The Human Nature of Judgement

Mindfulness is often described as non-judgmental awareness of the present moment.

But the non-judgmental part of practicing mindfulness is tricky though, because we are wired to do a lot of judging. Traditionally, we think of judgment in terms of our interpersonal relationships; our tendency to judge a book by its cover. This is, in part, our brain’s way of keeping us alive and ticking. To the most basic parts of our brain, which still think we are roaming the plains, our social lives are about survival. In evolutionary terms, if you chose to run with the wrong crowd, the lions gonna get you!

So we tend to size up Joe Schmoe, who we’ve just met, subconsciously take into account all the times we’ve met Joe Schmoe-esque characters in our life and decide in a flash whether or not, in the simplest terms, Joe Schmoe is good or bad for us.

Nowadays, we live in quite a sensory & information rich world, certainly overwhelming compared to our ancestors’. So our brains need to use shortcuts to quickly judge the world around us in order to make decisions to get by. In the study of Psychology, shortcuts like these are called heuristics. One common example is our confirmation bias, the tendency to seek out information confirming what we already believe. This can restrict our openness to opinions that are not our own. And it can literally change how & what we hear other people are saying. Our perception can be altered, at times immensely, by our culture, our emotions, our opinions, our history, our trauma, our habits, etc.. If you’ve ever been in a relationship, you might know what that’s like…

These are just a couple examples of how our biology leads us to judgment, filtering awareness of the present moment with our preconceived notions.

It’s not an inherently bad thing. It’s human nature! But heavy dependence on the brain’s shortcut mechanisms can be limiting to our self-determination.

Cue mindfulness. It’s incredibly useful as a tool for bringing to light our learned patterns. To see where our, often deeply rooted, unconscious convictions take over and how they actually affect our lives, for better or for worse.

And it’s this special type of non-judgmental awareness that allows us to know our biases are there, without feeding them further. Accepting them, bringing understanding and compassion to our human experience, can free us from the tight grip of our biology and its inclination to judge. It creates space that we can use to our advantage.

We then gain more freedom to chose our actions, rather than resorting too often to learned reactions and conditioned interpretations of our experiences, without even knowing it. It’s the power to notice that you are judging Joe Schmoe because of the way he dresses, but making the choice to be fully open to getting to know him, nonetheless. It’s the power to notice that you are really only hearing your side of the story in an argument, and choosing to be open to another’s opinion. In these ways, and many more, it’s an incredibly empowering tool for building a healthier relationship with our minds, as well as for strengthening our relationships with others.