Perspective - the lens that everyone sees life through, yet somehow everyone's perspective is unique to them.
What makes a person's perspective so unique is a summation of several elements:
Personal Experience
Education
Societal bias
Religious /Community bias.
Before forming an opinion on a given issue, we first look at the issue through our own unique perspective. For most, this isn't an active process, but rather a default, passive frame of thinking and this is a normal and valid process.
So let's break it down:
Personal Experience: This is a huge factor for many people when forming opinions, as this is the first stop for all thought forming. For example, you don't touch the stove, because you have been burned before. This is also where confirmation bias stems from.
Education: This can be formal or not. Things that you, yourself, research or maybe things you learned in school. To continue with the stove example, you are told the stove is hot and therefore you do not have to burn your hand to know that it is indeed hot.
Societal bias: This comes in many forms, an easy one that most people subscribe to and accept is the wearing of clothing in public spaces. Other examples that have been, and continue to be hot button issues, including racial/ethnic discrimination, binary gender norms, LGBTQ+ rights, etc. To go further with
Religious/Community bias: This is similar to societal bias but the bias that you develop comes from either a shared doctrine or from the people that you spend the majority of your time with. We may use the group to include people in your workplace as well.
Societal, Religious, and Community (SRC) bias are often very difficult to speak to, as those that hold beliefs/opinions to this degree may feel like accepting another person's point of view is taking something away from theirs. As opposed to personal experience and education which are, by design, more fluid and easier to speak to. This is why in this example and examples going forward, we will work to bring discussions out of the state of SRC bias and into a place/state of mind that is more open to accepting new ideas or opinions.
So let's take an easy example like climate change:
We will create three characters for this example, Jeff, Anton, and Jane. The first thing many of us would do in thinking about climate change would be to look through the lens of our own personal experience. That said, Jeff, Anton, and Jane each walk outside in the summer and they all feel hot, and then when winter comes they each walk outside and they all feel cold. At this point, Jeff, Anton, and Jane begin to differ in how they approach this issue:
Jeff: "If global warming was real, I would see it. I mean, how much can humans really be affecting the climate. That sounds like something the government would make up, in order to make me pay for the pollution caused by big corporations."
Anton: "If Climate change was real, I think that I would see it. I mean, how much can humans really be affecting the climate. Maybe I should do some research before I form an opinion on this." Anton visits sources like NASA, (NOAA), and watched the film An Inconvient Truth. These are sources that he is familiar with, as he grew up in America. He knows NOAA because they provide weather information so that the local news can accurately report the weather and NASA he grew up watching them launch the space shuttle, but heard they also had some great resources on climate change.
He chose these sources because they are corroborated by other sources, meaning the information that NASA or NOAA provide is not just their opinion but the opinion that is shared by many scientists in the United States of America. However, Anton's research would be incomplete if he only looked at sources from one country, so he continues googling and find is evidence of climate change from sources all over the world. While some frown an the idea of using Wikipedia as a trust-able source Anton and I agree that at they very least it can be used to obtain sources, so take a look at Wikipedias article on climate change and you will see that there are hundreds of sources that substantiate the existence of climate change.
Jane: "Global warming IS REAL and I don't care what anyone says, I saw Al Gore's cinematic masterpiece: An Inconvenient Truth, and it's a-comin', humans are not long for this earth. That is why I have a bunker with plenty of supplies to survive the future and non-of-you anti-global warming conspiracy people can convince me otherwise.
In this example, Jeff has opted to form his opinion based solely on his personal
experience and opted not to educate himself further. Jeff's perspective is not really rooted in anything more than his personal experience and for many people, this level of understanding is adequate for them to live their life. However, if Jeff were to try and have conversations about his views, he may have trouble communicating his point, because all he can say is: "In my experience..." or "What I have seen is...". Phrases like this might come off as naive to someone who has studied this issue and the conversation might not go in a positive way and could even devolve into an argument. Naturally, this is would be frustrating for Jeff and may drive him to stay away from people who have different beliefs than him, in order to avoid feeling frustrated. This creates a feedback loop, in which Jeff is surrounded by people and situations that only echo his own beliefs and do not expand his perspective. After some time passes Jeff will become detached from the mainstream, and people like him may become incapable of having conversations with people who have dissimilar world views.
Similarly, Jane has opted to keep her original opinion but based on her opinion on her education and maybe some personal experience. However, Jane holds her education to the same level as an SRC bias which, as she mentioned, would make it difficult to have a conversation with her, without it devolving into an argument. She too surrounds herself with people and situations that only echo her own beliefs and subsequently, she is not able able to expand her perspective either.
So, where do we go from here?
How can Jeff, Anton, or Jane even begin to have a conversation?
If we look back to the beginning both Anton and Jeff started with a similar perspective:
"If global warming was real, I would see it. I mean, how much can humans really be affecting the climate".
Anton is the one person who could start a conversation with Jeff as Anton understands where Jeff's beliefs are rooted. Anton could then tell Jeff what led him to seek more education on climate change and share what information he found that lead him to the opinion that climate change is not made up by the government and that it is in fact and very real thing that humans are influencing with their actions. They are capable of having this discussion because while their opinions may differ, both of their perspectives were rooted around the same train of thought.
Similarly, Anton and Jane both have formed their opinion using the source: An Inconvenient Truth. Because of this, Anton can speak to Jane with some understanding of where her fervent call to action attitude is coming from and can speak to her with understanding and inform her that he too saw the film and he also * posted in * as well as articles and videos from ***. Using this method of presenting new information that is connected to familiar information Anton can begin to help Jane away from the extremes of her beliefs.
Philosophy by the Philosophers
For those that are unaware, depicted here is John Locke; a philosopher from the 1600s, famous for his writing: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. In this collection, he does just that, and if you are interested in reading it, there is a link at the bottom of the page. From this text, we found a quote that we think applies well to the thought experiment happening here.
"What perception is, everyone will know better by reflecting on what he does himself when he sees, hears, feels, etc., or thinks, than by any discourse of mine. Whoever reflects on what passes in his own mind cannot miss it. And if he does not reflect, all the words in the world cannot make him have any notion of it" (Locke 1690).
So let's break that down. Locke is functionally saying that the only way a person can expand their perception is to reflect on what their original perspective is rooted in, and if people are not willing to do that, then there are not enough words in the world that would make a difference. We think that this frame of thinking is important for everyone to employ in their everyday life as we can learn if we are not willing to discuss new thoughts or ideas.
Having extreme thoughts or opinions, is similar to not being open to discuss your ideas, because you are more inclined to start a fight then be in a state mind where you can hear others perspectives. Thoughts that are this extreme lead people to see those with opposing belief as an "other", and this make it easier to dismiss or dehumanize there issue, which typically leads to violence. (We will talk more about this in future episodes and blogs)
In a perfect world, Jane and Jeff would be able to have a civil conversation after all this; but beliefs don't typically change in a day, or after one conversation. Hopefully, this conversation will give both Jeff and Jane a positive experience of expressing their beliefs and enable them to do so with others in the future. As well, this experience may cause them to do some self-reflection and see if any of their thoughts, beliefs, or opinions are held in facts or feelings. At the end of the day having the hard conversations is what it is all about.
If you liked this topic and want to discuss it, head on over to the Forum, be sure to subscribe and we will back soon with new topics and fresh perspectives.
Acroynmns:
Citations:
critical thinking by AdbA Icons ❤️ from the Noun Project - Head Profile with cogs (Cover Image)
“Book II - Of Ideas. Chapter IX - Of Perception .” An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding.: In Four Books. W, by John Locke, Printed by Eliz. Holt, for Thomas Basset, at the George in Fleetstreet, near St. Dunstan's Church, 1690.
Comments