In which Hank discusses that all too common question and why he doesn't like it and so rarely answers it.

What does the answer tell you? Really? Is it like a blind man asking my skin color? Is it someone trying to legitimize their own beliefs? Is it built into our genes?

Don't get me wrong, we're built to categorize. Being truly exceptional pattern recognizers is one of the reasons why we are the dominant species on the planet. We seek patterns my nature, but it's something that we should work against. When we are going out of our way to pull data points so that we can more easily shove people into little boxes, that's even worse than your normal sort of prejudice.

Frankly, upon meeting someone, I'd rather not know their politics, their religion, their upbringing.

We build our vision of other people from scratch, and when we pull these flawed first impressions from pattern bias, prejudice, and ingroup / outgroup bias, we do ourselves and those people significant disservice.


HERE ARE A LOT OF LINKS TO NERDFIGHTASTIC THINGS:

Shirts and Stuff: http://dftba.com/artist/30/Vlogbrothers
Hank's Music: http://dftba.com/artist/15/HankGreen
John's Books: http://amzn.to/j3LYqo

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Hank's Twitter:   / hankgreen  
Hank's Facebook:   / hankimon  
Hank's tumblr:   / edwardspoonhands  

John's Twitter:   / realjohngreen  
John's Facebook:   / johngreenfans  
John's tumblr:   / fishingboatproceeds  

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Other Channels
Crash Course:    / crashcourse  
SciShow:    / scishow  
Gaming:    / hankgames  
VidCon:    / vidcon  
Hank's Channel:    / hankschannel  
Truth or Fail:    / truthorfail  

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Nerdfighteria
http://effyeahnerdfighters.com/
http://effyeahnerdfighters.com/nftumblrs
  / nerdfighters  
http://nerdfighteria.info/

A Bunny
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