The first pillar of Nemetics, as described in my earlier post 5 Pillars of Nemetics, is the RGB Waves, whose description is as follows:
“It helps us understand any phenomenon happening around us in the material world.
R wave represents ‘events’ that take place around us.
G wave represents the ‘behavior(s)’ of human beings and of systems that initiate any event.
B wave stands for ‘intentions’ and ‘beliefs’ that lead to particular behaviors which precipitate ‘events.'”
Here is an example of how the principle of RGB waves works in life. It is taken from an experimental work on psychology.
In this experiment, researchers examined the effect of two beliefs that run in society on personal behavior and results.
Belief 1: Women are not very good at math.
Belief 2: Asian students are good in math.
These social beliefs are the B waves that direct personal behavior to produce subsequent events or results. Let us see how.
In their experiment, psychologists Margaret Shih, Todd Pittinsky, and Nalini Ambady took two groups of female Asian students to take a math test.
But before taking the test the two groups of female students were primed differently to modulate their behaviors (G wave) to see whether holding on to beliefs produced different test scores (R wave).
For one group, the female students, who would be holding on to their identity of “Asians,” were primed by asking questions like — “Is there anyone in their extended families who spoke languages other than English?”
For the other group, who would be holding on to their identity as “woman,” the female students were primed by asking questions such as “whether they lived in a coed dorm?”
After being ‘primed’ both groups took the test. The primed B waves produced dramatically different results (R wave).
The scores (R wave) plunged for the group whose B wave was ‘Women are not very good at math.’
However, the scores (R wave) soared for the group whose B wave was “Asian students are good in math.”
I consider this as a good example, where a particular B wave directs behavior and performance (G wave) to produce different results (R wave).
It also informs me that if performance or results are to be improved it might simply be wise to pay attention to the B wave and modulate it to produce desired results. However, most often educator, leaders, politicians focus on results and behaviors and get busy changing or correcting those instead of paying attention to strongly held beliefs and intentions of individuals and groups, which generates complex behavior patterns and results.