Today’s culture is sensitive about racism and social justice. We can hardly escape from it. But how many of those events and situations being touted are really just results of faulty pattern recognition? Without full context, of course we can mistakenly come up with an incorrect pattern based upon a single fragment.
What is stereotyping? It is comparing at two events and perceiving a similarity based upon superficial features. That is unconscious pattern recognition. However, it goes one step farther by taking that similarity to attribute additional features of the past event to the new one. We live by this and it governs a significant amount of our daily activity. It is a mental mechanism that protects us from danger.
Unfortunately, stereotyping also governs racial, ethnic, and every other type of bigotry. Since the stereotyping is unconscious and automatic, it takes conscious and attentive thinking to overcome it. Critical thinking and being objective are required to understand when a stereotype is leading us astray in a new situation.
Another pitfall is perceiving cause and effect relationships when no such relationship exists. Our minds feel good when we solve problems, and therefore seek that cause-and-effect relationship to get to the main issue. How can you fix something without knowing what caused it in the first place? While that tendency is helpful, it can also deceive us when applied to factors that are not related that way.
What if you woke up one morning to find a puddle of water in the middle of your king-size waterbed? You attempt to fix the puncture, and struggle with that heavy mattress outside so you can fill it with more water to locate the leak without making a mess. Unfortunately the unwieldy mattress was difficult to control and you ended up losing balance and dropped it into the rose bush trying to navigate the steps off the porch. The thorns put so many holes into the mattress it was destroyed. Disgusted, you ordered a new one from Amazon and moved a standard mattress from the guest room into your bedroom until it arrives in a couple of days. The next morning, you awake to find the bed wet again, right in the middle. It turns out the bathroom upstairs had a leaking drain.
We would be amazed at all the times in our normal daily activities that we perceive patterns of all types that are not what they appear to be. When we use pattern recognition badly, it is generally confirmation bias.
Please give me a “like” and share with others. Thank you for reading.
Oh the woes of the do-it yourselfer