First Impressions Matter. They’re Also Incomplete

Trinity College courses are allowing students to explore identity as part of the human experience.

A collage of images depicting university life

This is a summary of a story by Cara August and Elizabeth Richardson Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.

While first impressions matter, they can lead to assumptions, snap judgments and a surface-level view of what we think makes a person tick.

In the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, students are learning to dive much deeper and employ nuance, context, culture, history and close listening to better understand another person’s identity.

In several Trinity classes, students learn identity is not a label but a complex, changing part of the human experience. To understand a person, you need to look, listen, pay attention and understand. We’re all works in progress.

In a new Century Course in the philosophy department, students employ ethics, decision-making, logic and human behavior, asking deep questions before reaching conclusions. What seems fair at first glance? How does a choice that helps one person hurt another?

“Paradoxes give students a reason to pause,” says Katherine Brading, professor and chair of the philosophy department. “They show how easy it is to move from an assumption to a conclusion without noticing the steps in between.”

In another course, The Self and Social Identities, psychologist Sarah Gaither starts with one simple premise: Identity is complicated. Her students ponder how their own identities as well as their perceptions of others shape behavior.

On the first day, students create “identity tents,” decorating them with symbols to help tell their personal stories and answer questions about what they chose to reveal — and what they didn’t.

“Even how we introduce ourselves can tell a story,” Gaither said. 

While these and other courses tackle disparate topics, the common goal is to equip students with the ability to understand nuance, ask smart questions and listen before drawing conclusions.

Read the full story for more.