OK so girl I thought was kinda seeing
only wants to be friends. Gee couldn't see that one coming.... good thing I didnt get my hopes up right? Small pang of emotional pain - could have been a lot worse.
Anyway.
5 reasons why I think we should question
everything always
1. Nobody has any idea of what it is like to experience life outside of themselves. My reality is my own - everything that I experience is personal. Making any judgements or forming an opinion about something or someone is merely guesswork. It is impossible to know how someone is feeling exactly. We can empathize only if we suffer and have shared experiences with our person of focus. Our experience is largely based on our culture - and within that prejudice exists - our gender, race, appearance age, social standing, occupation and religious beliefs all contribute to shape who we are as a person - and only WE can own that. A best guess is about as good as it gets.
2. Confirmatory Bias
A tendency to take notice of things we already agree with - based on our own feelings toward reality. How can someone possibly fathom your own point of view and believe anything you have to say when everything about them says otherwise? Not only will they not notice - but if you point it out to them they will disagree completely because they dont know any better.
3. Errors in ones attribution - I noticed this the other day as I was walking out a bookstore. I noticed a customer was being sort changed (or so he thought) and was arguing with the cashier. After he was proved wrong - I though (very briefly) that he was an idiot.
Then I realized - if *I* was him - I would rationalize it by situation. I would probably tell myself that I was in a hurry, the cashier didnt know what she was doing, the price was too much, a computer error etc etc - but if someone
else does it then one questions their inherent characteristics. Which is completely unfair.
4. Observational association
Seeing two things occur by chance does not necessarily mean they are related. They might be - but it doesnt mean to say that they are.
5. Personal point of view - learning something that
makes sense of the world, or works for us personally - means that it *must* work for everyone else. This cant be true.
and is actually one of my biggest pet peeves. Especially if our experience is very persuasive and notice that it often does work for others. Just because it works for you or most - does not mean it works for everyone.
Or at least - that is what I think.