Everyone had one of these as a child. Look through one end, turn the wheel, and you see a dazzling array of images, each a tiny bit different from the one before and the one after. (Mouse over the image below to recall the experience) Beautiful and yet – imagine that each individual image is one person’s view of reality and they are convinced that their view is the correct and only view of reality. What can be beautiful can also be the source of frustration and conflict.
One of my favorite examples is from the 1970’s movie Annie Hall with Diane Keaton and Woody Allen (click here for clip). They’re visiting their respective therapists and through simultaneous split-screen, each therapist asks their patient how often they are having sex. Woody Allen replies, “Almost never. Like three times a week,” while Diane Keaton responds, “All the time. Like three times a week.” It’s all about perspective.
John Manoogian and Buster Benson recently created an infographic of all the different types of cognitive biases that have been studied (over 300). (Click here to see them all one one chart.) Most of us have a kaleidoscope of biases at any one time. Is it any wonder we see the world differently from those around us? Now if we can just realize that our perspective is but one and that there are other equally valid and beautiful perspectives, our world would change immensely.