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Sudha Murthy, who is a philanthropist, a founding member and Chairperson of the Infosys Foundation, and also associated with the Gates Foundation, related a story in her book ‘Three Thousand Stitches: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives’. One day, she was in Heathrow International Airport in London, about to board a flight. She was dressed in a salwar kameez, waiting at the boarding gate. When the boarding announcement was made, she joined the queue. The woman in front of her was a well-groomed lady in an Indo-Western silk outfit, a Gucci handbag and high heels, with every single strand of her hair in place. A friend stood next to her, dressed in an expensive silk sari, wearing a pearl necklace, matching earrings and delicate diamond bangles.
Sudha Murthy looked at the vending machine nearby and wondered if she should leave the queue to get some water. Suddenly, the woman in front of her turned and looked at her with what seemed like pity in her eyes. Extending her hand, the woman asked, ‘May I see your boarding pass, please?’ Sudha Murthy was about to hand over her boarding pass to her, but since she didn’t seem like an airline employee, she asked, ‘Why?’ The woman then said ‘Well this line is meant for business class travellers only,’ she said confidently and pointed her finger towards the economy class queue. ‘You should go and stand there,’ she said. Sudha Murthy was about to tell the woman that she had a business class ticket, but on second thought, held back. She wanted to know why the woman had thought that she wasn’t worthy of being in the business class. So she repeated, ‘Why should I stand there?’ The woman sighed and said, ‘Let me explain. There is a big difference in the price of an economy and a business class ticket. The latter costs almost two and a half times more than….’’I think it is three times more,’ her friend interrupted. ‘Exactly,’ said the woman. ‘So there are certain privileges that are associated with a business class ticket.’
Sudha Murthy decided to be mischievous and pretended not to know. ‘What kind of privileges are you talking about?’ she asked. The woman, seemingly annoyed, went on to state the various privileges accorded to business class passengers, ranging from additional baggage allowance to better meals and seats. ‘Now that you know the difference, you can go to the economy line,’ insisted the woman. ‘But I don’t want to go there,’ Sudha Murthy said. The woman then turned to her friend and said ‘It is hard to argue with these cattle-class people. Let the staff come and instruct her where to go. She isn’t going to listen to us.’ The line then began moving. The two women were whispering among themselves, ‘Now she will be sent to the other line. It is so long now. We tried to tell her but she refused to listen to us.’
When it was Sudha Murthy’s turn to show her boarding pass to the attendant, she saw them stop and wait a short distance away, waiting to see what would happen. The attendant took Sudha Murthy’s boarding pass and said brightly ‘Welcome back! We met last week didn’t we?’ ‘Yes,’ Sudha Murthy replied. The attendant smiled and moved on to the next traveller. Sudha Murthy walked a few steps ahead of the woman, intending to let this go, but then changed her mind and came back. ‘Please tell me, what made you think that I couldn’t afford a business class ticket? Even if I didn’t have one, was it your prerogative to tell me where I should stand? Did I ask for your help?’ The women stared at her in silence. Unable to stop herself from giving them a piece of her mind, she continued, ‘You refer to the term “cattle class”. Class does not mean possession of a huge amount of money. There are plenty of wrong ways to earn money in this world. You may be rich enough to buy comfort luxuries, but the same money doesn’t define a class or give you the ability to purchase it.’ She continued her explanation and left without waiting for a reply.
The above story is one of many examples of people being judged based on their appearance. In the case of Sudha Murthy, she was not lavishly dressed and looked like an ordinary senior citizen, which led the two women to automatically assume that she couldn’t afford a business class ticket. Many of us can relate to similar situations of being pre-judged based on appearance. I once entered a bookstore many years ago, where I was greeted by the store assistant and proceeded to view some books on the shelves located towards the front of the bookstore. The store assistant, with a surprised look on his face, said to me ‘These are business books, you know’. ‘Yes, I know,’ I replied and continued browsing, though in mind I wanted to tell him, ‘Your job is to assist me if I need any help, not to decide on what books are suitable or unsuitable for me. I didn’t ask for your opinion.’ Just because I didn’t have a nerdy look and didn’t look mature enough (people often thought that I was younger than my actual age, which is not always a blessing), he assumed that it was beyond my intellectual capacity to read ‘business books’.
The 1960 presidential debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon were the first televised debates, where Americans for the first time could either tune in and watch the debates on television, or listen on the radio. About 70 million people tuned in to watch the televised debates. On television, Kennedy appeared to be in better shape than Nixon physically. It was reported that Kennedy wore a dark suit, had a vivid tan and looked youthful and healthy. Nixon, on the other hand, appeared pale and exhausted and was in a grey, ill-fitting suit with hastily added make-up. The story has it that those Americans who tuned in over the radio believed the two candidates were evenly matched but tended to think Nixon had won the debates. But those 70 million who watched the candidates on the television believed Kennedy was the clear victor. Kennedy leapt in the polls after the debates. It was the same debates, with the same content, the only difference being that one was visual and the other wasn’t.
While these are anecdotes of judgement is made based on physical appearance, there are also many instances where inferences are made based on a person’s personality. People who have a confident demeanour and are good at talking are often perceived to be more effective than those who are more introverted. In job interviews for example, quite often, people who are good at selling themselves are more successful in getting jobs. We also often notice that those who are good at their work but not particularly good at being persuasive or convincing others of their merits, sometimes find it difficult to gain recognition.
Some people do valuable work but their contributions go unnoticed because they choose not to talk about it and do not draw attention to it, unlike their attention-seeking, less reserved counterparts. It is also observed that at times, less importance is placed on what is being said, compared to how it is said or even who said it. I used to be part of an association that provides a platform for members to hone their public speaking skills, through impromptu speeches, or prepared speeches based on a structured syllabus, which includes evaluation of the speeches by fellow members. At the end of the session, those present vote for the best speaker or evaluator. I have observed that very often, the votes tend to be tilted towards speakers or evaluators who have better presentation skills or who have more interesting or animated personalities, compared to those whose speeches have very good content and value but whose presentation style is not as appealing or who are not as charismatic.
This phenomenon also occurs in the sphere of consumerism. We have seen how some products are more popular and successful due to effective marketing, though there may be better products out there that are less known or talked about. I’m sure many of us have bought certain products, based on the impressive selling points communicated or due to the positive impression created through branding, only to find that they are not as great as they are hyped-up to be.
The tendency for people to draw conclusions or make decisions based on initial impressions and preconceived notions is indeed a sad reality and is likely to be something we have to live with. In psychological parlance, this is a type of cognitive bias known as the halo effect. When the halo effect takes hold of our decision-making, it can hamper our ability to think critically. Our general perceptions of people and things skew our ability to make judgments on their other characteristics. Consequently, we may mistakenly judge others unfairly, miss out on valuable opportunities or overestimate and underestimate the worth of people or things. Although the truth may eventually prevail, for example in the case of a person whose performance falls short of expectation despite sounding impressive, it is often too late when the truth is discovered, and the damage would have already been done.
Those who are frequently judged based on appearance can’t help feeling frustrated at the inability of others to look at substance instead. While there is no apparent solution to this, there are techniques that have been introduced to mitigate the effects of decisions being made based on preconceptions. For example, blind auditions, where the judges cannot see the performer, are sometimes conducted in symphony orchestras or some singing competitions, to prevent bias or any sort of preconception about the performer. A similar concept of the blind audition is also used by some companies to screen candidates based only on their qualifications and suitability for the job. This is where the organization screens applicants without accessing information about colleges attended, previous employers, and certain personal information such as age, gender and ethnicity. Jobseekers are anonymously asked to solve skill-based challenges to prove that they are qualified and capable of doing the job they are applying for. As a result, recruiters prioritise capability, skills, knowledge and other qualities directly related to job performance, and are not biased or influenced by other factors. These practices, however, are not widespread.
We find these biases in almost all aspects of our life. While these biases cannot be eliminated, being aware of them and understanding it could help us to be more objective in our assessments and improve our decision-making. Consciously avoiding these biased tendencies as well as having a broader perspective when making an assessment would certainly go a long way towards ensuring that the deserving will be recognised and that the right decisions will be made.
Nithiajothi is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
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