There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting – Buddha
It was a decade ago that I heard my boss say that ‘Perception is truth’. It was a moment of great disappointment and surprise for me and it kept bothering me over the years. I always believed perception and truth are different.
Perception is what you see and hear and, in most cases, you cannot see everything that’s happening around you. We don’t like anything to be inconclusive or unconfirmed. So, we start filling gaps with some assumptions and beliefs from past experiences. Every time you hear words like maybe, could be, possibly, probably and I think so; it is just our way of filling gaps in the facts we have on hand. Each person may have a different account of an event that happened around them.
Truth is what is, as is. It stands the test of time and never changes.
We tend to find evidence that supports our idea or thought or belief and discount everything that counters it. It rained the day before my wedding. Since then I noticed that it rains before or after every important event in my life. I consider it a cosmic blessing. But I can’t seem to recollect instances where it rained when nothing important is happening or it did not rain for an important moment for me. This confirmation bias is same for the lucky shirt or coin or color or number for most of us. Also, others who see it raining may say I am cursed. That’s how perception works. The truth is that the cosmos has no time to pay attention to wee little me.
Do you know how discount offers work? We see a dress priced at $100. Then there is a 20% off if you use a store credit card and some cash back for each $25 you spend. After the discounts you probably get the dress for $60. You start believing that it’s a good price as you anchored the value of the dress at higher price of $100. At that moment we don’t remember the fact that stores mark up and then give discounts. It is the same anchoring effect when you buy a car at Manufacturer’s price instead of retail price. You don’t know what the margins are on the products but we perceive it as a great value after a discount. No wonder stores have discounts and sales all year.
Politicians and artists publish pictures taken at certain angles that makes the event look full when in fact, it could only be half full. Several entities buy likes on social media just to make it look like they are very popular. People’s perception is influenced by these photographs and likes.
There were genocides in history because someone in power perceived a race or population as inferior.
Inept politicians perceive immigrants as illiterates, illegals and criminals and make laws against them.
Law officers shoot down unarmed civilians as they perceive people from a neighborhood or community as threats.
People oriented differently are treated with disrespect and cruelty only because others perceive them abnormal.
People who accept everything they receive in social posts as undeniable truth and forward them is what causes some fake news and most of the hoaxes.
Imagine a leader who makes decisions that affect the lives and fortunes of many others based on perceptions. Whether it is a leader of a team, company or nation- if his decisions are based on the premise that perception is truth, then it is a sure shot path to the abyss.
Perception at best is an opinion and at worst is manipulation. You should always be open to question what you see, hear and make every effort to get to the truth.
It would be so easy to feed lies and misinformation to people in authority who believe perception is truth and influence their decisions to favor themselves or go against others.
Decision makers do not always have first-hand information and rely on their coterie of trusted advisors to make decisions. Then how does a leader whose decisions affect others insulate himself from the influence of perception? One way is to always look for the opposing view to his own ideas. Surround himself with people of opposing views. Take all inputs from varied sources and then use his knowledge, intelligence, judgement and moral compass to make decisions.
Even after all the efforts there is no guarantee that perception wouldn’t influence decisions but awareness and effort to overcome it would definitely help.