What Lens Filters Do I Need

20080813-filters

Whammo! You lot didn't see that coming, did you lot?

Why is information technology that, despite all our planning, we sometimes go caught by surprise, totally unprepared, with our pants down as information technology were? I mean, we're smart folks, right? How come sometimes we just don't encounter stuff coming?

The answer is, much of the time, that we don't run across everything clearly because nosotros don't come across a lot of things at all. Nosotros process the raw stuff of experience through a multifariousness of filters – and nosotros act on the "candy" information, not the world as it is.

Those filters are engrained in us, ofttimes from birth, and nigh of the time they help us to effectively function in our social and physical environments. For example, 1 very simple filter nosotros have is how to isolate something interesting or of import from a cluttered background – think finding your keys amid the mess at the lesser of your purse. Or identifying something good to swallow – a ripe fruit, perhaps – amongst the unripe fruits, leaves, and branches of a tree.

That's a pretty bones filtering power (though the physiological mechanisms involved are quite complex) that humans everywhere rely on every day to survive, and so it'due south a good thing. But at that place are many much more complex filters that we pick up as part of our thinking repertoire, and as helpful as they might sometimes be, they can also get us into a lot of trouble.

Here are some examples:

Language

Language is a powerful force in shaping our behavior. But inquire a sanitation engineer! Employers accept long recognized the way that job titles tin can affect employee functioning – which is why at that place are and then few clerks and and so many associates at your local retail mega-outlet.

Just linguistic communication can atomic number 82 us astray, likewise. Consider this example drawn from the annals of linguistics: a tanning manufactory discharges wastes, more often than not animal affair, into a pond. The decomposing waste creates flammable gasses. A "pond", though, is non flammable, correct? I mean, right?! A man is working near the pond. Not taking whatever special precautions – why would yous, side by side to a "swimming"? – he ignites a blow-torch. A sheet of flame engulfs the pond and spreads to the nearby factory, destroying information technology.

The language nosotros utilize to describe people can strongly influence our behavior towards them. Feminists recognized this when they started insisting on terms like "law officer" rather than "policeman". Or consider this: numerous studies have shown that people with "ethnic-sounding" names are less likely to get task interviews as similarly-qualified people with "white-sounding" names.

Gender

Gender is a powerful filter in every civilisation – although the behaviors it shapes tin can be very different from culture to culture. What is considered men'south work in one society – carrying heavy loads of bricks, for instance – might exist considered women's piece of work in some other.

Gender leads u.s. astray when information technology leads us to look at a person's gender as an index of their abilities. For case, in the US, it is common to hear people say things like "men are stronger than women". This is non true. Some men are stronger than most women, a scattering of men are stronger than all women, and about men are stronger than some women. Merely knowing someone'south gender does not tell you annihilation almost how strong they are!

Assumptions about gender extend far across physical attributes. With few exceptions, women still are not promoted to elevation-level corporate positions, despite the number of qualified women in the concern world. Men are assumed to have "leadership qualities" that women lack – and women's leadership qualities tend to be dismissed as signs of "manliness" or "bitchiness".

Race and Ethnicity

What is true of gender is also truthful of race and ethnicity. Knowing someone's race or ethnicity tells us little about that item person – yet nosotros deed as if it told us a lot. Here's an example: a blackness educatee of mine was defendant of plagiarism in another grade when she handed in an excellent essay. This is a student that added immensely to every classroom give-and-take she took part in, and who wrote insightfully in every assignment she gave me (including "personal reflection" papers that cannot be plagiarized). The other professor did not take any examples of work that the pupil had allegedly copied from; information technology was simply "besides skilful". Race may not have been the only gene, merely information technology was conspicuously a cistron; I've never had a white student of like quality face a like accusation.

Hither's another instance: Black and other minority athletes, performers, even military leaders and politicians are often described as "articulate", an adjective rarely practical to their white counterparts. People do non expect articulate speech from non-white persons, and are surprised when they hear intelligent dialogue from blackness speakers.

Personal Experience

An old joke claims, "All Indians walk unmarried file. At to the lowest degree, the one I saw did."

Personal experience is a powerful learning tool, but information technology tin can lead united states astray when we make false assumptions based on generalizations from limited experience. Childhood experience can make for particularly powerful filters, equally they tend to exist imbued with stiff emotional resonance, but any experience tin can lead us to wrong conclusions.

Examining Your Filters

What is insidious nigh all of these factors is that almost of the time they function without us even noticing them. Nosotros don't promote Chad over Wilma because Chad's a man, simply because he seems more than "leaderly", because he has that "certain something". And maybe he does – or maybe our invisible assumptions about gender make weak signs of "certain somethingness" seem strong, while Wilma's powerful "certain somethingness" is filtered out.

It's unlikely that you lot will catch your filters at work in your twenty-four hours-to-solar day life, but you can reflect on the manner you take interacted with other people and how you lot've handled various situations (maybe in a weekly review?). You may well be surprised to notice that, in many cases, you lot can't seem to put your finger on exactly why you acted the fashion you did – a sure sign of a filter at work. Paying attention to those moments will bring you a long way towards replacing the stock of experience and received wisdom with filters that allow you to more accurately and effectively act.

I've listed only a handful of obvious filters hither. What are your filters? How could you bargain with them?