why do people have double standards

Whenever i Learn more about psychology i discover that people are anything but rational. Ask any person if he believes whether he judges others fairly or not and most probably you will find him believing that he is doing it right.

Now watch how the same person labels others, judges them and stereotypes them and you will discover that he was anything but fair.

Why do people have double standards?
Why would someone accept a behavior from a person but calls it unacceptable when another person does it?

In order to know the answer to this question you have first to understand how human beings think.

How double standards emerge

This is why so many people have double standards:

1) People find excuses for themselves: People always try to find excuses for themselves to explain why they are doing what they are doing. When someone insults another the later feels bad but when the later insults a third person he claims that he did it because that person deserved it. "He is mean and that's the truth so its OK to insult him" This is a perfect example of an excuse that a person can come up with to support his wrong actions (see also Why do people judge me)
2) Their emotions affect the way they judge others: If you like someone then most probably you will ignore his small mistakes on intention. Now if a person that you hate did the same mistake you might find yourself furious. The reason this happens is that we evaluate the actions of the people we interact with based on who did them. (see Why do people judge others)
3) People lie to themselves: In my previous article How people lie to themselves i explained how people twist facts to support their beliefs. If you believe that a person is bad then you might start judging him in a much more harsh way than the way you judge others. Most People do whatever it takes to support their beliefs even if they had to lie
4) Physical attractiveness and double standards: Most people treat attractive or desirable people in a way that is different than the way they treat others with. some studies have even shown that more attractive people are more likely to get jobs and to earn more than less attractive ones (see my book Physical attraction psychology)
5) Most People want to be right: The desire to be right is very powerful that it drives so many people to argue even when they know they are wrong. That same desire might force people to judge the ones they dislike differently just to prove that they were right when they hated them (see also The psychology of self deception)

Why don't people feel guilty when they judge others incorrectly?

Now the important question that might have came to your mind is: Why don't the people who have double standards feel guilty?

The answer is very simple; Those people don't feel guilty because the excuses they provide to their subconscious minds are usually more than enough to prevent it from sending them emotions of guilt.

In other words people don't just lie to themselves by developing double standards but they also believe in the lie so deeply that they don't feel guilty.

Before you start pointing fingers to others you should examine the way you judge others and find out whether you have double standards as well or not.

People who don't understand how others perceive physical attraction usually develop the imagined ugliness disorder.

The book The psychology of physical attraction explained was released by 2knowmyself. This book won't just help you understand how the attraction process happens but it will also help you discover how attractive you are and will assist you in getting over the imagined ugliness problem.

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