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What’s Wrong with Labeling People and a Helpful Alternative
When we label anyone, we open a nest of implications
We label people regularly, often without realizing what we’re doing or the implications involved. We might say someone’s impulsive, obsessive, or flaky, or use another descriptive term. It’s easy to rely on personality markers to help us communicate how we see someone, but all labels infer something about the individual, and they aren’t always accurate or helpful.
Labels describe feelings or actions, not people
When we say a person’s a hothead, for instance, what we mean is we experience them as angry. From our point of view, their re-activeness is overdramatic. Our description of them reveals we feel uncomfortable around them, which has a lot to do with our emotions.
At the same time, we describe what we imagine they feel (anger). We all know what angry behavior looks like, so we could be correct. Yet, we don’t know the main emotion anyone feels. Fear can be expressed as rage, for example.
When we label anyone, we open a nest of implications. We influence other people’s perspectives of the individual, and they might hold their new view for a lifetime.
