Two friends were sitting around talking. They were discussing how misinterpretation and misperception meant the same thing. Their conclusion was that both words were an inaccurate representation of reality and that they were different names for the same phenomenon.

Meanwhile, their mentor approached. He was an older gentleman, someone both friends deeply admired and respected. They asked him to join in their discussion. Feeling proud of their conversation and their conclusions, they eagerly shared them with their mentor. He complimented them both on their conclusions.

Then the mentor put to them the “question” that was equally important to understand. “What is the difference between the two that makes them different concepts—even though they lead to the same result?”

One of the friends responded, “They are the very same concept.”

“No, I don’t think they are…for one thing, one is from the outside and the other is from the inside,” replied the mentor.

“Could you please explain what you are saying?”

“Misperception, at its root means, perceive, which assumes one is looking at, or observing something. Like a magic trick, you can perceive something as looking one way, but at the heart of it, there’s something else operating altogether. This happens because of how a thing is portrayed or represented. This process happens outside of you, and is processed based upon the outside events.

Misinterpretation at its root means, interpret, which is the act of interpretation—which is to understand the meaning or intent of something. So, misinterpretation is to interpret wrongly—or to inaccurately decipher a message. This happens on the inside, based on how information is processed in which a sort of distortion occurs..”

“So, then is it possible for both of these to be at work at the same time?” asked the friends.

“Yes, and again, a good example is magic. The illusionist or magician understands our perceptual blind spots and incorporates them when devising his illusion. So, outwardly, we are intentionally deceived by tricks of the trade, like slight-of-hand maneuvers. At the same time our internal processing relies on the same blind spots to interpret what is happening, and we misread the reality of what is actually occurring. The illusionist relies on misperception and misinterpretation to create the illusion which would be impossible if these ingredients were absent.

“Wow,” exclaimed the friends, “now we understand why our conclusion was accurate, but our understanding of the differences between misperception and misinterpretation was flawed, because they are indeed, individually, two very different concepts.

V.P. Mosser

©2001-2008 V.P. Mosser
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Successful entrepreneur, V.P. Mosser is the creator of the Learn the Lessons Series, the Life's Journey publication and numerous thought-provoking articles. To learn more and receive free chapters or issues, visit http://www.learnthelessons.com

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