Selective perception and bias

In considering barriers to communication, it is also necessary to deal specifically with

the problems caused by selective perception and bias. The sheer volume of data thai is

available means that one has to have some basis for deciding what to look for and what

to react to. However, careful judgment is needed in making these decisions.

A totally open mind can simply mean that a person is swamped with data but a closed

mind can mean that a person doesn’t respond to what is uner his nose. Particular

dangers are seeing only what you want to see, ng the ‘facts’ fit what has already been

· decided, and suppressing unpleasant facts. Norman Dixon,. a formr Army psychiatrist,

·

explains a number of Western military disasters in terms of such selective perception on

the- part of the military leaders concerned, in his book On the Psychology of Military

Incompetence. Three of the many examples the documents concern the Japanese

attack on Pearl Harbor, the fall of Singapore and the failure of the Amhem offensive in

Holland. The pattern according to Dixon is clear and recurrent-the warning signs were

there but, because they did not fit into the established thinking, they were ignored until

too late.