Perception vs. reality

Perception is more important than reality most of the time. In many cases, it takes precedence over the truth. For example, let's consider something as simple as a choice of fonts.

As front-end web developers will no doubt tell you, font matters. This is a contrived example, but it serves well as a reminder that the way information is presented can have a significant impact on how it's interpreted.

An example of a real-world application is the "framing" technique, where using different phrases to convey the same information results in markedly different responses, even in the most high-stakes situations.

Numerous experiments have shown that when patients are asked about the survival odds of a risky but probably life-saving surgery, they're much more likely to undergo the operation if told that they're "90% to survive the next five years" than if told that they're "10% to die within the next five years." The content of the two statements are the same, and yet they evoke different responses.

(To learn about the range of human fallibilities, I recommend reading Nudge by Richard Thaler. In addition to framing, the book discusses the Dunning-Kruger effect (eg. 90% of his students think they’ll finish in the top 20% of his class), anchoring, loss aversion, the hot-cold empathy gap, and numerous other idiosyncrasies of the human mind that modern businesses have learned to exploit, and that we should learn to manage.)

To understand the business value of manipulating others’ perceptions, we need only consider two well-established features of a capitalist economy: sales and advertising. These two business functions focus solely on changing customers’ perceptions without changing the underlying products and services. In 2019, in the United States alone, approximately 7 million professionals worked in sales and over 240 billion dollars were spent on advertising.

Considering the above, I have some actionable recommendations:

• To better achieve our objectives that involve others, we might want to spend more time to understand what they see (and how they feel), as the answer can be surprising. Everything from planning a trip with family to negotiating a salary package with a new company becomes easier when we first know what the other party is thinking.
• While we are in a logical, emotionally neutral state, we can construct "safeguards" that compensate for human bias. For example, since my Chinese isn't fluent, when I meet Chinese clients for the first time I do two things: I always begin the conversation by saying that my Chinese is "approximately grade 6 level", and I insert sentences in English wherever I can. The purpose is to minimize the chance that my broken Chinese might form the perception that I'm unprofessional and/or incompetent.
• Have empathy for others who are in challenging situations, and seek to help them only when they're in a logical state and willing to take suggestions. Those suffering from depression see the world differently from others who are naturally optimistic. Adapting to a different culture or new lifestyle is almost always difficult. Weight loss, lifestyle reduction, and quitting an addiction are easier to contemplate than to follow through with. And so on.

To fully understand human biases and possess the ability to manipulate them would almost be like having access to life's cheat codes, so I'd say that extensive study of this topic should be prioritized. I can only hope that we all use our newfound knowledge for positive ends.