Filters are the unconscious mental frameworks though which we form our perceptions, assumptions and ultimately make our decisions. They are a vital part of our mental thinking and processing. Filters are formulated in our brain from past experiences which for most parts drive us towards accuracy. But having said that they do have a tendency to even drive us towards bias and unreal perceptions. Therefore, it could also make them deceptive.

Our filters play a major role in aiding our brain towards accuracy. They project certain expectations immediately without our thinking too much about them. Let’s take for example, other than a select group of individuals the majority of people we encounter in a day tend to be strangers. They may be taxi drivers, waiters, cashiers, insurance agents, security guards, salespersons, baristas and many more. The default filter in our brains makes us expect a certain behavior from them. Not expecting a barista to fill fuel in your car, or not touching a hot pan are all filters coming into action.

On the other hand there are filters that are known to deceive the brain into biases and false perceptions. The unconscious way that we perceive people during the course of the day is a part of our ingrained filters. It is a natural tendency that the first time we meet people we make our first impressions. These first impressions may be come in the form of observing peoples race, age, gender or age. These impressions are born out of the filters from our internalized stereotypes. Even to the extent of adding in adjectives to a certain subject group like that of lazy, active, intelligent, and so on come from our experiences in the past that have imbedded certain qualities possessed to become filters.

Let’s drive this concept to test through a simple activity. Observe the image below and name the color of the words.

You can immediately tell the slowness in naming the colors. This is a result of our pre-established filters that lean towards reading text than observing colors.

The stronger and deeper that our filters are ingrained the harder we have to work at overcoming them. It’s important to become aware of our filters and make a conscious effort to put them aside when they move towards creating negative emotions or bias.

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