The Basic Idea
Have you ever felt like you were treated differently because of how someone expected you to behave? Perhaps your education at a top-tier university made you a victim of a higher workload at the office. Or maybe a certain coworker thought you’d oppose their new project proposal because of an issue you raised with their last big idea.
More often than not, these kinds of preconceived notions lead to roadblocks in communication, workflow standstills, and a general dissonance from person to person.
While some barriers to communication are more obvious, like language differences and physical obstructions, perceptual barriers are harder to spot. They reflect an internal perception about something going on externally and can significantly affect how we communicate with others.1
The way we carry ourselves, our body language and gestures, our socioeconomic backgrounds, personal beliefs and tendencies are all common sources of bias that create perceptual barriers which hinder our ability to relate to one another. With that in mind, it’s helpful to be aware of these kinds of hurdles to communication and to locate ways to overcome them.
One of the major blocks to interpersonal communication lies in our very natural tendency to judge–to approve or disapprove of the statements of the other person.
– Carl Rogers
