Monday, 19 October 2026

Reality isn't objective or subjective — it's a third thing entirely | Lisa Feldman Barrett


We created this video in partnership with Unlikely Collaborators. Psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett argues that reality is built, not found, and that changes everything about how we interact with each other. Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 We spend our lives reaching for something — a phone, a feed, or a distraction — without asking what we actually need. Andrew Holecek has spent years studying what happens when that stops entirely: total, sustained darkness, with no sensory input at all. Some people believe reality is objective – that the world exists separate from us – while others believe it is subjective – dependent on our own points of view. Psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett makes the case that it's not quite that simple. Barrett, a University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University, argues for a third option: relational realism, where reality is built in real time from sensory signals and the remembered past your brain uses to interpret them. Together, those ingredients create your Perception Box, the lens through which every moment reaches you. That means reality exists in relation to you — and in relation to whoever else is experiencing it alongside you. Barrett unpacks what it means for two people to experience the same moment differently, why "objective reality" doesn't hold up in an argument, and why she considers curiosity the key to expanding the reality you have access to. Read more from this interview ► https://ift.tt/oOBqDzI Explore the Perception Box series hub ► https://ift.tt/o4vj8L9 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Member Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more. https://ift.tt/to97UFl ►Get Big Think+ for Business Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business. https://ift.tt/x6K4YFs ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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