Assumptions, false and true

We make a lot of assumptions about the people around us. Based on available information, we try to "figure out" the people around us. Last week, I was looking at our car through the eyes of a stranger (don't ask), and I saw some interesting things. I imagine that people make assumptions about us when they see our car.

The problem is, I bet that in many cases those assumptions are actually incorrect.

Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

Consider the following attributes (for lack of a better word) of our car.

• Opener on driver's front visor.
• License plate cover written in Russian.
• Orange spiral-bound hymnal in back window.
• Car-seat base in middle-position in back seat.
• CD holder on visor on passenger side.
• Current BYU Graduate Student parking permit on front window.
  

Based on these attributes, you might make the following assumptions about the car owner(s):

• Owner lives in a home (hence the garage-door opener).
• Owner is LDS (hence the LDS hymnbook in back window).
• Owner has at least one young child (hence the car seat).
• Owner, probably male, served an LDS mission to Russia (combination of hymnbook and Russian license plate).
• Owner is probably plural (owners), and they are probably married (due to assumed LDS status, license plate cover, and car-seat combination).
• The female owner probably has a church calling where she plays the piano or organ (hence the spiral-bound hymnal).
• Owner likes to listen to a variety of CDs on any given trip (hence the plethora of CDs in the visor).
• Male owner is a graduate student at BYU (due to parking sticker, and due to evidence of young child at home).
  

If you made these assumptions about us, you'd be kind of correct. The truth is:

• This owner lives in a condo, with a restricted access gate, hence the gate opener (not a garage-door opener after all).
• This owner is indeed LDS.
• This owner does indeed have one small child. Young enough that his car seat has a separate base station for the car.
• These owners are indeed plural, and married. :)
• The male owner didn't serve a mission to Russia. That would be the female owner. (It was the male owner, however, who talked the female owner into buying the license plate cover. After she translated it for him (It says: "I may drive slowly, but I'm in front of you." My mother thinks this is very funny.)).
• While the female owner does play the piano, it is the male owner who is the ward organist (in addition to being the Elder's Quorum President; this is because the other organist in the ward is the Bishop).
• While the owners used to listen to a wide variety of music on any given trip, now they just listen to Hawaiian music, in order to entertain the young Kiddo in the back seat. In particular, he likes the song "Somewhere over the Rainbow," Hawaiian version. That's pretty much the only song we listen to in the car anymore.
• The male owner is not a graduate student. The female owner, however, will graduate with her Master's degree later this month (congratulations dear!).

It is interesting to consider the false assumptions I'd make about myself if I were looking at my car from the outside. Chances are, I make similar false (and true) assumptions about people all the time.

That is, after all, why they are assumptions. Based on your life experience and the evidence at hand. Even if it is misleading.