<p>Assignment: *Is it important to try to understand people's motivations before judging their actions?</p>
<pre><code>It has often been said, "Before you judge someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes." Often times, we are quick to criticize the decisions of our peers without understanding the situational factors that influenced their decision. Thus, one should never judge anyone without first learning about their situation. This advice is evident in the Stanford Prison Experiment, Native Son, and my own personal experience.
In 1971, Philip Zimbardo led a team of Stanford researchers in an experiment to study the effects of captivity and power on the average person. They gathered a group of volunteers who were split into two groups, prisoners and guards, and placed in a makeshift "prison". The results startled the researchers. Once the volunteers became acclimated to their roles, the guards began to act increasingly violent toward the others. They dehumanized the prisoners and forced them to do menial labor. The prisoners eventually became mentally unstable and the experiment was cut short. Outside of this "prison", the volunteer guards were very normal people who would not have recognized themselves as the guards. Their aggressive behavior was merely a result of their surroundings and not an indicator of their true persona.
Richard Wright's Native Son also demonstrates the importance of understanding environmental factors. The black protagonist, Bigger Thomas, accidentally suffocates a young woman and then tries to hide the accident. After a long chase, he is eventually caught and convicted of murder. Pressured by the townspeople, the judge sentences Bigger to death. Prejudicial views prevented society from understanding the actual circumstances behind the death.
I have also witnessed the importance of recognizing another's motives. While waiting in line for tickets to a concert, a young man approached the front of the line. A few members from the group ahead of me yelled for him to wait in line like everyone else. Then, an older lady came and led the man away by his hand. It was then that the others realized the man was mentally handicapped and did not notice the line. They became ashamed of their remarks and wished they had been more considerate from the beginning.
Thus, we must withhold judgment of others until we can understand and appreciate their true motives, for many actions can be justified under appropriate circumstances.
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<p>Thank you!</p>