The Risks of Negative Perceptions
We live in a complex world full of information. As humans, we constantly strive to make sense of our world around us. We can identify, organise, and interpret the vast array of information that comes to us through our sensory organs – eyes; ears; tongue; nose; and skin - The process of achieving this is called perception. Perception is a powerful tool that enables us to become aware of ourselves and our environment. The word perception comes from a Latin root word “Perceptio” which means gathering or receiving. Perception is a complex and abstract concept that works by conveying signals through our central nervous systems (CNS) to trigger chemical or physical impulses. We can see objects around us because the light from the objects is directed to the retina of our eyes which generates an electrical impulse that can be interpreted by the brain.
Perceptions are not absolute truths, facts, or, reality. We often face the dilemma of distinguishing between perceptions and facts, especially when such perceptions subtly differ from reality. Thus, we are easily tricked into believing anything that we see, think, feel, or imagine as the absolute truth, ignoring all else. Saks and John note that there are three aspects of perception – perceiver, target, and situation. The perceiver is the person who is trying to become aware of the environment or situation. Among others, three main factors influence how a perceiver sees things around him/her – including motivation, emotional state, and experience. It is not uncommon for a perceiver to limit his/her perception to only what he/she wants to see - this is known as “perceptual defense”. Peter Druker writes:
People look for the facts that fit the conclusions they have already reached. No one ever failed to find the facts he is looking for.
Target is what the perceiver wants to see – it can be an object, person, situation, or event. How the target is understood depends on the depth of information gathered by the perceiver about the target. The situation includes the environment, timing, and amount of information gathered.
Perception is not a bad thing, but when we are too engrossed in negative perceptions, we are bound to lose our moral sense of judgment and tend to believe in anything that we see, feel, touch, hear, smell, or taste, without closely examining whether our assumptions are valid or not. Imagine two people standing on the roadside witnessed a head-on collision accident involving two cars moving in the opposite direction. A heated argument broke out between them regarding which of the drivers might have caused the accident, even though both saw the accident happened. The reason is simple. Each person tried to interpret the cause of the accident based on their limited perceptions but failed to recognise that perhaps, the other person saw the cause of the accident differently which could also be true. I will walk you through the different scenarios in which human perceptions have been misapplied as the truth, despite these were far from being the absolute truth.
1. The Story of Three Blind Men and the Elephant
We all are familiar with the story of the three blind men who have never seen an elephant before. When they were asked to describe an elephant by touching it, each of them gave different interpretations. The first person touched the tail of the elephant and said the elephant looked like a rope. The second one touched the trunk and described an elephant as a snake and the third person touched the ears and exclaimed that an elephant looked like a fan. This story tells us that human perception is limited and so are our sense of judgment. What we know is just a fraction of absolute truth, not the whole thereof.
DESCRIPTION OF AN ELEPHANT BY THE BLIND MEN
2. My Personal Experience
Born into a Christian home, I have never come into closer contact with people of different religions such as Muslims, Buddhists, or Hindus, and there were no chances for me to encounter one, at least, given that Ghana is a Christian country. Things changed when I couldn’t honour my Master’s degree admission in New Zealand. A friend proposed Malaysia to me as the best alternative for international study. Little did I know that Malaysia was more or less a Muslim country. It was a big excitement for me to obtain admission to the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak in 2016.
Out of curiosity, I quickly googled to read about Malaysia online. To my surprise, I discovered that Malaysia was a Muslim-dominated country. The worst forms of fear gripped me to the bones. Several negative thoughts rushed into my mind. The question was “how can I survive in a Muslim country as a non-muslim?” It was difficult to explain my fears to anyone but to live with it and see how things go. All was set for me to leave for Malaysia. On my arrival, things were different, especially on my first day in class. Everyone was welcoming – both the lecturers and the students. I have been living in Malaysia for the past four and a half years now and my fears failed to exist. Malaysia happens to be one of the most peaceful and safer countries in Asia and the world at large contrary to my earlier perception. Where did my fear come from? The answer is obvious – a lack of knowledge about people of other religions transformed misled me into thinking negatively.
3. A Real-Life Story from Nollywood Movie – Allegation
Ambrose was an industrious and hardworking young man. Both of his parents are Nigerians. Ambrose relocated from Nigeria to Ghana to establish his business and was successful. He went back to Nigeria and built two mansions for his parents. His success in business made him a subject of envy in the community. Ambrose took his uncle’s son Uche to Ghana to give him the best education because his uncle (his father’s younger brother) was poor and could not give Uche a good education. Ambrose loves Uche and promised to educate him to become a medical doctor. Uche was placed in one of the best Senior High Schools in Ghana to read Science so that he can pursue his career in medicine at the university level.
The unfortunate happened – Ambrose returned from work one day in the evening and didn’t see Uche at home. Three days had passed and Uche didn’t return home. Ambrose was very worried and reported the case to his police friend but the police officer failed to make it an official complaint. A few days later, Ambrose went back to Nigeria to inform his parents and his uncle about Uche’s missing. Everyone believed Ambrose because of his honesty and integrity but his aunty’s husband couldn’t believe him due to personal interest – Ambrose was more successful in business than his son. He manipulated the whole issue and created enmity between Ambrose and his uncle (Uche’s father). He made Uche’s father believe that Ambrose might have used Uche for money rituals – arguing why Ambrose could be the most successful young businessman in their community.
Ambrose’s Aunty’s son whose father is behind all the plot to destroy Ambrose lured him into seeking spiritual help to find Uche to prove his innocence. The spiritualist demanded human bones and skulls to perform some concoctions to find Uche. Ambrose rejected but Aunty’s son offered to help him get the human parts for the concoction. The items (human bones and skull) were obtained but luck was not on Ambrose’s side as he couldn’t escape without being caught for possession of such prohibited items. Ambrose was beaten severely and dragged to the police station. The news reached his parents and the uncle about his possession of human parts. This news seems to justify everything that he has been accused of – the allegations that he killed Uche. He was charged with murder and sent court. Everyone turned against Ambrose and his parents and restrained to offer any help to him in this difficult situation. Only his parents and his one-month girlfriend stood with him but the case was beyond their control.
Ambrose was denied a fair trial. The court convicted him of first-degree murder and sentenced him to death by hanging with the option for appeal within 21 days. Uche escaped from the hands of kidnappers and returned home to meet Ambrose’s absence in Ghana. The people in the house received him and waited for Ambrose to return from Nigeria. Fews days had passed and Ambrose didn’t return. They gave Uche money to go back to Nigeria to meet Ambrose. On his arrival, he asked his father “where is my brother Ambrose”?. Silence returned to the world. It was the same day Ambrose was being hanged in another city far away from their home. They began the journey to the to present Uche to save Ambrose’slife. It was too late. Ambrose was hanged a minute before their arrival. Uche cried uncontrollably, his future is now bleak – thanks to negative perception.
Our perceptions useful for us in making sense of our world, but how we rely on our perceptions to make important or critical decisions matters. Negative perceptions can breed all sorts of negative tendencies - greed, hatred, anger, emotions, to mention a few. Negative perceptions can mislead us into thinking that we’re always right while everybody else is wrong. Negative perceptions can mislead us into taking the riskiest, dreadful decisions, or actions that could end in long-term regrets. Let us all guard against negative perceptions.