Seek to Understand, Then Be Understood 🦋

We're all guilty of dehumanization. We all fall prey to dehumanizing others in subtle, everyday ways. The most common way we do this is by assuming others’ minds are less sophisticated than our own. Assuming the minds of other people aren’t as human as yours is. You never know what is actually going through someone's mind, so you have to construct a theory of what is. People subconsciously assume that others may be inferior, immoral, and out of touch with reality. Our brains are just wired to react this way when we think that someone seems different from us, either physically or psychologically. Failing to see the full humanity of someone would obviously get in the way of understanding them; if you begin the interaction assuming there’s no mind there to understand (or that it’s quite impoverished compared to yours), you’ll blow them off entirely. Seek to understand, then be understood. You can't expect someone to take your feelings, thoughts, behaviors, values, etc. into consideration unless you take theirs into consideration as well. - 𝒥ꫀꪀꪀꪖ ♡