{"id":136833,"date":"2024-12-03T18:07:53","date_gmt":"2024-12-03T22:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=136833"},"modified":"2024-12-03T18:07:55","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T22:07:55","slug":"perception-and-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/perception-and-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Perception and Experience: How Our Brains Distort Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>How much can you trust your own <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/perceiving-reality\/\">perception of reality<\/a>? What role do your personal experiences play in shaping your beliefs and decisions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In <em>You Are Not So Smart<\/em>, David McRaney reveals how our brains create a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/distorted-perceptions\/\">distorted view<\/a> of reality based on available information and external influences. The relationship between perception and experience affects everything from our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/buying-decision\/\">buying decisions<\/a> to our deeply held beliefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to discover why your brain takes these <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mental-shortcuts\/\">mental shortcuts<\/a> and learn practical ways to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/make-better-decisions\/\">make better decisions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-perception-and-experience\">Perception and Experience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>McRaney explains that our brains aren\u2019t as reliable as we think because our perceptions of reality aren\u2019t complete and objective\u2014they\u2019re skewed by available information and external influences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>McRaney explains that our perceptions of reality are largely determined by our experiences<\/strong>. We\u2019re more likely to believe an anecdote if we have even one example that proves it, we\u2019re more likely to doubt things we haven\u2019t experienced, and we\u2019re likely to make judgments based on comparisons. This connection between perception and experience can be seen in psychological phenomena such as <em>the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/availability-bias\/\">availability heuristic<\/a>,<\/em> a mental shortcut that helps us make quick but often inaccurate assessments based on the information most accessible to us, and <em>the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-anchoring-effect\/\">anchoring effect<\/a><\/em>, our tendency to make judgments based on one specific reference. These biases developed as an evolutionary advantage\u2014they allow us to make quick decisions that will keep us safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, someone tells you that people with dark hair tend to read more than others\u2014you believe this because your mom has dark hair and loves to read. However, if your mom had blonde hair, you\u2019d be likely to doubt this anecdote because it doesn\u2019t fit with your experience. Further, imagine you want to buy a new perfume but its $100 price is out of your $50 budget; however, next week there\u2019s a two-for-one sale\u2014the cost of the perfume is still over your budget, but you perceive this is a cheap price because you\u2019re getting more for the original price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Our reliance on heuristics is so prevalent that it permeates every part of life\u2014not just obvious areas such as deciding whether to buy something or believe someone. Developers take our reliance on heuristics into account <a href=\"https:\/\/userism.agency\/articles\/heuristics-and-the-evolution-of-jumping-to-conclusions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">when designing web pages and apps<\/a>. For example, they place the search bar at the top of the screen because that\u2019s how we think a web page should be set up based on our experience so far. If the search bar is at the bottom, we\u2019re more likely to struggle to find it and judge the website as faulty because it doesn\u2019t match our experience of a \u201cgood\u201d website.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While you can\u2019t help the fact that your perception is easily influenced by experience, <strong>McRaney says you can gain a more realistic understanding of reality and make more effective decisions by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-practice-critical-thinking\/\">practicing critical thinking<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-keep-an-open-mind\/\">keeping an open mind<\/a><\/strong>. Always consider what you don\u2019t know, how you might be wrong, whether the information is coming from a reliable source, and whether it represents the whole picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Don\u2019t Avoid Heuristics Entirely&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><br><br>Experts add that the key to making more reliable decisions isn\u2019t necessarily avoiding heuristics completely, but <a href=\"https:\/\/thedecisionlab.com\/biases\/heuristics#:~:text=more%20adaptive%20behaviors.-,How%20to%20avoid%20it,in%20doing%20so%2C%20we%20should%20attempt%20not%20to%20overanalyze%20the%20situation.,-How%20it%20all\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">understanding the brain\u2019s two thought systems<\/a>. System 1 uses heuristics to handle subconscious, everyday decisions quickly and automatically; as such, it\u2019s error-prone. System 2 uses slow, conscious, effortful thought to solve <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/complex-problem\/\">complex problems<\/a> and make more reliable decisions.<br><br>While McRaney\u2019s suggestion seems to emphasize System 2, this won\u2019t necessarily produce the best decisions. Instead, experts recommend using a combination of System 1 and 2 thinking\u2014listen to your instinctive judgments (heuristic decisions based on System 1), but evaluate them using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/system-2-thinking\/\">System 2 thinking<\/a>. For example, you\u2019re told to make a last-minute speech at an event\u2014your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/system-1-thinking-kahneman\/\">System 1 thinking<\/a> tells you to leave immediately to avoid it because you\u2019re unprepared. However, you can make better decisions while still avoiding the speech by incorporating your System 2 thinking\u2014instead of running away, you can do something more rational such as asking someone to fill in for you.&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How much can you trust your own perception of reality? What role do your personal experiences play in shaping your beliefs and decisions? In You Are Not So Smart, David McRaney reveals how our brains create a distorted view of reality based on available information and external influences. The relationship between perception and experience affects everything from our buying decisions to our deeply held beliefs. Keep reading to discover why your brain takes these mental shortcuts and learn practical ways to make better decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":136841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1681],"class_list":["post-136833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","tag-you-are-not-so-smart","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Perception and Experience: How Our Brains Distort Reality - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Our perception of reality can be distorted by our experiences. 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