This reminds me of a problem I have in my day to day life, where I am told something negative about such and such person's character/ability/personality and I i

This reminds me of a problem I have in my day to day life, where I am told something negative about such and such person's character/ability/personality and I immediately subconsciously accept this as an absolute fact, even when I've never met this person! (one example I can think of is believing hearsay personality portrayals of Joe Lonsdale online. I've never met the guy so who knows what he's actually like!) Still looking for the best ways to counteract this flinch reaction I seem to have of hearing hearsay about a person.