Stanley F. Bronstein – Personal Development BlogPersonal Development Blog of the Founder of the Achievement IQ Movement and Creator of the Laws of Positioning

Prejudices are rarely overcome by argument; not being founded in reason, they cannot be destroyed by logic. (Tryon Edwards)

Prejudice – An unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason. Any preconceived opinion or feeling, either favorable or unfavorable.

Rarely – Infrequently, seldom.

Overcome – To get the better of in a struggle or conflict; conquer; defeat. To prevail over (opposition, a debility, temptations, etc.); surmount.

Argument – A disagreement; verbal opposition; contention; altercation. A discussion involving differing points of view; debate. A statement, reason, or fact for or against a point.

Founded – To establish the foundation or basis of; base.

Reason – A basis or cause, as for some belief, action, fact, event. A statement presented in justification or explanation of a belief or action.

Destroyed – To ruin completely; spoil. To tear down or break up; demolish. To subdue or defeat completely; crush.

Logic – The science that investigates the principles governing correct or reliable inference. Reason or sound judgment, as in utterances or actions. Convincing forcefulness; inexorable truth or persuasiveness.

Source: Dictionary.com

Prejudices Are Bad

I happen to believe that prejudices are bad (at least most of the time). To me, prejudice is PRE – JUDGING. While there is nothing wrong with forming initial opinions (I do it all the time), I think we encounter problems when we are unwilling to examine our pre-judgments as we acquire more information.

Judgments are fine. Pre-judging is fine, AS LONG AS we leave ourselves open to revising our pre-judgments as we acquire additional information.

Have You Ever Pre-judged Someone?

While I wish I could say I’ve never pre-judged someone, I would be lying if I said I’ve never done that. I think we ALL have pre-judged people. That is not a crime and often our pre-judgments are 100% accurate. Personally, I think problems arise when we are unwilling to revise our pre-judgments when we are presented with information to the contrary.

Being Willing To Revise Our Pre-judgments

I pride myself on being able to form opinion VERY quickly. In my experience, I have learned that 90% of the time I’m right and 10% of the time I’m wrong. What I believe separates me from many others is that I’m open to gathering and being presented with additional information and when that additional information shows I’m wrong, I’ll admit it, QUICKLY AND EMPHATICALLY. I will then revise my pre-judgments to reflect the knowledge I’ve gained by examining the additional information.

Where Do We Encounter Problems With Prejudice?

Where we encounter problems is when we become fixed in our beliefs. When we believe that our way is the only way and we cannot possibly be wrong, then we are setting ourselves up for problems. If we are open to realizing there are alternative points of view and that others may know something we don’t, then things will get much better.

Today’s Video

Today’s video doesn’t have anything to do with prejudice, but it’s an interesting and informative video nonetheless. This video features Carmen Canales of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Carmen is the Chief Talent Office for one of the largest law firms in the state of North Carolina. In this video, Carmen talks about how she adapted to her new environment when she moved from Michigan to North Carolina, which she acknowledges was quite a shift in environments.

Carmen Canales is one of the persons who will be featured in my upcoming book:

If you want to view that portion of the interview, click on the image below.

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