Reflection: Facilitating Social Thinking and Judgments
Facilitating our activity on Social Thinking and Judgments was not something I experienced from a distance—I lived it. Ironically, on the day we were assigned to guide others through concepts like attribution, first impressions, and cognitive biases, I was physically unwell. My body felt heavy, my head throbbed, and my energy was low. Yet, I showed up. While facilitating, I caught myself making silent assumptions too. When someone seemed distracted, my first thought was that they were not listening. When someone answered confidently, I assumed they understood deeply. But the lesson itself reminded me about the fundamental attribution error—that we often attribute others’ behavior to personality rather than situation. Just as they could have misjudged my tiredness as laziness, I could have misjudged their silence as indifference.
Being sick during the facilitation forced me to confront how much we hide behind appearances. I had to push through discomfort to maintain composure, smile, and lead discussions. In that moment, I realized how often we underestimate what others are carrying. We judge the visible performance without knowing the invisible struggle. Social thinking happens instantly, but understanding takes effort.