Who Makes Mobil 1 Filters

20080813-filters

Whammo! You didn't run across that coming, did you?

Why is it that, despite all our planning, nosotros sometimes get caught by surprise, totally unprepared, with our pants down as information technology were? I mean, we're smart folks, right? How come sometimes we just don't see stuff coming?

The answer is, much of the time, that we don't run into everything conspicuously because we don't see a lot of things at all. Nosotros procedure the raw stuff of experience through a diverseness of filters – and we act on the "processed" information, not the world as it is.

Those filters are engrained in us, frequently from nativity, and near of the time they help united states to effectively function in our social and physical environments. For example, 1 very elementary filter nosotros take is how to isolate something interesting or important from a cluttered background – recall finding your keys amongst the mess at the bottom of your purse. Or identifying something good to consume – a ripe fruit, perhaps – amongst the unripe fruits, leaves, and branches of a tree.

That'southward a pretty bones filtering ability (though the physiological mechanisms involved are quite complex) that humans everywhere rely on every day to survive, so it'due south a good affair. But there are many much more complex filters that we pick upward as part of our thinking repertoire, and as helpful as they might sometimes be, they can likewise get us into a lot of trouble.

Here are some examples:

Language

Linguistic communication is a powerful force in shaping our behavior. Just ask a sanitation engineer! Employers take long recognized the style that job titles tin affect employee performance – which is why there are so few clerks and so many associates at your local retail mega-outlet.

But language tin lead u.s. astray, also. Consider this example fatigued from the annals of linguistics: a tanning factory discharges wastes, mostly animal matter, into a pond. The decomposing waste creates flammable gasses. A "swimming", though, is not flammable, right? I hateful, right?! A man is working well-nigh the pond. Non taking any special precautions – why would yous, next to a "pond"? – he ignites a blow-torch. A sheet of flame engulfs the pond and spreads to the nearby manufactory, destroying it.

The language nosotros apply to describe people can strongly influence our behavior towards them. Feminists recognized this when they started insisting on terms like "police officer" rather than "policeman". Or consider this: numerous studies have shown that people with "ethnic-sounding" names are less likely to get job interviews equally similarly-qualified people with "white-sounding" names.

Gender

Gender is a powerful filter in every culture – although the behaviors it shapes tin can exist very dissimilar from culture to culture. What is considered men's work in one society – carrying heavy loads of bricks, for example – might be considered women'south piece of work in some other.

Gender leads us astray when information technology leads u.s.a. to expect at a person'south gender as an index of their abilities. For instance, in the US, it is mutual to hear people say things similar "men are stronger than women". This is not true. Some men are stronger than most women, a handful of men are stronger than all women, and most men are stronger than some women. But knowing someone's gender does not tell you lot anything about how strong they are!

Assumptions near gender extend far beyond physical attributes. With few exceptions, women still are not promoted to meridian-level corporate positions, despite the number of qualified women in the business world. Men are assumed to accept "leadership qualities" that women lack – and women's leadership qualities tend to be dismissed as signs of "manliness" or "bitchiness".

Race and Ethnicity

What is truthful of gender is besides truthful of race and ethnicity. Knowing someone'southward race or ethnicity tells united states little nearly that particular person – even so we act equally if it told us a lot. Here'due south an example: a blackness student of mine was accused of plagiarism in some other form when she handed in an excellent essay. This is a student that added immensely to every classroom discussion she took part in, and who wrote insightfully in every consignment she gave me (including "personal reflection" papers that cannot be plagiarized). The other professor did non have any examples of work that the student had allegedly copied from; information technology was simply "besides good". Race may not take been the just factor, but it was clearly a factor; I've never had a white student of similar quality face a similar accusation.

Hither's another example: Blackness and other minority athletes, performers, even military leaders and politicians are oft described equally "clear", an adjective rarely applied to their white counterparts. People do not expect clear spoken communication from non-white persons, and are surprised when they hear intelligent dialogue from black speakers.

Personal Experience

An old joke claims, "All Indians walk single file. At least, the one I saw did."

Personal experience is a powerful learning tool, just it tin lead us astray when we make false assumptions based on generalizations from limited experience. Childhood experience tin brand for especially powerful filters, equally they tend to be imbued with strong emotional resonance, merely whatsoever experience can pb u.s.a. to incorrect conclusions.

Examining Your Filters

What is insidious well-nigh all of these factors is that most of the time they role without us even noticing them. Nosotros don't promote Republic of chad over Wilma considering Chad's a man, but considering he seems more than "leaderly", considering he has that "certain something". And perchance he does – or mayhap our invisible assumptions nearly gender make weak signs of "certain somethingness" seem stiff, while Wilma's powerful "certain somethingness" is filtered out.

It's unlikely that you will catch your filters at piece of work in your solar day-to-day life, but you tin reflect on the way you have interacted with other people and how you've handled various situations (perhaps in a weekly review?). You may well exist surprised to find that, in many cases, you lot can't seem to put your finger on exactly why you acted the manner you did – a sure sign of a filter at work. Paying attention to those moments will bring you a long way towards replacing the stock of feel and received wisdom with filters that allow y'all to more accurately and effectively act.

I've listed only a handful of obvious filters here. What are your filters? How could you deal with them?