Perception - a human condition
The way we perceive the world is open to interpretation. While one person may see a familiar neighborhood with their friends and relatives living close by another will perceive it as unfamiliar possibly hostile territory. Today will will investigate how perception is modified through fact versus fiction, knowledge and concept.
Fact versus Fiction
October 1987 will always be remembered as the month when the stock markets crashed. Billions of dollars were wiped out and businesses riding high on a sea of credit were soon bankrupt. Shown below is a graph of the Dow Jones Industrial Average during the collapse. However there is one subtle flaw in it. Can you spot it?
So what was the flaw in the graph? Put simply the data is pure garbage. It was randomly generated in a spreadsheet and apart from the downward trend it has no other relevance to the actual stock market data. By our very nature we are trusting and willing to give anyone the benefit of the doubt as long as there is no reason to question them. When you are presented with a professional looking document you tend to accept it. When told that there is a subtle flaw in it you are likely to accept this too. The information given to you about a given situation is likely to color your perception.
Knowledge
Take a look at the illusion presented below and see if you can guess which line is longer.
This is similar to a famous illusion devised by Italian psychologist Mario Ponzo that a lot of you may already be familiar with. If you answered that both lines are the same length you probably did so remembering the same type of illusion you saw as a child. We expect the top line to look longer although we know in reality they are both supposed to be the same length. However this is a modified version of the illusion and the top line is in fact longer than the bottom line. Knowledge can be a dangerous thing especially when it leads to assumptions.
Concept
Every minute of every day we look at the world and analyze it. We subconsciously develop rules about how the world operates and what it looks like. Anything out of the ordinary immediately draws suspicion. Take for example the photos below. The bottom two photos are mirror images of half of the top photo. Even though they are mirror images of the same person somehow they just don't look right. The exactness of each half of the face doesn't fit with the thousands of faces we have seen and scrutinized during our life. Based on that previous experience we have developed a concept of what is correct and what is incorrect.
Conclusion
Perception is a mixture of what we are told about the situation, what knowledge we have about such situations and the concept we have formed regarding it. As a result no two people have the same perception and this is how it should be as we are all individuals and unique.
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