Do you folks know how a world map looks like? By Jasmine

Simple question: Do you folks know how a world map looks like?

I gave a solid yes.

Simple instruction: Okay, draw it out on a piece of paper.

I gave a strike-dumbest face, with an amplified big “huh?” nailed on my head. The instruction totally caught me off guard.

For some unknown reasons, the moment I took out my pencil and paper to begin my drawing, the image of the world map, which I thought it should be, quirked from vivid to blurry— like a camera’s rangefinder suddenly loses its focus. We had a couple of minutes to draft out the map, but most of us wasted half of the time thinking how to start it off. How the brain works is it tried to retrieve certain memories buried deep down in the storage. But apparently it had some problems with the retrieval; the “tip of the tongue” phenomenon. The brain will then start reconstructing on how exactly a world map should look like. Unfortunately, the brain tends to retrieve false memories sometimes. So you can’t really blame some people for having Australia bigger than Africa. It doesn't apply to everyone, just the majority.

There are some forms of psychological thoughts when one is asked to do something for the first time and asked again, to do it for a second time. Sometimes when one cannot figure out how to refactor certain things, they put it off and figure out how to do it right the second time; the state of mind sheers from “trying” to “doing”, and doing it right. Some people achieved it. Some need more push. Some just tried a little too hard.

There was an interval between the first and second round of map drawing. Another simple instruction: Walk around and “look” at other people’s drawings. 


Certainly, each individual ramified into different thoughts on their peers’ work. Most people did observations, or rather, palpable observations.

The word “look” was emphasized and quotation-marked; to “look” at things doesn’t mean you only do observations. Many of us, intentionally or not, incept into commentaries, questionings, comparing, or even start generating a new piece of drawing in the head during the process of “looking”. In other words, peer pressure plays a weighty role to determine the outcome of the second round of drawing.

Some people are confident with themselves but most are not. The confident ones think that when certain things are done right, they will never “change” it again. This explains why there was not much of a difference between their first and second draft. A little more details were rendered, however, on the second draft to make their drawing more complete.

“Looking” is also about information gathering. For most people, by looking at other’s drawing, they built up from what was lacked in the first round and implemented it on their second drawing. For people who tried a little too hard, they either snapped and shut off, or resort into overdoing it. The whole brain system sometimes paralyzed when it drops into the “information overwhelmed” mode—the backfire effect.

Even though peer pressure plays an important role to the outcome of our drawings, the key role often relies on individual habits, which include intentions, experiences and self-perceptions. E.g. Most of the Japanese started off their map by drawing their own country first. Why is it so? Because they are brought up to read/draw the map the way it is. You can’t expect a Singaporean to do the same; the map might end up as big as a baseball field.

Interestingly, even though the whole class was given the same instruction on what to do, different people with different thoughts, produces different result. Some people just never fail to amaze me. 


J-asmine-G