Today is the time of information. Every one knows that whoever has information is a king. Importance of information is revealed to every body. Only few people know about the importance of perception. Almost every body takes decision based on his perception.

Once a report was published saying that alcohol drinking is not good for health. They experimented with some earthworms in bottle of wine .After few ours those earth worms were dead. It showed the massage that how badly it can affect to internal body parts. But those who love drinking translated it in other way. They considered it helpful to kill harmful worms in stomach. They enjoyed drinking more. That is the power of perception over information.

You can find many different answers of the same question. Perception looks real even when it is not real.  One research was done at Harvard that showed ninety perceptions of the errors in thinking were due to perception not because of logic. We have studies science in our school time that emphasis on logic behind every action. Even our whole system follows logic. Even we talk about logic in our life but we bend logics also according to our perception. Logic plays comparatively minor role than to perception.

You build logic according to your perception. Perception is the starting point of your thinking when perception is improper then your answer will be rubbish. Even if your logic is correct. Once in a village one little child was offered to choose between 5 bugs and 10 bugs currency note. He picked 5 one, people laughed at him because of his foolishness. This incident spread in village. When ever people used to see him they used offer him to choose between 5 or 10 for a fun. Child  also used to do the same he always picked on 5. One day one adult saw him and asked that why you don’t pick 10, that had more worth than 5. The little boy said if I would have picked the 10 first time, how many times they would have offered me with the choice? Probably not again, wasn’t it?

We take the situations as we are thinking. We see all the aspects of a situation according to our perception but when reality is known, our perception also get changed. I remember one story once a person reached a platform to catch a train in early morning. Atmosphere was quite peaceful. He was waiting in waiting room. Mean while one lady came with two little child in that room and sit next to him. That lady was quite silent. Her two little boys were very naughty. They were picking up and throwing other people things here and there. Initially they took them lightly but children were not in control. They were continuing with their mischief. Their mother was not bothered about what was happening seeing that all nearby people got in tensed and started criticizing about that lady’s ignorance. At last that person got angry at her and shouted about her children to control and about her ignorance. She apologized for whole incident and said that just now she was coming from hospital, her husband got expired unexpectedly. She was not in situation to control herself or her children. She did not know what to do and how to face the time ahead. She was worried about to take care of her children alone without much resource behind. When she narrated her story to him, he and other people got into sympathy with her. They were trying to help her in their own way. And situation was totally changed after listening to her. Their perception also got changed for her.

In any situation different people take it different way. I identified one situation when my friend was in gossip. One of his known sales person came to him. He was very talkative but bit boring for us. After talking to him for some time, my friend  started walking to toward the office door by keeping one of his hand on salesperson  shoulder, making him feel friendly and respect. He just did good handshake and smiled on him seen him off in a short time. That sales person felt very warm and happy through his behavior and here we got bit relaxed and to start gossip again.

The problem with perception is there are many alternative perception, and alternative ways to look at something. To become a better human being and effective in public relation we need to develop the skill of “possibility thinking.”

Sources of perceptions

Perceptions design a world around us. They are the way of organizing the information we see or hear around us. Perceptions normally come from our personal experience. Tradition, culture, religion, family, friends and education influence more to our perception.

Selective perception does not give freedom

Once our perceptions are formed we seethe world through these perceptions.We only se those things which support our perception and ignore what does not. It’s not like we reject them that do not support our perception. We simply do not notice or see them at all. Did you notice when you are in a mood of buying a computer or laptop. You will find so many advertisements in newspaper and on net which only has information about computer. If you planning to purchase a bike you will notice many bikes around you on the road. These were there before also but you simply did not notice them. We see or hear the only information what we want otherwise we ignore them.

If we are listening to that information only what we want, then we can not take wise decisions, we are not free to choose between options, our choices are not free. When we see only one part of the information and take decisions on that basis then problem will start arising from other end.