When is a duck not a duck? When we see it as a rabbit

Think of this: you’re shown a picture, it’s black and white and sort of blurry, and you are asked what animal you see. You look closely and you see that it’s a duck. You are then told it could be a rabbit too. Ah yes, maybe, but it’s still mostly a duck. In fact, you’re not sure how anyone could really see a rabbit.

That’s true of life, isn’t it? Think about Brexit, COVID, climate change, and pineapple on pizza – once we’ve chosen our tribe, we rarely change our minds and see the other side. Can we even understand how others could come to a different conclusion to us? Do we even know anyone who sees a rabbit when we see a duck? There are many good reasons why we like to see the world in a simple way, stick to that image, and surround ourselves with people who agree with us.

But maybe, in a post-COVID world, we could all be a bit happier by embracing difference, or at least from accepting that another point of view exists? Perhaps if we could understand why we see the world differently, we will be more able to accept each other. We also share many more similarities than differences: whether we see a duck or a rabbit, we all see an animal, after all.

That’s the topic of Paul’s new podcast - Duck-Rabbit: taking sides. You can read more about it here, and you can listen and subscribe here, or wherever you get your podcasts.