The world we perceive is different from the real world. It is as if we are constantly looking at it through lenses that distort its shapes and proportions, modifying some aspects or deforming and erasing others. And we don’t even realize it!
We are always convinced that we are right in matters such as sports, religion, politics or even in the management of Covid-19, however, we always use lenses through which we look at reality. In short, we believe that the world is as we see it, the basic idea of naive realism. In this Psychology-Online article, we will tell you what is naive realism in psychology.
What is naive realism
The term, as used today in psychology, was coined by social psychologist Lee Ross and his colleagues in the 90s of the 20th century. Specifically, naïve realism is an epistemological attitude according to which mental representations are the faithful and objective reproduction of the external world.
In this sense, naïve realism in social psychology is the human tendency to believe that we see the world around us objectively and that people who disagree with us are uninformed, irrational, or prejudiced. This phenomenon causes people to exaggerate the differences between themselves and others.
Psychologists believe that naive realism can trigger and aggravate conflicts, as well as creating barriers to negotiation through different mechanisms. In fact, naïve realism provides a theoretical basis for many others, that is, systematic errors that occur when thinking and making decisions. These include the false consent effect and the fundamental attribution error.
Precursors of naive realism
Naive realism follows a subjectivist tradition of modern social psychology that has its roots in one of the founders of the field, Kurt Lewin. From the 1920s to the 1940s, Lewin developed an approach to the study of human behavior that he called field theory, which proposes that a person’s behavior is a function of the person and the environment.
During this period, subjectivist ideas also spread to other areas of psychology. For example, he argued that infants see the world through an egocentric lens and have difficulty separating their beliefs from those of others.
In the 1940s and 1950s, early pioneers of social psychology applied the subjectivist view to the field of social perception. Specifically, in 1948, psychologists David Kretch and Richard Krutchfield argued that people perceive and interpret the world according to their needs, connotations, personality, and previously formed cognitive patterns. Later, the social psychologist, Gustav Ichheiserdelved into this idea by observing how prejudices of personal perception lead to misunderstandings in social relationships.
Furthermore, the social psychologist, Solomon Ash, who grew up in the Gestalt tradition, argued that people disagree with each other because they base their judgments on different concepts or ways of looking, yet they are under the illusion that their judgments about the social world are objective. If you want to understand his theory a little better, don’t miss this article about .
Characteristics of naive realism
Lee Ross and his psychologist colleague Andrew Ward have outlined three related hypotheses, or principles, which make up naive realism. The authors argue that these assumptions are supported by a long school of thought in social psychology, along with numerous empirical studies. We see them below:
- People believe that they see the world objectively and without prejudice.
- They expect others to come to the same conclusions, as long as they are exposed to the same information and interpret it rationally.
- They assume that those who do not share the same opinions must be ignorant, irrational, or biased.
Examples of naive realism
When it comes to better understanding what naïve realism tells us, there is nothing better than seeing some examples.
Example 1 of naive realism: soccer match
In a seminal social psychology study, published in a paper in 1954, students at Dartmouth and Princeton watched a video of a football game between the two schools. Even though they watched the same movie, fans of both schools perceived the game very differently. The Princeton students saw the Dartmouth team make twice as many fouls on their own team and also saw the team make twice as many infractions as the Dartmouth students saw.
Instead, Dartmouth students saw the game as an even combination of violence, of which both sides were guilty. This study revealed that two groups subjectively perceived an event. Each team believed they had viewed the event objectively and that the other side’s perception of the event was blinded by bias.
Naive Realism Example 2: “Eat at Joe’s” Sign
A 1977 study by Ross and colleagues provided the first evidence of a cognitive bias called the false consent effect. It was defined as the tendency of people to overestimate the extent to which others share the same opinions.
This bias was cited as supporting the first two principles of naïve realism. In the study, students were asked if they would use a sandwich-shaped sign that said “Eat at Joe’s” around campus. They were then asked to indicate whether they thought other students would use the sign and what they thought of students who were willing to use it or not.
The researchers found that the students who agreed to use the sign thought that most students would use it. Furthermore, they also thought that refusing to wear it was more revealing than their peers’ personal attributes. In contrast, students who refused to use the sign thought that most other students would also refuse and that accepting the invitation was more revealing than some personality traits.
Example 3 of naïve realism: hostile medium effect
A phenomenon known as the hostile medium effect shows that people can subjectively view neutral events based on your own needs and valuesas well as assuming that those who interpret the event differently are partisan.
In a 1985 study, pro-Israel and pro-Arab students were asked to witness real news stories about the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre, a mass killing of Palestinian refugees. The researchers found that supporters of both sides perceived media coverage of the event as distorted in favor of the opposing point of view. In fact, they believed that those responsible for the news program adhered to the ideological positions of the opposing party.
Example 4 of naive realism: musical tapping
Further empirical evidence for naïve realism in psychology was provided by the study of tapping musical by psychologist Elizabeth Newton in 1990. For the study, participants were designated as tapper or listener.
To the tappers They were told to beat the beat of a familiar song, while listeners were asked to try to identify the song. While the tappers They expected listeners to guess the melody about 50% of the time, listeners could only identify it about 2.5% of the time. This provided support for a failure from the perspective of the tappers.
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Bibliography
- Amado González, MA (2013). The nature of perceptual experience: Naïve realism and disjunctivism. Department of Philosophy.