Earlier this month, Michael Phelps, the record-gold-medal-winning athlete of the 2008 Summer Olympics, was photographed inhaling something -- marijuana? -- from a bong. The photograph went viral on the internet, and became a widely discussed topic. Phelps apologized.
Some commentators wrote that he is only 23, others that he doesn't owe us an apology. Still another pointed out that, "this wasn't the first time" that Phelps reportedly had trouble with drugs and alcohol.
USA Swimming suspended Phelps for 3 months. Kellogg's Cereals dropped him as a spokesperson -- but Subway, the sandwich chain kept him on. (See this Psych Today post on the Kellogg's boycott).
Michael Phelps is a young man who gave US citizens a reason to be proud during the Beijing Olympics, at a time (such as now) our international stature was uncertain, our economy was challenged and there was plenty of room for second-guessing the nations' behavior at home and abroad.
Judgments of another's personality involve two sides: the judge and the person judged. Such judgments are "hot" -- in the sense that they concern information that influences the status of each side.
Like the parent and the child, the teacher and the student, the jailer and the prisoner, Michael Phelps and his fans are intertwined in ways not-so-easy to untangle. When people judge someone who they admire as much as Michael Phelps, the judgment affects the person doing the judging as well as the person who is judged.
Judgments of this young man affect our view of ourselves and our view of how good it is possible to be. They affect our views of institutions and organizations such as the Olympics, Kellogg's, Subway, and the United States, all of which gained in small ways given their association with Phelps' admirable performance.
Perhaps that interconnectedness between the person judged, the person judging, and their associated groups, is why so many wisdom traditions encourage us to judge with care.
When we judge a person for making the mistake that Phelps has appeared to make, are we implying that we expect no mistakes from our young people? When we devote so much media attention to a mis-step do we not, in some way, equate the mistake with the achievement? Phelps' achievements deserve measurement on a better scale than that.
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