The Blue Dot effect and how it’s secretly controlling your life
What is the Blue dot effect?
In a series of studies conducted by Daniel Gilbert a Harvard psychologist who is also the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology and his postdoctoral student David Levari, show when the prevalence of a problem is reduced, humans are inclined to re-define the problem and expand its relevance. This has also been termed as ‘prevalence-induced concept change.’
They had volunteers look at thousands of dots on a screen and asked them to decide whether they were blue or not. The colour spectrum ranged from blue to purple. After a couple of trials, researchers started reducing the number of blue dots for the remaining trials. However, here the volunteers started pointing out previously qualified purple dots as blue. To spice it up, the researchers warned the volunteers about this and also provided a sum of money to not fall for this trap. However, the results remained the same. They also tried this with faces. They showed faces ranging from friendly to threatening and after a couple trials reduced the amount of threatening faces to which the participants began to choose previously considered friendly faces as threatening.
What does this actually mean?
The face experiment shows us that the more we look for threats the more we see them regardless of how safe we actually are. Also the fact that our minds thrive and live off of drama which means more the problems the better. If not, we actively make trivial things that never concerned us before into a big deal. Our brains are wired for problem solving which means if we don’t have any we can easily create one. This is also why even though the world might be evolving and getting better, we still believe that with each passing day the world is getting worse. Our minds are conditioned to look out for what’s wrong. If we read about a crime that has taken place, we are more alert and on the lookout in order to avoid it. Imagine being on the lookout for something you want to avoid? As ridiculous as it sounds all of us at some point has done this, unconsciously. We get what we actively seek.
How does this rule your life and your decision-making abilities?
The blue dot effect narrows our perception and makes us view life through a distorted perspective. This changes our relationship to progress and makes us victims to our own lives. For example, if you’ve been going to the gym and see other people who are fitter than you, you feel the need to compare your progress and see how much you still need to improve, instead of seeing how far you’ve actually come. The more you see fitter and stronger people which again you get to choose the definition of for you, the more you fall into the comparison trap which then leads to the vicious cycle of comparing other aspects of your life and never being satisfied.
How to free yourself of this effect?
It would be far reaching to say that you can ever get rid of this effect since the core of this effect is perception, but here’s a few ways I feel you can use it to your advantage.
1. Awareness- When you begin to question previously non-problematic areas of your life, take a step back and evaluate where you currently are. Are you looking to create drama by adding trivial things to your list of problems? Or is this actually coming for a different place in which case it needs to be addressed. Be honest with yourself.
2. Your relationship with the world — Since the core of the blue dot effect is perception, evaluate what your personal relationship is with the world. Do you absorb a lot of news which is tailored to keep you fearful and at the edge of your seat in order to conclude that the world is going to shit and it doesn’t get better? Step back from the external sources of negativity for a little bit (no, this will not make you “uninformed”) and focus on changing your perception of the world in a way that empowers you.
3. Focus your energy on helping others — Since our minds are so addicted to problem solving, instead of creating problems that don’t exist focus on helping someone else. If you look hard enough, you will always find a way of helping someone. Be it big or small, change the narrative you assign to problems in general because what may be small for you may be big to someone else and vice-versa. Helping others also makes you feel good in general which is a bonus.
4. Practice gratitude- Gratitude is a muscle and just like every other muscle in your body it must be trained. Each day list 3 or more things you are grateful for today. Nothing is too small. Each time you focus your attention on things you are thankful for, just like the blue dots, slowly you will notice more things to be thankful for even in difficult and enduring times. This by far is the most powerful tool you can use to change your life for the better.
As an end note I would like to add that we cannot avoid our problems, suffering or pain and the whole concept of avoiding uncomfortable situations is what causes us suffering in the first place ( shout out to Mark Manson and The subtle art of not giving a f*ck). All we can do is look for the good in the bad and try to use the bad to our advantage. We get to choose what story we tell ourselves so why not make it an empowering one. There’s power in the dark that cannot be harnessed in the light. Make use of it.
