“I’ll believe it when I see it.”
That was a frequent comment in my parents’ house when I was
growing up. Essentially what they were saying was that they valued action, not
talk. Although it’s a good line and reflected their values, there’s only one
small problem - it’s not really true.
We tell ourselves that we believe what we see because it
feels like it must be that way, and to an extent, our brain is hardwired for it
to be so. The unconscious brain (the portions that require no thought such as
staying balanced while walking) can handle up to 11 million bits of information
per second. Here’s the interesting part – visual data takes up 10 million of
those bits. In other words, our brain spends over 90 percent of its energy
interpreting information that comes in from our eyes. Because vision takes up
so much energy, the brain is constantly trying to simplify things, cut corners,
make assumptions and reshape things into that which is familiar.
The anatomy and organization of our brain explains why.
Light comes in through the front of our eyes and strikes the retina at the
back. The retina generates millions of tiny electrical impulses that go to the
back of the brain, which immediately compresses the information by a factor of
10. From there, those electrical impulses travel to a middle portion of the
brain, where they’re once again compressed, this time by a factor of 300.
Having now been compressed by a factor of 3,000 (10 x 300), yet another new set
of impulses are passed into an area just below where the impulses are
interpreted and the brain decides what the image actually represents. Even
then, the image processing isn’t complete. Even though the brain is now
interpreting information that is only 1/3,000th of what it was when it first
struck the retina, it now has to decide if what it is interpreting actually
makes sense. Thus in a final step, the brain compares it to memories of what it
has seen in the past against this new image. From that comparison it subtracts
out what it believes should not matter and what it cannot comprehend which
results, finally, in an image that it believes makes sense. So, with apologies
to my parents, it’s not a matter of believing it when you see it - but rather
seeing it once you believe it.
The ability of the brain to manipulate information coming
from the outside world plays out in our personal lives all the time. For
example, when we fall in love we see only the best of that person even though
the imperfections we fail to see are just as present then as they are later
when reality sets in. We fail to see them because acknowledging that
imperfections exist isn’t consistent with what we believe at that moment. The
same phenomenon can also play out in our work lives. For example, what do you
believe about Mercy and how does that compare to what you are seeing?
Perhaps a co-worker is out for the day. You were told they
were sick but could they have been let go? There weren’t any graham crackers in
the hospital unit’s kitchenette…could that mean we’re down to our last pennies?
Factors like less revenue in health care, implementation of Obamacare and
increased government regulation create a certain level of fear. That fear can
make minor things with little significance appear ominous.
I would like to know how you feel. Think about what you
believe about Mercy and then compare it against what you see. Please let me
know about some of those beliefs and how what you see enforces or goes against
those beliefs. Email me at alan.scarrow@mercy.net
or contact me on Twitter at @DrScarrow.
