Post #2

"Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” -Wayne W. Dyer


Through the reading of chapter 1, one thing that consistently resided with me and seemed to keep popping up for me outside of the book, was the topic on naive realism and our perception of things. The book clearly defines naive realism as the belief that we see the world precisely as it is. And then it goes on to give this cutesy little picture of how the angle you look at a table from can make it look more rectangular or square. Psychology is supposed to teach how to question this idea of naive realism and also look inwardly into how we talk to people and how our beliefs influence our perceptions. 

Now back to the cute little picture of the tables, in my spare time I am slightly obsessed with the website Pinterest. Pinterest is an online pin board where people can search other websites and choose to share, or rather pin, a picture with a link to the page they are looking at. There are millions of people who are members of the site and so there are a variety of different pictures and ideas that appear on my news feed. These images range anywhere from fashion, humor, home or wedding ideas. For example, one of the pictures which has come up many times, was a reel of images in which a persons perception is completely thrown off by looking at something. On the reel, this image of how a person can appear to be floating because of a shadow was given...



Now, this was just one example of a reel of perception pictures. I cannot seem to find the entire reel, but if I do, I will be sure to post it.

Aside from the physical sense of perception, naive realism can cause us to be mistaken about ourselves, others, and beliefs. It can lead us to draw incorrect conclusions about human nature. Such as, myself thinking cold pizza tastes wonderful and anybody who disagrees with me is wrong and has no taste buds.

In opposition to naive realism, religion seems to take a lead. Because naive realism tells us that how we view materialistic things is truth and believing is seeing, God simply cannot exist within these parameters. This ideology I struggle with, primarily because I went to a Catholic elementary school my entire life, and for some psychological idea to tell me it cannot be true, is hard. This is where I believe naive realism is wrong, because 88% of the world's population believes in a higher power, as of a 2005 study. 

Being aware of how naive realism and my perceptions of the world versus other peoples' perception has caused me to take a better focus in how I look at qualities in a person and how they look at each other. Because I believe when it comes to a touchy subject such as religion or politics, our naive realism will take over, preventing us from thinking reasonably. And so my choice in the people I associate myself is determined by those with the least dependency on their naive realism.