You are probably a naive realist. Try not to be
The optical illusion above is the Rubin vase — or is it two faces? This is a commonly used example of our tendency to see patterns in order to make sense of the world around us (a cornerstone of gestalt psychology). A more recent example of such an illusion concerned the color of a dress. Was it blue and black or white and gold? Irrespective of who was right and who was wrong (the dress was actually blue and black), two phenomena were fully on display: (1) People’s perception of the world around them is highly subjective, but (2) they tend to behave as if those subjective perceptions are objectively correct. These two elements compose naive realism.
Humans don’t view the world as it objectively exists. We take various pieces of information and interpret them in a way that makes sense to us. But individual differences — the values, emotions, personality traits, and even prior experiences we bring to any situation — influence our interpretations of the world. That means our interpretations are highly subjective, and they form the cornerstone of the psychological context in which we make decisions and act on them.
That’s why not everybody will look at the same comedian and reach the same conclusions about how funny that comedian is. Likewise, not everyone will make the same assessment of whether the latest iPhone is worth the cost. In both instances, the psychological context people bring with them influences the resulting conclusions they reach.
