Labelling people

We love to put people into boxes and categorise things to make them easier to understand but labelling can also have harmful side effects.

So let's start with the positives. We use labels in order to identify people and create a mental file for them. It makes things easier if we have ascribed characteristics or traits we recognise to people because then we can differentiate and identify people. So we describe someone who breaks the law as a criminal or someone as a nurse because that is what they do.

All of us have plenty of labels attached to who we are. Have a think and write them down. Are you a parent, carer, sibling, employed, unemployed, socialist, conservative, atheist, muslim, etc etc?

Looking at your list does this sum up who you are? Of course not but it sometimes provides a useful framework for reference and I guess many of us introduce ourselves by using our labels.

We will walk into a business meeting and start with "I am a business owner and entrepreneur who likes working with teams" and that provides a reference point for the person you are talking to but it is not really your essence or the core of who you are.

Unfortunately labelling can also provide us with stereotypes and can lead to discrimination. So when I use the term criminal to describe someone people will conjure a mental image of a criminal and make associations which they will apply to the person concerned. That person may or may not fit the criteria but they are not a universal criminal.

When someone uses a term to describe someone else they need to be extremely careful to avoid pigeonholing and stereotypes. Labelling people with the same nationality, gender, religion can lead to prejudice and it is that which gives labels a bad name.

If someone says "women drivers" it does paint a picture which may be true of some women but not of others; it can also imply a shared perception between people and therefore be used to include you in a feeling about women groups which you do not necessarily share.  The effects of labelling are not trivial and we sometimes learn to apply labels others have given us in childhood with grave effects. I have known people who thought they were stupid simply because teachers told them so enough times and they were from the wrong area.

How often have you started a new job to be told about people on the first day so that you are not allowed to form your own opinions? Sometimes the labels get attached to managers or staff and it is what I call impression management where people try to get everyone to share their own perceptions.

When we assess our employees, meet new people and go somewhere new a positive thing to practice is to understand our own inner use of labels and to try to avoid using them. People should be allowed to express themselves as individuals and live their own lives free from the negative effect of labels and nurtured to be different and unique in their own inimitable way.