Do you believe in stereotyping/profiling?

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Do you think there is validity to determining or accessing human behavior and tendencies by studying appearance, clothing, tattoos, jewelry, vehicle choices, etc? Do you think it applies only as seen on shows like "Criminal Minds?" My experience is that people may be fascinated by the science as entertainment but generally refuse to believe that it can be applied to themselves. If you study body language for instance, and try to apply it to people you know personally, unless you are very open and honest in your relationship, people generally say, "no, I'm not like that," or "no, that doesn't apply to me."

I think it makes people uncomfortable to realize that they can be understood so thoroughly, and when people know that you have some interest in studying and understanding human behavior they become more self conscious about their behavior and movements when you are around. Some people become downright defensive.

I suppose so since I catch myself doing that, I mean I always try to do that with a grain of salt though as immediate appearances can be deceiving and you never know when someone decided to just be super random and dress in a way they wouldn't normally....But yeah usually I can get a fairly good idea of what sort of person I might be dealing with based on looking at them and observing. Or when it comes to people into certain sub-cultures it can help distinguish which one, sometimes though lots of crossover in style among those a lot of times. But you can also tell if someone is very concerned with appearance, doesn't care and see some of their attitude based on dress.

As for people getting defensive sometimes there are things people might know about themselves that they are ashamed of or not happy about either...but I think it can also happen if someone makes wrong assumptions towards them based on their looks or what they are wearing.

It is more than obsession with me to study these things, both in books and videos and online. I notice the correlations between dogs and their owners, relating to another post I read earlier tonight, how people shoes are worn on the bottoms, belt styles and buckles. Even this trend of people tucking shirts in only at the area right above their crotch with the rest of the shirt hanging free. How people hold cigarettes, how they blow the smoke. Pipes, cigars.. I read something into every detail about everyone I see or interact with, even online, but I know you can't judge someone just on one experience with them. There has to be some consistency. You have to establish a baseline with everyone, but still, there are generalities that are pretty consistent. Studying all of this material has made me super conscious of my own body language nut I will admit that my own vehicle choice and style of dress runs true to my attitudes about life.

I sometimes have to wonder what people think of me when I'm just doing my own thing and what not......and I think I have such varying clothes I wear different outfits can give different impressions. But I observe all that stuff to and analize it all in my mind, try to make sense of some confusing things I have seen that i don't get...I kinda get the tucking in just the front of the shirt( since fully tucked in shirts especially t-shirts can look weird but that to me also looks weird) I just bunch a bit of it up in the back and stick it in my belt(only t-shirts) if I am wearing a button shirt or something than I just leave it out. I am short so shirts tend to be kinda long on me but I hate tucking them in, but I also hate them always covering my belt and what not since I like the look of it. I am sometimes self concious about all the observations I make and what not and admittedly I end up adjusting things very frequently, making sure my necklace pendent isn't hanging backwards, fixing my hair or if I am wearing a hat I take it off a lot to mess with my hair and then put it back on and stuff like that. Sometimes I accidentally wear stuff that doesn't look good together and don't realize it till too late but will remember based on things I've seen it was a terrible choice of outfit. Like I think the worst was I wore my camoflauge pants and without thinking I grabbed a sweater/jacket or something with significant plaid on it and then it got cold enough for me to have to wear it I really hate that combination and wonder how many people I made cringe since that's what I've done whenever I see those patterns together.

I study physiognomy too, so there is one site I go to where people sit on cm all day listening to music, working, interacting etc, and I just open up a few cams and watch all day, watching them do their thing sa they interact in chat. MY family tells me people online are fake, not real people, but I interact more with people online than I do in RL and watching on cam confirms people are authentic, especially when they interact with and talk about and with family members and friends who are with them on cam. I have learned more about people from online interactions and observations than I ever learned in RL.

I really hate most kinds of stereotypes, and that's a real problem since I'm a cartoonist and write children-type stories. I know not all real chefs wear hats that look like puffy mushrooms but at least it tells the reader right away what their job is. If a cartoon "humanized" animal is female it helps to make her look more that way with girly clothes and long eyelashes. But I hate giving characters things like ridiculously fake accents or negative stereotypical traits. I once wrote a story where a beaver says "eh" at the end of every sentence, but now I feel embarrassed and like I sent my own country back about 50 years. It got worse when he appeared in a sequel and said "aboot" when he meant "about", and said how beavers are usually friendly and polite. Not that I think being friendly and polite are bad things. And it gets kind of boring when all the characters speak with generic accents or dialects.

Isn't this simply a form of Cultural Anthropology? Is it valid? It's a branch of what is classed as a science. But if you're using it as a way of judging others, I'd say this would be removing it from the realms of science.


Don't know, I don't have a TV

My experience is that 'people' is a sweeping generalisation, and using 'people' in a sentence/statement more often than not causes offence, directly and indirectly

I find myself sussing people out all the time. I don't really get to know someone properly till I've completely sussed out what they are really like and not their fake profile that a lot of people use as their front. I've learnt in the past that people aren't always what they seem so I pay little attention to what people say about their self and study them more deeply before I accept them into my space. On the other hand i'm told I'm very hard to read and often people get me completely wrong because I'm not very good at giving off the correct body language to people. I think them that are really good at it can practically read a persons mind with all the unconscious things people give off in their body language. I like Derren Brown, he really makes it look easy and frightening at the same time. I definitely think profiling is a real and valid skill.

There is a statistic out there yhat I read that says for a "normal" person it takes 7 to 14 seconds for someone to get a first impression about another person, and it can take as long as 7 years for someone to change their mind about it. So my answer is yes. Everyone stereotypes and profiles. Not only does everyone do it, but they do it very quickly. This is a-typical sales experience knowledge.

I don't believe in stereotypes and boxes. There's a vast amount of diversity in the human population and I don't feel that all of that should be squeezed into two little boxes anymore. I feel that people should be free to be the way that they are without judgement. Nobody is happy when they're pushed into a box. It isn't the 1930s anymore. There are many more people in this world than just "Men" and "Ladies".