1. DO NOW! (7 min) (Don’t forget to use a complete sentence )
Is judging people based on their appearance part of human nature? Why or why not?
Draw on personal experience and your own understanding of human psychology to answer the question. Be specific if you choose to give an example.

2. Tell me something that might be true about this man’s personality based on this photograph…

3. So what you just did was make an inference …
Let me walk you through my thinking steps as I make an inference …

4. My definition …
When we make inferences, we use our observations and our previous knowledge in order to draw POSSIBLE conclusions based on what we’ve observed.
For example: If one of your friends constantly cries and talks about feeling hopeless … what might you infer?

5. So … what is the key difference between drawing a conclusion and making an inference?
Inference: Marla constantly talks about feeling hopeless; she might be depressed.
Conclusion: Marla constantly talks about feeling hopeless; she must be depressed.
I think

6. So … what is the key difference between drawing a conclusion and making an inference?
Inference: Marla constantly talks about feeling hopeless; I think she might be depressed.
Conclusion: Marla constantly talks about feeling hopeless; she must be depressed.
An inference need only be plausible and it may or may not be true; conclusions are more concrete and generally require stronger evidence.

7. Let’s try to make inferences about a few people based solely on their appearance …
Guidelines:
Focus on the single most striking feature of the person’s appearance.
Try to articulate (explain) what that feature could possibly tell us about that person’s personality (Ex: She’s probably a pretty mean person because she appears to be punching a baby).
Try to infer what that person might do for a living based on how they look and dress (Ex: I think he might be a rapper because he’s flashing crazy bling and he’s got a music note tattooed on his face).
Try to infer what groups that person might belong to and explain your reasoning (Ex: He’s probably a college student because he’s carrying several large books but he looks too old to be in high school).

13. Which of the people would you most/least like to hang out with??

14. Which of these people do you think is a serial killer?

15. Which of these people do you think is HIV positive?

16. Cocaine addict?

17. Let’s try something different …

18. Do you think this couple will stay together forever? Why?

19. What about now? Why?

20. What are these people talking about?

21. Who is more intelligent?

22. Who is more innocent?

23. Do these two people really know one another or are they just actors?

24. What is similar about these two people?

25. What is different about these two people?

26. What type of person do you think this ad campaign is targeted at? Why?

27. So what did we learn?
For class: Sometimes inferences are wrong … and that’s okay. If your inferences are rooted in the facts (the evidence, the text, etc.) then it’s okay if an inference is occasionally wrong. As you gain more practice, you will become better and better at uncovering the truth …
The Big Picture: Often times, we can form initial opinions of people based on little more than their appearance; oftentimes, we are incorrect in our assumptions.