Who Are You Calling Judgy?

We’ve never had so many opinions about so many things. As research reveals being judgemental could be a sign of deeper negativity, let’s unravel the psychology of cynicism

- Kate Leaver

There’s a certain arch of an eyebrow that has the power to convey a thousand words. Get caught in the act and you might be able to pass it off as a facial twitch, but meet the eye of the person it was intended for and it will render words redundant. If judgement has a face, then this is it.

Right now, that brow is on track to develop a serious case of RSI. We’re at it all day long, forming opinions and passing judgement on just about everything and everyone, from their choice of partner and taste in clothes to their political beliefs. When you’re scrolling through a schoolfriend’s wedding pics (wait, she married him?); when you nearly click reply all on an email correcting someone’s grammar (I think you’ll find it’s ‘their’); when the person in front of you at the checkout is stocking up on all the cheese (er, ever heard of macros?). If 2018 had a hobby, being judgemental would be it. And it probably won’t surprise you to learn that, despite the instant deliciousness of a smirk, it’s not doing anyone much good.

Judgement day Like most of our basic instincts, evolution has had a hand in priming us for finding fault, before society and technology then ramped up the gears. In a study published in The Journal of Neuroscience, researchers scanned the brains of participants as they were shown a series of faces for about 30 milliseconds each. They found that certain areas of the amygdala – responsible for the processing of emotions such as fear – were activated based on perception of the trustworthiness of the faces. This ancient brain circuitry reveals just how natural it is for us humans to critique; to assess the safety of a situation as primitive beings.