HOW OUR BRAINS DECEIVE US
Our brains are constantly filtering through an avalanche of stimuli and information. It ignores some information and pieces the important parts together to recreate what we know as reality. But what you think is reality, is often a lie.
Our reality (or more correctly our perception of reality) is influenced by the context around the information and our external environment. People recognise objects in their environment only in relation to other objects or reference points. These reference points can be internal or external reference points, such as our internal biases or the road in the image below.
When seeing is not believing
If you look at the image above, the dogs in the three images seem to be different sizes. The dog at the top appears much larger than the dog at the bottom (closest to you). The truth is that all three dogs are EXACTLY the same size. Our brain is just telling us that the things further away appear smaller, like the road that seems to get smaller in the distance. Since the image of the dog is not smaller when further away, the dog at the top must therefore be much larger than the dogs closer to us.
Even after the truth is known, we sometimes still battle to see things for what they are. This is because our perceptions are influenced by the environment but also by our brains – our prior knowledge (that objects in the distance should appear smaller), our experience, memories, cognitive biases, what others tell us etc. This creates our perception of something rather than the actual reality.
So next time you are sure of what you are seeing, you may want to question it. Your “reality” may not be as real as you think. This has implications for almost everything we do. We often misjudge others, we misjudge situation, we believe something is real, when it is not.
When trying to understand someone, you can never ignore their environment, the context of their actions or even your own biases. Take time to question what you believe to be your truth and refrain from judging so quickly. Remain open to an alternative explanation.