Check Your Assumptions
I drew an oval for the palm of the hand and added outlines for each finger. I’d drawn several of these and I was getting pretty good. My mom came over, leaning over my shoulder. “That’s good. Is that a hand? But hands have five fingers. You’ve drawn six.” We counted them together. Yes, I had drawn six fingers. “What’s wrong with that?” I asked. We counted the fingers on my right hand. Five. We counted the fingers on my left hand. Five. We counted the fingers on Mom’s hands. Five on each. “There’s always five fingers,” she said.
So, what’s with the petroglyph at newspaper rock with three protuberances from its right hand and two protuberances from its left?
Perhaps in ancient times people had so many accidents that they often had just two or three fingers. Perhaps people with fewer digits were considered blessed or cursed and were more likely to be immortalized. Perhaps the artist was a poor drawer, like I was as a child, or simply couldn’t be bothered to chisel every digit. But perhaps the explanation is more fundamental. Perhaps it is not necessary to conceptualize the human hand as having five fingers.
I pick up a stick. My thumb is on one side, the fingers on the other. My hand has two parts.
I pull a thorn from my dog’s foot. I pinch my thumb and index finger together. The other fingers dangle out of the way. My hand has two (or possibly three) parts.
I pick a blackberry. My thumb, index finger, and middle finger surround the berry, tugging it off the bush. My other fingers dangle. My hand has three (or four) parts.
I can think of my hand as having five fingers or as having four fingers and a thumb. But I can also think of it has having two or three or four parts. We probably will never know how ancient people conceptualized their hands. However, the figure at newspaper rock makes me realize it’s not necessary to conceptualize hands as having five fingers.
As we grow up, adults around us teach us how they conceptualize the world, so we can communicate effectively with them. They teach us words for the parts of our hands: finger, thumb, index finger, middle finger, ring finger, pinky, ball, heel, knuckles, nails. We come to conceptualize our hands in much the same way as the adults around. The same is true of virtually everything else in our lives: What is a home, a job, a marriage? What is love? What is happiness? We end up with rich conceptual understandings of each of these. Some parts of our concepts are based upon our biology. For example, most humans have 10 fingers and 10 toes, and most cultures1 develop counting systems that are base 10. But some parts of our concepts are taught, and alternative conceptualizations are possible. Many more of our concepts are taught than we realize. For example, Western cultures value punctuality (we even base course grades upon showing up on time for class), but other cultures do not have the same sense of what it means to be “on time” (Ronin, 2014). As another example, in Western cultures, we associate marriage with love, but in some cultures, marriage is an economic union that is unrelated to love (Gilbert, 2010).
Assumptions are hard to see. When I was a teaching assistant, the instructor asked me to proof-read an exam. One question asked which measure of central tendency was like the balance point on a teeter-totter. The answer, of course, is the mean, which balances the positive and negative deviation scores. I asked the instructor if his students knew what a teeter-totter was. 40% of our students were from other countries, and I didn’t know what playground equipment was common where they came from: Are teeter-totters world-wide? Even if a student is familiar with teeter-totters themselves, do they call it a teeter-totter? Perhaps they call it a see-saw or use a non-English word. The instructor wasn’t sure if all of his students knew this term and so he rephrased the question. What’s striking, though, is that he hadn’t realized this might be a problem. He had been teaching statistics for decades. He had been explaining the mean for just as long. He had not realized that his way of describing the mean might not be understandable to some of his students. This instructor is not unique. We all have difficulty seeing our assumptions. That’s what makes them assumptions. Assumptions are not things we think ABOUT; they are the concepts we think WITH. For a profound example of this, see Derek Siver’s TED talk.
Even if we are aware of assumptions, they are ubiquitous, embedded in how we think, and difficult to change. Let me give you an example. After I completed my bachelor’s degree, I went on a vacation, travelling around England. When I arrived in London, I was amused to see signs before each crosswalk, telling pedestrians to LOOK RIGHT. Cars drive on the left, so when you are crossing the street the nearest cars are coming from the right. In busy city traffic, stepping into the street while looking away from the cars can be deadly, so I was motivated to do this properly. Three weeks and innumerable crosswalks later, I was chagrined to find that I was still looking the wrong way.
When immersing yourself in another culture, many of your assumptions are likely to be wrong. Try to notice when things don’t conform to your assumptions. Try to figure out how these people are conceptualizing basic aspects of life. More generally, when interacting with any person, try to notice when you don’t seem to be in synch, when they seem to be using terms differently than you do, when they say something unexpected. And when you are writing, be particularly careful, because you won’t be able to interact with the person in real time to correct any misunderstandings. Ask for feedback from people with a wide variety of backgrounds: Ask them what is confusing or hard to read, and then try to rephrase in a way that makes fewer assumptions.
But incorrect assumptions can trip you up in a wide variety of circumstances, not just when communicating with others. Check your assumptions when you are exploring a new topic or hobby or field: Many of the assumptions you have from your previous experiences will help you, but some of them will be incorrect. Also check your assumptions when you are problem-solving and you feel like you are stuck in a rut. You may need to take a different tact.
As long as we are living and growing, we are always reaching into the unknown. As we do so, our assumptions will guide how we approach new things, new ideas, and new people. Be open to the possibility that you are completely wrong. Look for evidence that the new is not like the old, and try to understand what is going on in this new circumstance. Having discovered that your assumptions are interfering with your understanding, be gentle with yourself as you struggle to adapt. Recognize that assumptions are powerful. Return again and again to the idea that you want to understand, that you want to communicate. Learn new ways of thinking that will help you do this.
References
Gilbert, E. (2010). Committed: A love story. London, UK: Bloomsbury.
Ronin, K. (2014). Your guide to punctuality in international business. http://www.executive-impressions.com/blog/your-guide-to-punctuality-in-international-business
Notes
1. Not all cultures use base 10. The Yuki people of California use base 8, because they count the spaces between the fingers. See https://www.thoughtco.com/definition-of-base-10-2312365
Kimberly A. Barchard is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at UNLV and is the Director of the Interactive Measurement Group. She works to empower lab members to accomplish their personal and professional goals, particularly through the development of leadership, research, and organizational skills.