One of the biggest flaws in human psychology is that our understanding of the world is severely limited by our own perspective. We interact with the world as though we have full comprehension of everything in it, when in fact our tiny little sliver of ‘reality’ is a mere drop in the ocean of all there is to be seen, experienced and known. Yet that doesn’t stop us from taking that 1% or 5% of the picture we have access to and proceeding as though it were a complete and universal truth. It’s sort of like trying to discern the full picture of a 2,000 piece jigsaw puzzle when we only have 15 or 20 scattered pieces to go by, and someone threw away the box with its picture.
Our perception of the world is NEVER complete, and so the judgments we form about the people, things and situations we encounter are always somewhat (or an awful lot) wrong. What we don’t know or fail to perceive might completely change our outlook on any given situation.
Failing to grasp the limits of our own perspective leads people into foolish, self-defeating behavior on a regular basis. It gets in the way of empathy and leads to unnecessary conflict. A lack of perspective is preventing us from finding productive solutions to the problems that plague society. It’s also responsible for much of the mental anguish people endure.
On a more positive note, learning to embrace the limits of your perspective can be the most liberating thing you’ll ever do in your life. It frees us from all those thought prisons and mental chains that trap us in self-defeating ways of thinking. it broadens one’s sense of possibility, making the world a more inclusive and accommodating place. The actions of others seem far less sinister, and hurtful deeds are robbed of much of their power.
The limits of human perception
Just how limited is your perspective? Far more limited than most people presume. To illustrate just how incomplete your picture of the world truly is, let’s briefly explore some of the factors that are distorting your views on a daily basis.
At the outset, our perception is narrowed by the limited amount of information we’re cognizant of. Even when we’re a direct witness to a given situation, the brain takes in around 2 billion bits of sensory information per second. But it can process only around 2,000 bits per second, and the mind selectively chooses which to focus on based on what it presumes to be important. That’s a lot of information lost, and so even when it comes to those things we directly experience, we’re never taking in the full picture. We’re selectively focusing on bits and pieces to the exclusion of others, then filling in the blanks to formulate a coherent perception of the world. This is why eyewitnesses to a particular event will inevitably differ quite a bit in the stories they tell afterwards: Each will have focused on different aspects and interpreted the information in different ways.
After taking in a tiny fraction of the world around you, your brain then sorts and filters this information according to its preconceived notions. “The brain does not passively receive information,” note Allan Snyder, Sophie Ellwood an Richard Chi. “It actively interprets what we think of as our raw experience in light of past knowledge. Two people looking at the same cloud formation, for example, may form completely different impressions of the patterns in the vapor: The ultrasound technician may see a diseased gall bladder, whereas the portrait painter may observe a dignified face.” (Snyder, Ellwood & Chi, 2012)
Next come all those factors that shape our understanding of the world around us, the biggest one being our bank of knowledge (or lack thereof). The world is a big and complicated place, and despite what our brains might con us into believing, we do not, in fact, know it all. We barely even know enough to say we know a little. It’s not even possible for a mortal human to read enough to truly comprehend the nuances of every single relevant topic in the world around them, and there are many things that are simply unknowable, such as what people are thinking, what their intentions might be, or what the future holds in store. Like the event horizon on a black hole, a great deal of knowledge simply lies beyond our grasp.
Yet this lack of knowledge doesn’t stop us from forming perceptions of the world and then proceeding as though these perceptions represented a gospel truth. We presume to know others without understanding their past and the various influences that landed them where they are today. We judge people without understanding their motivations or circumstances. We go to the polls to vote without knowing the complicated nuances of the issues we’re voting upon. We take action without knowing the web of unintended consequences our actions might bring. We take sides in issues, both in our personal lives and on the world stage, without any firsthand knowledge of the subject, and certainly without the type of varied knowledge from all different angles that would give us a well-rounded view. We make predictions about the future, presuming to know exactly how things will turn out, and then behave as though these forecasts were fact.
On top of all the things we don’t know or don’t pay attention to, our perceptions are further bent according to a number of powerful influences:
Experience: What you have and haven’t experienced skews your perspective. Are fathers loving people who offer comfort and support? Do they make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? Or are they hard, distant, callous figures who berate, ridicule and stir up feelings of contempt? Your previous experience in this area affects the type of calculations your brain makes in regards to a broad array of situations, and this is just one of the thousands of experience-based anchor points that guide our thinking below the level of conscious awareness.
Culture: We are born into a specific culture with a particular set of rules and ideas governing it, providing a type of scaffolding for the world as we know it. It’s hard to overstate the power of culture. Your culture tells you what to pursue and what to avoid, what’s “good” or “bad,” what you should value and what you should not, how you should think, what type of life you should live – culture has its fingerprints on every aspect of your existence. These things seem “natural’ to us because it’s all we’ve ever known. But change the culture and the nature of ‘reality’ drastically changes.
Social influences: What others tell us about our experiences (directly or indirectly) will distort the way we perceive them. Suggestions offered by others after the fact, even subtle and inadvertent ones, will alter your very memory of a person or experience, essentially changing the nature of ‘reality’ as it exists in one’s mind. We are not deciding our experiences so much as others are deciding them for us. Social influence is so powerful that people will even agree on an obviously wrong answer if there’s a consensus from the rest of the group that the wrong answer is correct.
Belief: Your personal beliefs distort your understanding of any given situation. We form beliefs about any number of things that become the metaprogram of one’s mind. Beliefs about right and wrong, beliefs about what’s worthwhile and good, beliefs about what character traits are admirable, beliefs about God (or the lack thereof); all of these act like a filter that we screen our experiences through. Take a single one of these beliefs, such as the belief in God and all the ideas woven around this principle. This anchor point can determine whether you see illness as a haphazard misfortune caused by pathogens…or a punishment from above. Your ideas about sex, suffering, sin, evil, good, bad, the value of life in the present world, even one’s very place in the universe – all of this is altered depending on what beliefs you’ve previously been indoctrinated into.
So tell me: After all these distortions, what do you think the chances are that you’re perceiving any situation clearly? By the time all is said and done, none of us are seeing the world how it truly is. We’re seeing wholly incomplete snapshots that have been heavily edited like stunt scenes in a movie. Each of us truly are living inside our own little version of reality.
For the ignorant and arrogant, differing perceptions can be a constant source of frustration. It keeps people locked into bitter conflict with the outside world, too stubborn to ever concede that what’s in their head does not represent a whole and universal truth.
If, on the other hand, we can embrace the idea that our perceptions are not fact, it frees us from the mental chains that keep us locked in conflict and suffering.
Information on the psychology of perception
For more information on perception and perspective, select from the following pages:
For an in-depth discussion of these principles, including an extensive examination of how knowledge alters perspective, get the eBook The Resilient Mind. It’s just $7.99, and all proceeds from your purchase go towards charitable causes.
References:
- Snyder, A.W, Ellwood, S., Chi, R. F. (2012) “Switching on creativity,,” Scientific American Mind, Nov./Dec., Vol. 23(5): 58-62
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