In 1980, researchers at Dartmouth University conducted a study that was supposed to shake our understanding of perception and reality.
Participants were told they would be taking part in a psychological experiment that examines how people react to facial disorders. Everyone had a deceptively real scar put on their cheek with theater make-up. Participants looked in the mirror and were reminded of their purpose: to interact with strangers and then report how they were treated.
Then came the clue to the trial order.
Shortly before they were sent out, the mask designers said they needed to make one final correction. In reality, they completely removed the scar. The participants continued to believe that they were created, and went out into the world with this conviction.
When they returned, they reported predictable things. People have been rude. Repulsive. Odd. Some said others looked away more often. Some felt sympathy.
But there was no distortion. The only thing that had changed was the faith of the participants.
They thought they looked damaged and their brain found exactly what it had expected. Not as a cognitive strategy. Especially as a neurobiological pattern that shapes perception itself.
This immediately makes me think of the many discussions about discrimination. How much of this is happening objectively, how much only subjectively because the media currently feeds and legitimizes supersensitivities? Nothing brings the ego more than a victim role from which you can also be a subtle offender and accuse others.
But the question is even further. What is reality actually? Study shows: The brain does not show us reality. It shows us what to expect. It takes memories, traumas, expectations, values, projections and paints a picture out of it. You don't see the world as it is. You see what your brain already practiced. This picture feels real because it is embodied. You feel it in your belly, the tension in your shoulders.
Everything we perceive "out there" is shaped by what has been "in here" for a long time.
This is why two people can walk on the same road and perceive completely different things. We could see this well from April 2020. Depending on which trigger was triggered (fear of epidemic or fear of losing freedom), people experienced very different realities.
The problem is not subjectivity. The problem is that most people believe they're objective. Who wonders: "Why can't people agree on simple facts anymore?" “That’s the answer. Because most people can't see the facts. They are watching the forecast.
Scale this up now. A planet full of nervous systems projecting their fears and ideals onto the world, each convinced, to see clearly, each emotionally secure, that their version of events is "reality".
Education does not make us immune to it. On the contrary. Academic education or crystalline intelligence makes the deception more eloquent. Confident. But it's projection.
The people in the study were not lying. They didn't invent their experience. Her pain was real. And that's the frightening part. You can suffer deeply for something that doesn't exist at all.
Ain't nothing to take that pain away. It's all about taking responsibility for your perception.
Not feeling better or thinking positive. But learn to stop the hallucination.
What scar do you still see that is long gone? And what would change in your life if you stopped believing in her?
Source:
Kleck, R. E. & Strenta, A. (1980). Perceptions of the Impact of Negatively Valued Physical Characteristics on Social Interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(5), 861–873.