00.35 – 00.40 Cultural programming
Exercise 4c2: Mouse-Man ‘programming of the human mind’
Eye-opener: the participants experience that we all view and judge the world around us through our personal (programmed) ‘culture glasses’.
What do you need?
– Power Point presentation
– Pictures of the exercise ‘mouse-man’
What should you do?
– Have participants experience the ‘programming of the human mind’ through the mouse man exercise
– Divide the group in two (a left and a right half)
– Make the left group close their eyes and then show the right group the picture of the mouse. Talking is not allowed. Encourage “Look at the picture, take it in!”
– Remove the picture from the mouse and make the whole group close their eyes
– Then have the left group open their eyes and show them the picture of the man. Let this group also take a good look at the picture
– Have the whole group close their eyes and replace the picture with the mouse-man
– At a sign, the whole group may open their eyes and say aloud what they see. The left group will mainly indicate a man, while the right group will recognise the mouse in the picture
– Discuss the exercise and explain the purpose of the exercise
– Continue with the presentation on culture (if necessary).
Trainers advice
– The group almost always includes people who indicate that they immediately recognise both pictures in the image. Some people are already familiar with the exercise, others are just quick to see both images. Most participants, however, will be programmed by looking closely at the first picture and will immediately recognise that picture in the mouse man.
– What can one learn from this? We have looked at the same picture and yet one half of the group sees something different from the other half. That’s how easily we interpret an image or a message from our own perspective. In contact with someone from a different culture, it is therefore important to check whether the content of your message corresponds with the message that the other has received.