Perception

Send us Fan Mail Perception is the act of observing and understanding a thing. This is a subjective understanding and can (and often is) inaccurate compared with objective reality but it *is* true to the perceiver. We can view perception as observations that are being subsequently interpreted. The "observation to interpretation" process is a common part of the human experience and is almost always happening without anyone consciously thinking about it. Observations can be inaccurate in that they are almost always incomplete. If you're viewing something with your eyes you have a particular vantage point from which to observe the thing and this negates the ability to also see it from the other side. Note that this is sometimes still possible in situations with multiple camera angles such as what happens in sporting events. Most inaccuracies of perception occur with the interpretation of the observations. When two people view the same event from more or less the same vantage point but don't compare notes with each other or confer with each other about what they saw they can sometimes come up with drastically different interpretations. Humans often talk about things they simultaneously observe and often come to the same understanding of what has occurred. This occurs because of social influences. One additional piece of this puzzle is the existing ideas in a person's mind. Biases, prejudices, generalizations, assumptions of similarity to other experiences all heavily shape the "interpretation" part of this that each person does. This is a thing that makes it so difficult. One could even divide this into "observational perspective" and "experiential perspective" aspects of this. In the human experience, perceptions are a virtual phenomenon that occurs only in the software of your meat computer. They play a key role in decision making. If you can understand how a person *perceives* a thing you are much closer to understanding their future decisions in relation to that thing. Links https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prejudice