What are two examples of how you and another person have differed in your perception of the same event?

Question

"Our assumptions and expectations may give us a perceptual set - a predisposition to interpret an ambiguous stimulus one way to rather than another" Myers and Jeeves (p. 61). In light of this statement, what are two examples of how you and another person have differed in your perception of the same event.

Answer 1

A common example of a difference in perception would be the events that lead up to an argument. One person feels they were wronged by the other, and the accused feels that what they did was benign or good-humored. This simple example illuminates how a difference in perception of an event can lead to discord.

On other occasions, we can recount stories with details that are more numerous, or even completely different from another. In cases where you share a story with a family member, they may have a very different idea of how a situation or story occurred. This could be due to what evoked an emotional response for them in that moment and became a memory, which varies from that of the other sibling.