Righteousness

No one wants to be the runt of the litter; it gets picked on. The alpha male, or female, gets adulation – the runt gets bullied. We do not want to get attention for the wrong reasons. We therefore develop protective positions created by the values and beliefs that we share with our family, friends and colleagues. This is to stop ourselves from looking bad (or idiotic). From this position we can validate our model of the world, achieve the results we need, look ‘good’ and be ‘right’. Right according to our model of reality; which is the only one we know! One of Dale Carnegie observations was that everyone likes to think that they are slightly better, have a better understanding, than anyone else. It is human nature. How many times have you heard the leader of a country proclaim that theirs’ is the greatest country on earth?

An extreme example of people predicting others reaction, according to their model of reality, was demonstrated when testing some children with Down Syndrome. A number of them were shown a tin with pictures of sweets on the outside and asked what the tin contained. There all responded “Sweets!”

However, when the tin was opened they saw that it actually contained pencils. They were then told “There is a boy out side the door that did not see us open the tin.” And then asked “What would he think was inside?”

They all responded “Pencils”.

They could not understand that other people have a different point of view.

Although this example is harmless you can imagine that religious extremist would use their own paradigm to justify the use of violence because the other paradigm is “obviously wrong”!