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I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt.
I find that preconceived notions can lead you to think wrongly of people. Even first impressions can be misleading. You can spend years thinking poorly of people only to find out that they are actually decent human beings.
I tend to reserve judgement. However, when that judgement is made, it's difficult to work your way around it. If I deem someone to be ignorant or otherwise an ass, I don't have many reasons why I should change my mind.
However, there are exceptions. Sometimes someone comes across as being an ass because they're having a bad day, or because of some life crisis they're hiding. Or maybe they're just prejudging you and they think you're an ass without knowing any better, so why should the open up or be nice to you? If you catch them at another time or in a different context, you get below that surface and find out they're decent.
Human interactions were never easy I don't think.
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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