The world of work has changed enormously, even in the last five years. More of us work remotely, completely or partially, than ever before. Many of us will work in multiple companies over the course of our careers. And some of us have turned side hustles and hobbies into small businesses. In the United States, there have been 430,000 new business applications per month in 2024, 50 percent more than in 2019. That’s possible mostly because digitalization and globalization enable us to work with and sell to people all over the world. We have to build connections with people unlike us. Whether you are trying to attract a customer, work with a colleague, or impress your boss, we need to connect. But two things, schemata and confirmation bias, can limit our ability to understand each other.

Schema is the mental framework that helps individuals organize and interpret information. In the workplace, schemata (the plural of schema) shape our perceptions of others based on prior experiences, social cues, and cultural conditioning.[1] For instance, we expect certain behavior from a police officer or a rabbi or a postal worker based on our prior experiences, their representation in the media, or our community’s narratives.

Schemata are not necessarily bad. We use these cues to operate within our society. When someone stands “too close,” what we really mean is they are “breaking the rules” of our specific........

© Psychology Today