What’s your favorite color? Oh it’s blue! Are those peppers spicy? Nah, those aren’t spicy at all. These are all examples of personal judgment, or the amount of favor given to a specific subject. The short story Miss Awful by Arthur Cavanaugh is about a strict substitute teacher who is teaching a group of children. The group of children think the teacher is extremely evil and cruel, but in reality, the teacher is just trying to instruct them on how to be civilized. The only reason the students judged the substitute with such hate is because their original teacher is extremely nice. In many informative pieces and reality, it is obvious people judge with comparison.
The original teacher of this story is called Mrs. Wilson. Mrs. Wilson was extremely nice to the point which her students took advantage of her. Many of her students did not even complete their homework because they knew they would not be disciplined. When the substitute teacher, Ms. Orville came along, every single student thought the teacher was mean. This is because the students are accustomed to experiencing niceness, and they are comparing their two teachers. If Ms. Orville was the first teacher they ever had, they would see Ms. Orville as the middle ground. In this case, the students would think every teacher is relatively nice. In a video showcasing Elon Musk explaining tips for success, one of his reasons was to create products much better than one’s competitors. Suppose company A is an old company which everyone goes to and trusts. Then one day, company B opens up, and presents astronomically better products. To begin, most of the people would see company A as the middle ground because it is the place they always go to. Once they start buying products from company B, company A will be pushed down into the bad category, and company B will become the new middle ground. Creating a much better product is crucial in order to put weight on competitors and bring oneself into the spotlight. Not only is this concept presented in writing and videos, it is also shown all throughout real life.
Getting sick is something everyone hates. Imagine a sickness scale from 0 to 10. The larger the number, the more severe the sickness. In many of the common diseases, the severeness increases very quickly, then slowly recovers. The sick individual will keep feeling more and more sick until one has reached the peak. When their sickness progresses from 0 to 1, they say their condition is terrible, and same for when it progresses from 5 to 6. Once their condition has reached the peak and is starting to recover, they still start to say that they are feeling good. Once one considers both cases it is easy to realize that a person at sickness 6 might “feel better” than the same person at sickness 2. This occurs because the increase from 1 to 2 feels terrible, however, the decreases from 7 to 6 feels wonderful. At the San Francisco Exploratorium, there is a station that explains how people perceive temperature with comparisons. The station had three pipes with distinct temperatures. One was cold, one was at room temperature, and one was hot. When somebody places their hands on the cold pipe then moves to the RM (room temperature pipe), or when someone changes pipes from RM to hot, one feels that the RM and hot pipe, respectively, are the same temperature. Additionally, when someone transitions from the hot pipe to the RM, or from the RM to the cold pipe, one feels that the RM and the cold pipe, respectively, have the same temperatures. Additionally, Andrew Wang TM said that people judge water temperature by the temperature of the air. This is because it the water is colder than the air, one will think the water is cold, and if the water is warmer than the air, one will think the water is warmer. This can cause someone to believe a body of water at a higher temperature is colder than that of a colder temperature just by changing the temperature of the air. Also a common feeling that time is flying faster and faster each year is because of this concept. A year passing for a baby will feel much longer than a year passing for the baby’s grandmother, but in reality, they both experienced the same amount of time. These are just a few of the many ways this concept is presented in real life.
In conclusion, the way us humans judge certain occurrences is all by comparison. This concept is presented almost everywhere, from writing to videos to movies to real life. Judgment by comparison can also be deceiving in many ways. Albert Einstein is the creator of the Theory of Relativity, and says that, “Everything is relative.” When one looks closer at the Theory of Relativity, one realizes that it simply means that people judge with comparison.