05 February 2010
Perception: Is it really that simple?
My friend showed me this music video and my initial reaction was that of shock(fast forward to 1:11 if you do not wish to see the introduction). How could that do that to a child? He's like only a few years old? He's only a toddler for god sake! How could they expose him to all that horror! Imagine being used an actor for a music and exposed to all that scary stuffs, what kind of childhood would you have? You would be traumatised and live in certain fear the fear and phobia stays with you as you grow up too.
You cannot really train a baby to be an actor. How do you teach him what to do and when to do what? Babies are very simple minded and innocent and they just express them freely for they are not exposed to a lot of things yet so their kinesics and expressions are very simple and truthful in most cases. Just look at the video and see how the baby cries when he sees those monsters and when put down on the ground and allowed to roam on his by his mother, he walks away from them while crying at the same time. Even oculesics come into play here, the baby eyes are all red from all that crying and there is this expression of fear in his eyes. When the policeman(monster in the policeman attire) is carrying him to return him to his mother, he is crying as well and he is clearly not comfortable at the close proximity that he is to the policeman(proxemics is being observed here). Are you, like me, filled with anger and disgust now after watching the video? That the producers could subject a poor and innocent baby to such horrors for the sake of a music video? If you are, then please watch the next video(skip to 2:24 and 5:52), you are about to be proven wrong.
Now, what are your thoughts on watching the second video? It does not seem like what it is anymore does it? Just look at the baby, whom we know now as baby Zachary, plays with the fingers of the monster and is very fascinated by it. He even looks happy as he plays with the fingers as well. For the part where he cried in the cot, it seems that he is trained to cry at the prompting of his mother and is really harmless for she immediately comforts him after the filming for the part is done. As for the part at 5:52, he can even play with and laughs at the policeman who carried him and returned him to his mother. It is a stark contrast to the music video where he cried while being carried by the same said policeman.
Sometimes, what we perceive something to be may not be the truth in reality. Things may not be that simple and if we do not make an effort to get the whole picture, we will be looking at only one side of it and will look at it or treat it fairly. We will then be biased towards it and think badly of it. Take a court for example, if the judge and jury do not listen to both sides of the stories, wouldn't that be unfair for the accused? He or she may then be sentenced unjustly which is not a good thing. What are your sentiments on this? Are you guilty of omitting vital info when you are presented with a new fact and choose to only look at it from one perspective or do you make an effort to get the whole picture before passing judgement?
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Hey YG,
ReplyDeleteI think when most of us saw the video for the first time, we would be shocked in horror not at the frightening spectacle of the monsters (except my friend) but rather at the “assumed” mistreatment of the young child, but like any illusion performed by an experienced magician, there is more than meets the eye.
Sometimes I wear my earpiece whenever I go out be it to school, to church or to buy groceries. Anyone that sees me is readily informed by their common sense that this young gentleman is listening to music, but what they don’t know is that my earpiece is not connected to my phone. Life would be a major burden if we do not make assumptions about the world we live in.
Heuristics is a key component in our lives so that we don’t have to perform mental somersaults whenever we are confronted with something we see on a daily basis. I would like to share with you this video clip of James Randi (or better known by his stage name The Amazing Randi, but personally I address him as The Amazing M*F* Randi because he is so damn cool), a retired magician about assumption making.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLwTPq-5uI
I feel that perception of reality will always be tainted by personal bias, prejudice accrued from past experiences and cognitive biases when it is subjective and left for interpretation. Qualitative statements like “this bowl of noodles is spicy” and “she looks really gorgeous” are some subjective examples. Unlike an objective fact like a unit of measurement, there isn’t any yardstick to determine, for example, how tall this person is.
Most of us desire to make objective statements but I guess it is pretty tedious to validate facts or claims people make. For example it is very difficult as a lay man to know the efficacy of so and so medication and to do that you need to know the regulatory body of that specific industry and how do they consider such and such medication to be valid, effective and safe. Even if you know how the mechanism of the individual components of the medication, they might react differently together. Most of us do not even bother about such things and arrive at the conclusion rather facilely and just consume the diet pill.
It would be wise to seek both side of an issue before settling on a side, but I think many of us do not circumspect them and instead allow rhetoric to sway us.
I would like to end my comment with a quote from Albert Einstien about common sense –
“Common sense is nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down by the mind before you reach eighteen.”
Peace,
R
We always see the surface of things rather than the depth of it. That is human nature. Not many people can actually see the depth of things at one glance.
ReplyDeleteAs always, both sides of the story counts.
Kids and adults are really placed in different categories in term of maturity, level of understanding and stuff. Cannot really dump them into one. I'm quite intrigued by the fact that the kid was scared in such manner. It is just sick.
ReplyDeleteI think that we should not jump into conclusion. Every issue has two stories to it. Sometimes we tend to listen to only one side of it and make the conclusion. We select the information that we believe is correct (though normally it may not be the case). We do judge others easily from our first impression on them. From their dressing to their physical appearance. Bad CONCLUSION!
ReplyDeletelook at the streets and we see all these crap. advertisements everywhere showing people the front picture and never the back picture n pple dont learn frm it
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how our brain immedately thinks that the baby is under alot of fear. We consider things on the surface area only and not the volume. That is why for most things, the volume is actually numerically bigger than the surface area because if the volume is consider then we will all see more things.
ReplyDeleteOn the first video, I think one of the worst case is that the kid's mother is allowing her son to take part in the video shoot. If I'm that kid I might grew up thinking monsters came visting or hiding under the bed.
ReplyDeleteUpon seeing the 2nd video, then I saw how the baby is fond of the monsters (weird?) and began playing them. I guess this teaches us not to let loose our minds upon seeing something that seems uncomprehensible at first. We should look more, rather than think more. (2 eyes > 1 brain) =)
Btw, nice song.
I must say that first impression counts and a lot of people swear by that. I myself have some experiences like that and it really takes a lot for the other party to prove themselves otherwise. If you did not post the 2nd video, I would have been angered by what they have done to the baby by exposing it to such scary stuffs at a young age.
ReplyDeleteWow...this video has actually opened up my mind. I have to see a lot of us who care too much about the surface but we actually neglect what is beneath it. This is sad as we tend to make judgement errors. But sadly, in many situation we tend to look from one side only...
ReplyDeleteMost of the times, people only look at one side of the story especially if the parties involved are someone they know or if they are angry or 1 of the parties involved. Anger plays a huge role in judgements and more often than not, peope only look at one side of the story and fail to get the larger picture which is very vital in making fair decisions.
ReplyDeletePerception can be a scary thing, it can destroy someone else. For example, if you do not give a good impression to your boss, he will do anything to kick you of his department or give you the sack. If it ends there, then that is still okay but if it doesn't, he can go on to smear your name to the other bosses in the company or worse still, to partners within the same industry and you can forget about working in the same industry if your boss has a lot of influence.
ReplyDeleteToo bad people tend to jump to conclusions without/insufficient facts.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, what people have to do is just take a minute, sit down and think beyond the surface to see the bigger picture instead of just jumping to conclusions. Jumping to conclusions does no good to all parties involved and it may hurt the perceiver as well in the long run. Sitting down and thinking through to see the larger picture is not difficult but it helps in preventing misunderstandings as well.
ReplyDeleteI guess we have to be aware that there is a big challenge to overcome bias in our perception and we must take up the challenge to make such changes in ourselves and around us. The baby in the video has less preconceived ideas than us and thus would have a comparatively easier task of making the paradigm shift of accepting the 'monster'. We should always be reminded that preconceived ideas are what shapes perception and it is a good practice to reflect on what the preconceived ideas are before we make judgement on anything or criticize other's judgement. The videos do shed light on important epistemological ideas though i feel that the method used to illustrate such points is quite unethical as it exploits the innocence of the child.
ReplyDeletePerception of someone else can also be due to a personal bias towards that person which may hinder the perceiver from making fair decision in the case of a group leader for a project or a boss during appraisals for his employees.
ReplyDeleteThe person may be a good worker but because the leader is biased towards him due to previous encounters and experiences, he gives him a poor rating and appraisal which is not fair to him.
Even the video is flawed, a baby is innocent but you should not be making him do that! But I guess I was wrong as well when I saw the second video when the baby is actually curious about the monsters and reaches out to touch it.