¿Do we have Selective Blindness or Selective Attention?
@VirtualVariety - 16/12/21
Perhaps this question sounds a little confusing, many will say: "But how can we have Virtual Variety blindness if we are reading this article that you share with us". And they are quite right, however, Selective Blindness goes beyond losing our vision, in my country we have a phrase with which I want to start this article. "There is no worse blind, than those who do not want to see".
¿What is Selective Blindness or Selective Attention?
William James, the American philosopher, and Psychologist define it as:
A type of cognitive bias occurs in the process of perception when the subject, based on his expectations, selects an object of attention and neglects the remaining part of the information.
In short, it is the position that some people assume when they see only what is convenient for them and thus ignore the true reality, this is something quite serious because it affects many people in the world, blindness or selective attention occurs in many areas, both family, love, work, social, cultural and others. And this is known by the big advertising companies, for this reason, we see how celebrities advertise a specific item, this is a way to influence you, so that you ignore the others that may be better than those, but as there is a celebrity promoting it automatically our mind says: "If he or she advertises it, then it is worth buying it".
In the family environment, it happens in the Parents, we talked about it months ago in an Article we created, how many Dads or Moms have a preference with one or two children, while they ignore the others, that is because they have selective blindness because in that child they see a Superhero while in the others they see villains when maybe the story is different.
¿Do we want to Reject the Evidence that is shown to us?
Many times yes, it does not happen to them that they have faith in something, but it turns out that perhaps it is not as they believe but still find many excuses to continue there even though we know that no longer suits us, that is to be selective blind, we cover the bad with excuses, just because we do not want to understand that the reality is different, to continue in that position will hurt us, then is where the sad and severe consequences come into play.
Types Of Selective Blindness
Love Blindness - It is something that happens daily, people who live with abusers, abusers, rapists, and others, yet they are still there enduring abuse, beatings, aberrations, sexual and psychological abuse, but divert their reality by saying that he or she loves them, that he or she did not have that attitude before, but he or she is submerged in so many problems and stress, that's why he or she unloads his or her rage in this way. For God's sake, this is one of the worst blindnesses that can exist, because the more they try not to see, the more they try to divert their gaze, the faster they will be earning a trip to the cemetery before their time. Geoffrey Chaucer, this famous English Writer, and Philosopher said in one of his books of 1405: "Love is Blind", and according to the studies made by scientists, this phrase is not so literal, it turns out that when we fall in love, we try to hide any mistake, any imperfection, anything that does not fit, just to stay with that someone, to feel that we are not alone and that maybe we have a "backup" when it is just the opposite.
Family Blindness - As we mentioned in the previous paragraphs, in the family we will always see that sad behavior of favoritism, where some are ignored, criticized, judged, while others are loved, but it turns out that in most cases those loved ones are worse than the Devil himself, but as there is blindness, their reality is obviated, and only the "good" is seen.
Occupational Blindness - In the work environment, we have come across those bosses who are only based perhaps on the physical, who only base their decisions on who they like, even if they do not do the job and are very lazy, but the worker who complies, who dedicates time to his functions so that the company advances, unfortunately, is considered as a simple employee who can be fired at any time, the blindness is so great that the critical and analytical thinking is null because they do not see beyond their eyes, only what is convenient for them.
Social Blindness - Here comes into play the double standards as well, for example, today there is a great criticism of all those movies, books, series among others that emerged 30/40/50 years ago, there have even been movements to veto these works because according to them affect the new generations and convey a negative message. However, when we listen to current music, we see lyrics full of hate, violence, sexuality, abuse, where it is normalized to treat women as an animal or to consume any drug without any problem, then is where we can see that Selective Blindness, I only see what suits me, I only criticize what suits me but I do not see the whole context, I do not evaluate the whole reality and I only make conjecture based on what my poor vision can.
Political Blindness - I do not know if some of you readers agree with me, but in recent times the political debate has gained much ground and all thanks to social networks, politics was only discussed at family dinners, waiting for the bus, or maybe at work, but now it is a 24-hour topic, however, there is that popular saying: "Some people have a short memory". It is a memory with selective blindness because they forget the past, they only see what benefits them but do not think about the future, that happens in the political field, we only listen to that nice speech, the one that tells us about Wonderland, in that Narnia, something that does not exist, but when they talk to us about reality, when they talk to us with data, with solid and respectable arguments there we put on some pirate patches, some tampons for our ears and we pretend that nothing is happening.
As we can read my dear readers, possibly we have come across some other person with selective blindness or maybe we are the blind ones, and we do not realize it, but it is very easy to know, evaluate your environment, evaluate what you support and what you do not support, document what others think about that topic or event, The best thing we can do is always use our Critical and Analytical Thinking, look for the way to see beyond everything that surrounds us, let's be objective and we can start with platforms like Read.Cash, here we will come across many articles, some excellent, some good, and some not so good, let's be objective when rating, curing, commenting, complementing, let's not be guided or based only on the theme that he is my friend, that I like him, when we make use of these excuses we become selective blind people, we only read what suits us, in life being objective is a virtue that we develop over time, but even so, there are people who reach a "mature" age and their objectivity is worse than their mathematical intelligence.
