The Label Shift

TL;DR

The labels we place on others affect our choice to connect or disconnect with them. God is calling us to love and connect with others. We must shift our labels to humanize them and remove the bias friction that keeps us from loving them.

Bias

We are all biased. Yes, that includes you, if you're human. (Come to think of it, bots and AI agents are biased too...)

If we weren't biased, we wouldn't be alive. Functional biases are beneficial and keep us from wrecking our cars, getting conned, scorching our hand on a hot burner, among many other things. Functional biases help us not die and also be unique personalities. Distortive biases are where things go really wrong. This is what produces prejudice, tribalism, and stereotypes. Bad biases separate humans, and sometimes kill humans.

Labels

At the core of our biases are labels. Labels make our brains happy because they help us quickly detect threats, notice inconsistencies, and recognize patterns in life. Labels are all about speed. The more labels we use, the quicker we can think about someone or something. We can really get into the weeds about how labels work, so I want to scope the remainder of this reading to our labels we put on other people.

Our people labels typically center around ethnicity, nationality, politics, possessions, abilities, behaviors, preferences, etc. Our brains use these labels to optimize how we interact with others. Are they like me? Are they in my group? Are they competent? Are they safe? Are they right? Based on these conclusions, we either connect or disconnect from others.

Why We Label Others

Every person assigns labels in a variety of contexts to others. We rely on those labels to quickly identify whether a person is a friend or a foe. Unfortunately, this can disconnect us from others prematurely without any critical thinking.

The problem with our people labels is that they are sticky. Not the Post-it® Note kind of sticky, but the "you've left your car on the side of the road too long fluorescent tow sticker on the windshield" kind of sticky. Removing a cognitive label is more like peeling a TJ Maxx price tag that comes off in four thousand pieces, or having to use a razor and GooGone. This is why we say, "People don't change" or "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."

For decades, scientists have studied the effects of attributing labels to people or groups. Here are some interesting effects they've observed:

The Halo Effect

The Halo effect is when we see a positive trait about someone and label them accordingly. The studied label is perceived beauty. If a person is pre-labeled as attractive, that becomes their 'halo'. We tend to see all of their other traits as positive. We see their actions or decisions as more moral or ethical while overlooking their negative traits because we've labeled them with a primary positive label. Think of a golden child whose naïve parents think can do no wrong.

The Horn Effect

On the inverse, the Horn effect is when we label someone's negative trait and attribute that negativity to every part of who they are. We only see them wearing a set of horns. We easily overlook their positive traits because we've labeled them with a primary negative label. Think about the label 'felon' in our society. It's nearly impossible to overcome, even if the person is truly innocent.

Stereotypes

These effects also function at the group level. Primary negative or positive labels of a group force our brains to quickly judge if someone in the group is good or bad. These group generalizations are what we call stereotypes. They are harmful all around. Think about the story of Jonah and Nineveh. Jonah stereotyped an entire group of people based on their past and believed them to be irredeemable. It took an act of God to get Jonah to obey God. The story ends with him clinging to his labels.

The Primary Label

Because we read left-to-right in English, the label to the left is primary. Whatever label we stick on a human gives them a 'halo' or 'horns'. Based on that primary label, we choose to connect or disconnect with them. Humans are valuable to God, no matter what their past or present actions look like. His blood can redeem any human. The Apostle Paul was very aware of this.

Read this list of primary labels, and be aware of how it makes you feel. Your brain is about to ping-pong between quick judgments about others at the speed of reading.

Now read this one label.

It's the only label that fits everyone in the crazy list above. Everyone is a human. Say it out loud, "They are human."

God loves humans.

We are called to love humans, no matter how society labels them.

Our primary labels tell us what we are pro- and what we are anti-. As believers, if we love God, we have to be pro-human.

Shifting Our Labels To The Right

Can we love people faster than our brains use our labels to judge them? I think we can with the love of God. But first, we must shift our labels to the right and replace our primary label with one that aligns with God's heart for people – human. It has to become muscle memory.

Here are a few examples of shifting our primary labels to the right:

• She is a human that happens to be –> __________ (insert ethnicity)
• He is a human that happens to hold –> _____________ political views
• They are humans that are from the country of –> ____________.
• He is a human that happens to prefer –> ______________ behavior.
• She is a human that was –> convicted of _____________.

Did you see that? When we classify someone as human first, we have to step over their humanity to disconnect with them on a secondary label. It doesn't mean we have to agree with their behaviors or views (past or present), but we must love them because they are made in the image of God.

As an aside, I absolutely love this video.

Paul emphasized that labels should not separate us in the Kingdom of God.

To address the elephant in the room, we are not required to have a relationship with everyone in the world. But we are called to reach them with the Gospel. Certainly evil exists, and we must identify it. At times, we must disconnect from those that mean us and God's church harm. However, shifting our labels allows us to separate evil from humanity to see God's redemption that is available for all, even the worst of us. Even in times of correction and Godly judgment, we can still be aware that we are dealing with humans that God loves. If we stop separating humanity from their brokenness, we can easily find ourselves in their same situation.

Conclusion

Get the scraper out, and be gentle. Start scraping off the labels you've plastered on people. It's going to take a lot of prayer and realignment with the Word of God. It might take some conversations where we ask for forgiveness. It's going to take courage, that's for sure. It's going to look weird to others. Let God open doors you never thought could or should be opened and see what amazing things He wants to do when we put down our label guns.

Let’s make people human again.

Further Study:

• Social Identity Theory
• Attribution Theory
• The Horn Effect
• Thinking Fast and Slow - Fast thinking relies on biases
• The Halo Effect