Why do we judge people?

I found this while looking online it is a piece a reported wrote, on the way we judge people. Also the discrimitation people have in the work place (in America). I find it interesting as i have done this myslef and why we do it, i dont no. ?

How many times do any of us go out and about, see some random individual, and leap to some kind of conclusion about their personality or character based upon what we see in just those few short seconds? Example: The tall kid over there must play basketball or that guy wearing female pants is either homosexual or in a hurry when he left his girlfriends place. Look at that woman's cleavage, she must put out. Hey, that Mexican guy must speak Spanish, etc.
If we are at all honest with ourselves I would be willing to bet that the answer to that question is all of the time. But why do we do it? Is it because we have to categorize people, or fit them into some kind of classification system? Who knows, we just do. I try not to when I see or meet someone for the first time, but every now and again I just leap to a conclusion about that person. Sometimes I am right, sometimes wrong. The fact that I make those kinds of judgments at all is wrong.
This is not only a local phenomenon, it happens all over America. So much so that studies have be done on the subject. A recent poll taken about appearance based discrimination in the workplace produced these results.
•39 percent said employers should have the right to deny employment to someone based on appearance, including weight, clothing, piercing, body art, or hair style.
•33 percent said that in their own workplace, workers who are physically attractive are more likely to be hired and promoted.
•33 percent said workers who are unattractive, overweight, or generally look or dress unconventionally, should be given special government legal protection such as that given persons with disabilities.
•Of the 39 percent who said employers should have the right to deny employment based on looks, men outnumbered women 46 percent to 32 percent while whites outnumbered nonwhites 41 percent to 24 percent.
•Those having personal experience with the matter produced this information. Almost 16 percent said they had been the victim of appearance-based discrimination.
•Of those, 38 percent said the discrimination was based on their overall appearance while 31 percent said it was their weight and 14 percent said it was a reaction to their hairstyle.
•33 percent of those saying they had been discriminated against said it was for some other reason.
Ideally we should just be open to new people and ideas so when we meet someone, let them show us who they are. Unfortunately that is not the way things work out. Everybody has that friend who upon meeting somebody at the same time as you that will make comments about them, usually after this individual has left. "I can't believe they dress like that," or "what is with that hair" are among some of the comments I have heard and said in these situations. If you do not have a friend like this then you probably are that person.
I do not like that when I make these assumptions about others, and laugh when they are made about me. Because you never can tell what another person is going to be like.
Many of the people I have known, and regularly associate with, for at least a year are to this day surprising me with different aspects of their personalities. You never know what any given person is like. Everybody deserves a chance to show that they are either a good person or not, that they are smart or stupid, and don't worry if you do leap to some kind of conclusion about a person you meet, you are only human after all. That is my excuse.