How Bias Distorts Your View: Keeping Your Lenses Clean
Written by Catherine Koverola, PhD
The other day, as I was walking to work, I noticed a blur in my peripheral vision. At first, I was a bit flummoxed, blinking worriedly a few times as I attempted to discern the cause. Then I quickly realized that there was a simple explanation: my glasses had a big smudge on them. What a relief!
This situation could easily be corrected—unlike the time I managed to get a permanent scratch on my glasses and needed a brand-new pair. Or worse if I had discovered an issue with my eyesight!
As I wiped my glasses, I started thinking about distorted vision. Not just the physical kind, but how our perceptions can become skewed based on the lenses through which we view the world.
Just as someone who is newly in love views the world through rose-colored glasses and sees everything with a beautiful glow, we can also perceive everything and everyone in a distorted manner. Our perspective depends upon the lens through which we gaze.
When we view the world through smudged and scratched lenses, our vision becomes obscured and we’re unable to see things clearly. Prejudice, ignorance, bias—all these things serve to smudge and mar, to obscure and blur our perception of the world and the people around us.
Recently, in the office, I overheard a new mom, let's call her Mary, glancing at a co-worker muttering, “what a bitch—she glares at me when I say anything about my kids.” Little did Mary know that her co-worker, "the bitch," had suffered five late-term miscarriages and had just learned that she wouldn't be able to have children.
If Mary was looking through lenses with compassion, she likely would not have seen a glare, but a look of longing and sadness. I suspect Mary's lenses were colored by a fear of being judged that motherhood somehow made her less committed to work--something that is also all too real in the workplace.
If you’re like me, the turmoil present in virtually every news report of late has felt particularly acute and overwhelming. Whether it's global conflicts or violence in our own communities, it is evident that we are prone to viewing our fellow human beings through blurred lenses that distort and demonize. The tendency to “other” and judge, rather than to embrace with compassion and care seems deeply entrenched.
From clarity comes understanding, and from understanding comes compassion. While compassion may not solve every conflict and conundrum, at the very least it helps to shine a light into the narrow confines of hate.
As you continue to navigate the complexities of our world, consider this metaphor of clean lenses. “Lens” just seems to capture it for me today.
Tips for developing more compassionate perceptions:
When you feel the impulse to judge harshly, pause for a moment. Try viewing the situation through a more compassionate lens.
If something seems a bit contorted, consider whether personal baggage, a bias, or preconceived notion has smudged your vision? Take time to remove those biases.
If something doesn’t add up, is this a situation of tunnel vision and perhaps needing to see the bigger picture? Take a step back and look again from a different vantage point.
So, I leave you with a question: how clean are your lenses?
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