The Role of Perception Research Study
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The Role of Perception Research Study
It’s Your Choice 6- Frame: The Role of Perception
Narrator-In today’s episode titled “look at it this way”, Nicole and Roger introduce the concept of the decision frame and explore the importance of perspective in determining the way you see a decision .They will talk about how to avoid a perspective not suited to the problem you’re trying to solve and they’ll share tools for identifying exploring which perspective could be most useful for developing your frame .
Narrator: Framing -the first link in our decision chain is the topic of today’s show. Picture frames and cameras are great things to think about when you’re tying to understand what we mean by framing your decision .
Nicole: It’s true it’s a lot like taking a picture. In both cases you need to know what you want to capture and why. Framing a decision is like finding the right subject to focus on. The frame for today’s show is recognizing the importance of perspective in defining our decision.
Roger: I’m thinking that by prospective mean how we look at a problem or point of view.
Nicole: Yes, It’s one of the keys to answer the question -What am I deciding ? It’ll also affect what you want from your decision and how do you go about creating alternatives and what information you feel you need.
Roger: It would help to have an example.
Nicole: You read my mind. Why don’t you and our viewers watch this video to see what I mean.
WHODUNNIT?
Detective: Clearly somebody in this room murdered Lord Smythe. Who? At precisely 3:34 this afternoon was bludgeoned to death with a blunt instrument. I want each of you to tell me your whereabouts at precisely the time that this dastardly deed took place.
Maid: I was polishing the brass in the master bedroom.
Butler: I was buttering his lordship’s scones below stairs, sir.
Lady Smthye: I was planting my petunias in the potting shed.
Detective: Constable, arrest Lady Smthye
Lady Smythe: But, but how did you know?
Detective: Madame, as any horticulturist will tell you one does not plant petunias until May is out, take her away. It’s just a matter of observation. The real question is how observant were you?
Roger: That’s wild. The only thing I noticed was the inspectors raincoat and even that was more of a funny feeling. I couldn’t have told you the original color only that it
seemed different .I wonder how many changes our viewers spotted
Nicole: Most people only catch a couple if any at all.
Roger: I was so focused on figuring out who the culprit was..
Nicole: But you didn’t notice most the changes.
Roger: But wasn’t I supposed to look for the perp
Nicole: Trap ,Roger, trap !
Roger: Huh?
Nicole: Sometimes others provide a frame that leads us to see things from the perspective they want. In this case , the title ,the scene and the inspector deliberately created a frame for you trying to make you think about the crime .
Roger; Well it worked on me. Hey , that seems like something advertisers would want to do.
Nicole: Totally! It’s sometimes called “Thrown Frame” because they throw the frame out at you and if you’re not paying attention you adopt perspective they want you to.
Roger: Well that’s pretty sneaky.
Nicole: and that’s not all. Even when there isn’t a thrown frame, we often just rely on her own experiences and look for things based on our own assumption it’s another decision trap called Selective Perception.
Roger :So since I didn’t expect things to change I didn’t notice when they did?
Nicole: Exactly
Roger: I’m feeling a little weird about this, thrown frames , selective perception. Seems like a lot to look out for.
Nicole: Yup. But now you know to watch out for them. There are limits to the number of things we can concentrate on at once and we’re all susceptible to traps from time to time.
Roger: Is there some way we can give our viewers more insight into this.
Nicole: Sure, here’s any exercise based of a story told about a fancy hotel in New York City .
Narrator: A large and very expensive hotel is getting continuing complaints from unhappy guests who are frustrated at how long they have to wait for the elevator you’ve been called in to consult on a solution to the problem . Take a moment to think about how this problem might be solved and write down some ideas you might recommend to the hotel management.
Roger : So our viewers have written their ideas, but what really happened at the hotel?
Nicole: The hotel invited two firms in to consult. One was an engineering firm and the other was an interior design firm. They each proposed solutions but they were quite different from each other.
Roger: So what happened?
Nicole: So the engineers recommended installing faster motors which cost about $750,000. Their report said this strategy would reduce the average waiting time from one minute to just over 40 seconds. This is acceptable to most customers from a survey the engineering firm did.
Roger: And what about the design firm?
Nicole: They recommended putting a large mirror and a potted plant at the elevator lobby on each floor at a cost about $45,000.
Roger: Huh? How did that speed up the elevators?
Nicole: It didn’t speed them up at all, it just made the customers less aware of the wait. The designers were concerned about how people felt about how long they waited, not how long they actually waited.
Roger: so what was the final decision?
Nicole: They went with the plants and mirrors. The customers were happy and the hotel saved a boatload of money.
Roger: You know never in a million years would I have thought of the mirrors and plants.
Nicole: Probably those engineers wouldn’t have either. Even the smartest people can suffer from having a perspective that’s too narrow.
Roger: Hmmm. This whole idea of getting stuck in a narrow perspective sounds suspiciously like another decision trap
Nicole: You’re catching on. This is related to a decision trap called anchoring. In practice what usually happens when you have a perspective that’s too narrow or not flexible is you get stuck on one point of view and don’t consider other ways of thinking about a problem and then this can lead to missing important information and alternatives.
Roger: So basically, if you get your frame wrong from the start , it can really mess up the rest of your thinking about your decision, but how can you avoid this?
Nicole: For one, you can use a tool like getting input from others who look at problems differently than you do or imagine how someone else might look at it. The most important thing is being flexible about your approach.
Narrator: Today we learned about the influence our perspective has on our expectations and perceptions. Often, what we see is what we expect to see and our point of view and expectations often determine what information we think is useful in making a decision. We learned about the traps of Thrown Frame Selective Perception and Anchoring and the importance of being flexible when determining your perspective.
Roger: From now, I’m going to be skeptical of advertisers who are trying to throw frames at me.
Nicole: Good
Roger: And interior designers who are trying to distract me with mirrors and plants.
Nicole: No, wait I think you’re missing the point here.
Roger: Depends on your point of view, doesn’t it.
Nicole: Aww, enough for today. See you next time on “It’s your choice”.