Factors That Affect Perception: Projection

 More on perception and distortions:

image credit: moonproject.co.uk

People are generally self-centered and tend to evaluate other people and events from the perspective of their own attributes and values. If we look carefully, we see that we are constantly projecting our own needs and feelings, values and attitudes, our own traits and personal likes and dislikes on to others.

If I can be alert and work 20 hours a day and be fresh after 4 hours of sleep, why can’t you? And if you need 8 hours of sleep and a break every couple of hours, you must be lazy and inefficient. I take great pride in perfection and efficiency and therefore these are desirable traits in all my colleagues. If you are careless, you don’t deserve my respect however brilliant and imaginative you may be.

When we project our personalities and motivations onto other people and their actions, it distorts our perception of those people and those actions.