That was a real eye-opening podcast. I agree with the notion that we truly don’t think about the situations we put other people in. The focus is typically on oneself and the doubts they have about performing certain actions or expecting a certain reaction. When you put it that way you really start to understand why people react certain a certain way. Especially living in New York, where people rarely say good morning or smile towards one another because there is a fear of a certain response. In reality, you never know what someone else is thinking but you’re only aware of your own thoughts.
The podcast states “often when we’re the person causing distress, we cant see that distress, its invisible to us” and “It’s the people creating the toxic culture’s responsibility to fix it.” This kind of connects to the line of the poem “If you are not to become a monster, you must care what they think” because, within today’s society, it’s especially relevant. For example, an officer pulling a minority over. The driver will be scared due to the media and the culture made of killing people like them and may show a lot of fear to the point where it’s physically visible as maybe shaking and sweat. From the officer’s view, they could see it as them being nervous from hiding something so they in turn would react a certain way that leads to a problem, instead of thinking from the other perspective.
When I went to high school, I had the habit of saying good morning every time I walked into the store to buy something.This was something I did every morning and I thought other people did the same thing as well, but then one day I just didn’t say good morning and the cashier asked if I was alright. I was immediately confused about why he asked that but then he explained to me I didn’t say good morning and I was shocked. I didn’t really think he thought that much of a “good morning” to address it when I didn’t say it. I’m assuming I was one of the few students that actually said good morning before they ordered a sandwich because the students at my school weren’t really the most respectful. That just shows that I don’t really acknowledge the value of my word to others, because I assume I’m just another regular person. The moral of the story is you never know how something you say can impact someone’s daily life/schedule.
Hi Steph,
I find your post really refreshing as you took a different perspective than that of my own. It did not occur to me that egocentric bias not only contributes to inaccurate perception of one’s power over others, but also fuels lots of problems our society faces today. And I think the podcast and the poem offers a good first step to address these issues, which is for people with opposite beliefs to become aware of their own biases and think about how it could lead to unwanted consequences. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
This was actually a very rewarding read for me because in highschool I would stay much later than most students because I would wait for my ride home. Every day without fail I said ‘thank you and good night’ to the security guy there. I don’t know what affect it had on him but I’m sure it was a good one.
I think it is so sweet that uttering a simple “good morning” to someone every day can make such a difference. It is fascinating to me that small gestures such as this can be a rarity. Glad that your small act of warmth and kindness could make someone’s morning every day!