Apples, Oranges, and the Truth: When Perception Isn’t Reality (Which is Most of the Time!)

I ran home on my lunch hour today to grab my workout gear and a sandwich. As usual, I turned on CNN, got my fill of that, and hit the up arrow on the remote which took me to Court TV (or whatever it is now… TruTV?). For the past few weeks or so they’ve been airing the trial of a police officer who, in pursuit of a speeder, ran a stop sign and smashed into another vehicle, killing the two occupants (two teen aged girls returning to grandma’s house after running out for milk… ugh).

I’ve only watched the trial for all of 30 minutes over the past few weeks, but it captivates my attention every time I switch it on. Today, in the amount of time I was watching, they were focusing on the officer’s statements following the accident, opposed to his statements now, and to those of other officers and witnesses. To argue the prosecution’s point that he was being dishonest, the defense brought in an expert on memory and perception. This is the part that got my attention.

The expert gave this example. A group of subjects is shown a series of slides, mostly depicting boring daily activities. In the series there are pictures of a woman grocery shopping. In one slide she is standing in front of a big pile of oranges. In the next slide, she is looking very startled, and there are oranges scattered all over the floor. Later, the subjects are shown a single slide of the woman picking one orange out of the bottom of the pile, and they are asked if they viewed this slide. The majority of the subjects, with a high degree of certainty, claimed they did see this slide. They hadn't seen it, but they inferred that’s what happened, and that inference (their perception) became real to them.

The expert was also talking about witness reliability, and how stress, emotions, environment, and other factors can impact recollection (it completely skews it, but people are not capable of recognizing this). What really struck me was the impact of misinformation. If someone tells you that John Doe cheated during the last triathlon, and intentionally cut the bike course short, and you are subsequently informed that that story was made up and not true… it doesn’t matter. Your psyche will continue to behave as if John Doe cheats during races.

Coincidentally, last night I was talking with a friend about the truths we can find in situations… if we are willing to acknowledge them. We often talk about the truth. Not only the old adage, the truth will set you free, but about how denying it can keep you from something that will likely be better. But it takes effort, a conscious decision, to look for and acknowledge what’s real. Because our psyches want to hold on to what we’ve been told, or what we perceived to be the truth… and unfortunately, all too often, that isn’t reality.