How To Filter Out A Subreddit

20080813-filters

Whammo! Y'all didn't encounter that coming, did you?

Why is it that, despite all our planning, we sometimes get defenseless by surprise, totally unprepared, with our pants downwards as information technology were? I mean, we're smart folks, correct? How come sometimes we just don't run across stuff coming?

The reply is, much of the time, that we don't see everything clearly considering we don't meet a lot of things at all. We procedure the raw stuff of feel through a variety of filters – and nosotros act on the "processed" information, non the world as information technology is.

Those filters are engrained in us, often from birth, and nigh of the time they help us to effectively function in our social and physical environments. For example, one very simple filter we have is how to isolate something interesting or important from a cluttered background – think finding your keys amongst the mess at the bottom of your purse. Or identifying something adept to eat – a ripe fruit, perchance – amid the unripe fruits, leaves, and branches of a tree.

That'due south a pretty basic filtering ability (though the physiological mechanisms involved are quite complex) that humans everywhere rely on every 24-hour interval to survive, so it's a good thing. Just there are many much more complex filters that we choice up as part of our thinking repertoire, and as helpful every bit they might sometimes be, they tin can also get us into a lot of trouble.

Here are some examples:

Linguistic communication

Linguistic communication is a powerful force in shaping our beliefs. Just ask a sanitation engineer! Employers have long recognized the way that job titles tin bear on employee performance – which is why in that location are then few clerks and so many associates at your local retail mega-outlet.

Simply linguistic communication can pb us astray, also. Consider this example drawn from the annals of linguistics: a tanning factory discharges wastes, by and large animate being thing, into a pond. The decomposing waste creates flammable gasses. A "swimming", though, is not flammable, right? I hateful, right?! A man is working virtually the pond. Non taking whatever special precautions – why would you lot, side by side to a "swimming"? – he ignites a blow-torch. A canvas of flame engulfs the pond and spreads to the nearby factory, destroying information technology.

The language we use to describe people can strongly influence our beliefs towards them. Feminists recognized this when they started insisting on terms like "police force officeholder" rather than "policeman". Or consider this: numerous studies have shown that people with "ethnic-sounding" names are less probable to get job interviews every bit similarly-qualified people with "white-sounding" names.

Gender

Gender is a powerful filter in every civilization – although the behaviors it shapes tin can exist very different from culture to culture. What is considered men'due south work in one social club – carrying heavy loads of bricks, for example – might be considered women's piece of work in another.

Gender leads u.s.a. astray when information technology leads u.s.a. to look at a person's gender as an index of their abilities. For example, in the US, it is common to hear people say things like "men are stronger than women". This is not truthful. Some men are stronger than almost women, a handful of men are stronger than all women, and most men are stronger than some women. Simply knowing someone's gender does non tell you anything well-nigh how strong they are!

Assumptions about gender extend far across concrete attributes. With few exceptions, women still are not promoted to tiptop-level corporate positions, despite the number of qualified women in the concern world. Men are assumed to have "leadership qualities" that women lack – and women's leadership qualities tend to be dismissed as signs of "manliness" or "bitchiness".

Race and Ethnicity

What is true of gender is also truthful of race and ethnicity. Knowing someone's race or ethnicity tells united states of america little virtually that particular person – still we act as if information technology told us a lot. Here'southward an example: a black student of mine was accused of plagiarism in another class when she handed in an first-class essay. This is a student that added immensely to every classroom give-and-take she took role in, and who wrote insightfully in every assignment she gave me (including "personal reflection" papers that cannot be plagiarized). The other professor did non have any examples of work that the student had allegedly copied from; it was just "too practiced". Race may not have been the only factor, only it was clearly a factor; I've never had a white student of like quality confront a similar accusation.

Here's another example: Black and other minority athletes, performers, even armed services leaders and politicians are often described as "articulate", an adjective rarely practical to their white counterparts. People do not expect articulate speech from non-white persons, and are surprised when they hear intelligent dialogue from black speakers.

Personal Experience

An old joke claims, "All Indians walk single file. At least, the ane I saw did."

Personal experience is a powerful learning tool, but it can lead us astray when nosotros make false assumptions based on generalizations from limited feel. Childhood feel can make for especially powerful filters, as they tend to exist imbued with strong emotional resonance, but any experience can lead us to incorrect conclusions.

Examining Your Filters

What is insidious most all of these factors is that most of the time they role without us fifty-fifty noticing them. We don't promote Chad over Wilma because Chad'south a man, but because he seems more "leaderly", because he has that "certain something". And perchance he does – or maybe our invisible assumptions near gender brand weak signs of "sure somethingness" seem strong, while Wilma's powerful "certain somethingness" is filtered out.

It'south unlikely that you volition catch your filters at work in your day-to-day life, merely yous can reflect on the way you have interacted with other people and how y'all've handled various situations (perhaps in a weekly review?). Y'all may well be surprised to find that, in many cases, you tin't seem to put your finger on exactly why you acted the way you did – a sure sign of a filter at piece of work. Paying attention to those moments will bring you a long fashion towards replacing the stock of feel and received wisdom with filters that allow yous to more accurately and effectively act.

I've listed just a handful of obvious filters here. What are your filters? How could you lot deal with them?