As part of preventing miscommunication, what should you do regarding your own perceptions?

• A. Assume you are always correct
• B. Check your perceptions
• C. Ignore your assumptions
• D. Demand certainty from your partner

Answer: (B)

Preventing miscommunication hinges on recognizing that your own perceptions can be biased or incomplete. By checking your perceptions, you pause before reacting, verify what you think you heard, and invite your partner to confirm or correct it. This practice helps separate what happened from how you felt about it, and it creates room for clarification, leading to a more accurate shared understanding. Practically, you can reflect on your interpretation, ask clarifying questions, paraphrase what you heard, and own your feelings without assuming they reveal the other person’s intentions. The other approaches tend to shut down open dialogue: assuming you’re always right stops conversation, ignoring your own assumptions lets biases drive actions, and demanding certainty from your partner raises defensiveness and pressure, hindering trust.