elections.
It was at a discussion yesterday with Bharati and my wife Priyanka that this topic of correlated judgment came up, when we were discussing how life in a business school can be unforgiving. A few minutes later, Priyanka popped up “that baby was so cute, I expected him to be dumb!”