How well do you think we understand each other? Especially when we hold different points of view? Unfortunately, the results of a study published in the journal Scientific Reports have shown that the conclusions we make about others are often wrong. Scientists from the Institute of Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London, together with researchers from the University of Oxford, have found that the assumptions we make about each other are often incorrect. The scientific work is based on the psychological reasons why we judge others incorrectly, despite a high degree of confidence that we understand how those who hold opposing points of view think. We tell you the details!
The results of a new study have shown that we rarely understand our opponents. Image: scx2.b-cdn.net
Contents
- 1 How do we perceive each other?
- 2 Pride and Prejudice
- 3 Us-them
- 4 How to learn to understand each other?
How do we perceive each other?
The fact that we classify each other socially is unlikely to surprise anyone. Those whom we consider similar to ourselves belong, according to sociologists, to the so-called “in-group”, while those who are different from us are considered to be the “out-group”. Roughly speaking, we are talking about the notorious division into “us” and “them”. These differences can be based on race, religion, nationality, political beliefs, sexual orientation or social status. But that's not all.
Most people understand that there are many different people with different beliefs in the “in-group”. However, we tend to think that all members of the “out-group” are the same, with similar beliefs and views. Moreover, we are often mistaken about what this all means.
The results of the study showed that we do not perceive others objectively. Image: www.verywellmind.com
The results of the study, recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, confirm this. The authors of the study asked 256 people from the United States to predict the social and political beliefs of others. Among the participants were 119 men and 137 women, with an average age of 45 years. The groups of subjects were divided equally between those who held “left” and “right” political views.
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All participants in the study were asked to what extent they agreed with certain statements (for example, “immigrants are good for society”), and then shown the answers of other people who had been asked the same question. If a subject answered affirmatively to the question about the benefits of immigrants for society, he was asked to discuss this issue with a person who held the opposite point of view. The results, as the esteemed reader has already guessed, were disappointing.
Pride and Prejudice
So, when we know that our interlocutor does not agree with our point of view on this or that issue, we ask him to speak out on another issue, for example, on the legalization of same-sex marriage. As the authors of the scientific work discovered, the subjects believed that people who are against immigration are also against same-sex marriage.
The researchers then asked the participants to repeat the task with different beliefs for both in-group and out-group members. Each time someone predicted what another person was thinking, they were asked to indicate how confident they were in their prediction on a scale from “not at all confident” to “very confident.” The researchers found that people were consistently 75% confident in the accuracy of their predictions, but were wildly off in their predictions of their opponents' views (a whopping 60%).
Who's right and who's wrong? And how do you tell? Image: honestproscons.com
The scientists then assessed how well people's confidence matched the accuracy of their guesses. For in-group participants who were asked to predict their peers' opinions, their confidence was well-founded: The more confident they were, the more accurate their results were.
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The situation was completely different with predicting the opinions of members of the “outgroup”: the more confident the members of the “ingroup” were in themselves, the more likely they were to be wrong about their opponents. The results show that people often mistakenly believe that they understand those who hold opposing views well than they actually do.
Us-them
The authors of the scientific work note that we, as a rule, understand members of our own group better, since we interact with them more often and more often. Moreover, we begin to better understand the individuality of “ours” and more easily accept their different views and beliefs. Roughly speaking, we are confident that we understand “ours”, and thanks to the experience of communicating with them, we usually succeed.
In contrast, our understanding of out-group members is often limited to what we've heard about them in the news, from friends, or on social media. If this information is oversimplified or inaccurate, then, like any other misinformation, it creates common misconceptions about out-group members and the views they hold.
People rarely understand each other. This is hardly news. Image: www.happiness.com
We apply the understanding we have from a few out-group members to all members of the group. This means that we misunderstand many people, even though we think we understand them very well, the authors of the study write.
Unfortunately, the consequences of this division into “us” and “them” are well known and serious: people value the lives of members of other groups less and are less likely to help them. This is because mistrust, dislike, and hostility towards them are constantly increasing.
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We also become less likely to interact with members of other groups, preferring not to work, live near, or even sit near them. And as modern society becomes increasingly polarized, people are less likely to challenge and correct incorrect views.
How to learn to understand each other?
To understand how to overcome the existing (and identified) misunderstandings between representatives of “us-them”, the authors of the study conducted a second experiment, during which they tried to find a way to refute the incorrect ideas of different groups about each other. This time, they told the subjects whether their predictions were correct or not.
The findings showed that when people are made aware of their incorrect assumptions about outgroup members, they begin to make more accurate predictions and better understand which people they are more likely to get along with.
People are not that different from each other. Image: miro.medium.com
It seems that informing people about the real views and beliefs of outgroup members can change their attitudes towards them, write the authors of a new study.
That's why it's so important to be aware of the views of a wide range of people. We should listen to each other and have an idea of who we are in everyday life. All of these factors help us understand that members of our “ingroup” are not that different from members of the “outgroup”. Over time, tolerant attitudes towards each other make it more likely that we will treat others humanely.