Does one's perception of reality affect reality?

Question

When taking in a situation, how much does the perception and predisposition to certain feelings (anger, anxeity, etc) as well as all the various enviroment inputs, like how one was raised, the things at stake, etc affect the outcome of this situation; and in this regard does that mean ones reality is either preordained to play out a certain way regardless of how much you try to steer it, or can we actively jump into bad habits or mind 'muscle memory' (For lack of a better description) and steer it.

For would this steering be also preordained, and thus reality will have the same outcome regardless of your perception of control? As every action comes from experience, memory, perception and so on that we are who we are; and we can't miracuously change a significant aspect of our personality or ego to actually affect reality.

This question, while teetering on the idea of fate is not what I am trying to say; I am not trying to claim there is a cosmos steering every person and situation (Although I am certainly not claiming against that fact either, one can not know that answer). Just that through all experience, knowledge, intelligence and ego that the outcome is certain unless you literally could pause reality and switch the person

Answer 1

I don't believe one's perception of reality (independent of other causality) has any actual impact on actual reality. However, one's only view into "actual reality" is via their own perception.

So, your only knowledge of reality is constantly filtered by your perception of reality. This gives the strong yet false impression that perception changes reality. There is a great deal of evidence for this in the field of marketing.

Empirical data on the reliability of cars for example, shows some models to be significantly better or worse than others. Some more comfortable than others... Some safer, etc. Yet those that continue to sell and those that go out of business are not always correlated to their empirical quality. The placement of actors in commercials, or the focus on shapes that give the impression of luxury and other tactics create a positive perception of even the worst models in some people's minds.

If this perception is strong enough, you will have people paying little attention to annoyances, while highlighting any positive thing as a trait of the brand. Marketing is powerful, not because perception makes products better. But, because the perception that something is good makes the perception of interactions with that thing also tend to be good.

Answer 2

The idea that all our actions are the logical result of our previous experiences is called determinism. I think that you are asking if the world really is deterministic and that we cannot alter the outcome of a situation because it is the only logical outcome, or if we have free will and can alter that outcome according to our perception and reasoning.

The answer is : nobody knows.

Some people believe the world is deterministic, some believe it is not. The only thing that we know is that we cannot know for sure.