Some people view a label as an ending. They put people into the box. Think no further, end of story. AKA “stereotype”. How you treat the person you just labeled with implicit bias forces them into that box because of your expectations and biases, conscious or otherwise.
Other people, who might pause for a second when they hear a label, will mentally decompress the label with tools like nuance and understand that the label isn’t monolithic. It’s a starting point. Not a stopping point. People are a spectrum. So if someone says they’re an introvert, we know they probably aren’t into crowded bars or large social situations. But you don’t get to tell them “If you don’t use the label you will change.”
It’s how you use the label when you interact with them, not how they use the label for themselves.
When there’s a label for everything, people tend to fit themselves to the label.
Some people view a label as an ending. They put people into the box. Think no further, end of story. AKA “stereotype”. How you treat the person you just labeled with implicit bias forces them into that box because of your expectations and biases, conscious or otherwise.
Other people, who might pause for a second when they hear a label, will mentally decompress the label with tools like nuance and understand that the label isn’t monolithic. It’s a starting point. Not a stopping point. People are a spectrum. So if someone says they’re an introvert, we know they probably aren’t into crowded bars or large social situations. But you don’t get to tell them “If you don’t use the label you will change.”
It’s how you use the label when you interact with them, not how they use the label for themselves.