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Jayo
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23 May 2015, 10:44 am

Now THIS is a gem of psychology that I came across, which ties in with a lot of our frustration and being blindsided by misunderstandings that blow up in our faces. It's called the False Consensus Affect, which is where a group of people will automatically assume others - who may seem "strange" or outliers - will still hold the same shared beliefs and understandings of things the way they do. Needless to say this has caused me untold grief and frustration in the past, especially in past jobs where I got negative performance reviews about "tendency to make assumptions" or "effectively interpret what other people expect" or "focus on the most important things first". All are based on the neurotypical "common sense" (quotations to emphasize an ethno-centric, or rather neuro-centric bias, when my actions are grounded in rational thought), :x :x and I often think I'd become fluent in an Oriental language before getting their "common sense" nailed down to a tee :?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False-consensus_effect



asd123
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23 May 2015, 12:47 pm

I find cognitive biases incredibly fascinating. Like you alluded to, working or living with neurotypicals is a whole lot like being the only one around that speaks your language. I guess I handle it best when I render the differences moot. Nobody's gonna change. Might as well try to stop a dog from wagging its tail when it's happy. No I'm not comparing NTs to dogs.



Jayo
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23 May 2015, 1:10 pm

asd123 wrote:
I find cognitive biases incredibly fascinating. Like you alluded to, working or living with neurotypicals is a whole lot like being the only one around that speaks your language. I guess I handle it best when I render the differences moot. Nobody's gonna change. Might as well try to stop a dog from wagging its tail when it's happy. No I'm not comparing NTs to dogs.


So maybe it'd be more accurate to say, might as well try to convince a medieval peasant that the world isn't flat :)
To NTs, social conventions and institutions are like dope where peer pressure abounds, and nobody dare question the utility of it all.



olympiadis
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23 May 2015, 1:53 pm

Jayo wrote:
Now THIS is a gem of psychology that I came across, which ties in with a lot of our frustration and being blindsided by misunderstandings that blow up in our faces. It's called the False Consensus Affect, which is where a group of people will automatically assume others - who may seem "strange" or outliers - will still hold the same shared beliefs and understandings of things the way they do.


When a group of people are sharing assumptions, they tend to accuse the odd person out of making assumptions ( false assumptions ), but rarely realize that it was they who were doing the initial and primary assuming.
You, the odd person out, are automatically labeled as wrong because you are the minority.
If you try to use logic to show them their errors, then you get accused of rationalizing, or being arrogant or difficult.

You are expected to be submissive and cooperative to manipulations, and to intuitively get your instruction from the majority.



btbnnyr
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23 May 2015, 2:21 pm

This false consensus appears often on wp, when people keep saying we to include other people who don't share their beliefs and perspectives.


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