{"id":467486,"date":"2026-10-16T04:22:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T04:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/467486\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T04:22:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T04:22:07","slug":"judgment-isnt-a-personality-trait-the-daily-texan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/467486\/","title":{"rendered":"Judgment isn\u2019t a personality trait \u2013 The Daily Texan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Judgment<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe she posted that on her public Instagram.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou actually like that band?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot to be like that, but his major isn\u2019t a real major.\u201d<\/p>\n

How many times have we all heard someone pick apart somebody\u2019s music taste, relationship, looks or major within seconds of it coming up in conversation? These quips happen so often and so fast we don\u2019t even register it as unkind \u2014 whether it\u2019s aimed at us or someone else.<\/p>\n

Being critical has become synonymous with being witty or interesting among young people, and UT students are no exception; it\u2019s made social interactions more exhausting than they need to be.<\/p>\n

We feel the need to have a \u201ctake\u201d on everything rather than just enjoying it. We judge people\u2019s hobbies, interests or even excitement about things. This is a pattern, not a one-off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI totally have those friends where, because \u2018it\u2019s only a joke,\u2019 they feel like they can say certain things when really, at the end of the day \u2026 it\u2019s not funny,\u201d biology junior Ruby Beck said.<\/p>\n

Unlike enthusiasm, being critical doesn\u2019t cost anything. In fact, it reads as discerning. Enthusiasm requires caring about something and, worst of all for people our age, risking looking uncool. However, shared disdain is the easiest way to bond with others. It\u2019s much lower effort to nod in agreement that something was cringe or ugly instead of convincing everyone it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo people can use criticism of another person to show that they are on the same team,\u201d sociology professor Robert Crosnoe wrote in an email. \u201cIt is less about the criticism of the (other) and more about the connection between the two.\u201d<\/p>\n

We sit together rolling our eyes at everything and call it having taste just so we are able to do it together.<\/p>\n

It all comes back to social comparison theory<\/a> \u2014 the idea that people evaluate their personal and social worth by comparing themselves to others. Then, negativity bias<\/a> comes into play, which is the tendency people have to remember and register negative information, feedback and experiences more than positive ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe use social comparison to figure out who we are,\u201d Crosnoe wrote. \u201cSo if you are confronted with this kind of negativity, it could affect how you view yourself in harmful ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

UT is full of chances to meet new people and try new things, so this judgmental culture comes at the loss of other positive experiences. It makes earnestness feel risky. You feel like you have to hold back your interests or excitement because you\u2019re bracing for someone to mock them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s at least one person I know that\u2019s gonna judge or say something rude about something new I do or try, then I probably won\u2019t do it, which sucks,\u201d Beck said. \u201cEven if there\u2019s 100 people that are positive about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not all criticism is bad, and honest feedback can be helpful, but there is a difference between sincere input and people who think judgment is a personality trait.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many people, the pain of losing exceeds the magnitude of the joy of gaining,\u201d Crosnoe wrote.<\/p>\n

Default negativity toward everything and everyone doesn\u2019t make you better. It just makes you closed off to positivity. Choosing curiosity over criticism may cost the small price of effort and the risk of being uncool, but college is the one time in your life you have adult freedom to try new things while still being young enough for it all to be low stakes.<\/p>\n

Thakkar is a government junior from Winter Park, Florida.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI can\u2019t believe she posted that on her public Instagram.\u201d \u201cYou actually like that band?\u201d \u201cNot to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-467486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}