Now, after the video of …[Susan B0yle’s] performance went viral, a flurry of commentary has focused on how we stereotype people into categories, how we fall victim to the prejudices of ageism or look-ism, and how we should learn, once and for all, not to judge books by their covers.<\/p>\n
But many social scientists and others who study the science of stereotyping say there are reasons we quickly size people up based on how they look. Snap judgments about people are crucial to the way we function, they say \u201d\u201d even when those judgments are very wrong.<\/p>\n
They would even agree with Ms. Boyle herself, who said after her performance that while society is too quick to judge people by appearance, \u201cThere is not much you can do about it; it is the way they think; it is the way they are.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n