We label people with just a first impression.
They are doing [blank], so must be [blank].
They look like a [blank], so must be one.
The blanks are full of stereotypes, prejudices, biases and generalisations.
This makes us feel satisfied, because it helps us think we understand the world around us.
Understanding the world keeps us safe, but we have no idea, if we’re actually right in our instant evaluation.
But that doesn’t matter because we’ve already moved on to something else.
Not jumping to conclusions means we have to admit to ourselves we don’t know, we can’t know from just one look at somebody and this isn’t satisfactory, because it means we don’t understand the world around us after all, and this could be dangerous.