What A Physics Breakthrough Reveals About Biased Leadership

Recently, I came across a fascinating piece of news: after nearly a century of scientific debate, MIT physicists have resolved the legendary standoff between Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr over the true nature of light.

By using over 10,000 ultracold atoms to recreate the famous double-slit experiment, the one that changed how we think about reality itself, scientists concluded that Bohr was right: light cannot be seen as both a wave and a particle at the same time.

It’s not every day you can say Einstein was wrong, but in this case, the evidence is conclusive.

And yet, beyond the science, this discovery speaks volumes about how we see the world, and why bias plays such a fundamental role in the way we think, lead and relate.

We Don’t See Reality. We See Biased, Useful Representations

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: we’re not perceiving objective reality. We’re interpreting it, through a filtered, biased lens that’s been shaped by evolution, experience and context.

Our brains are wired to favour speed and survival over accuracy, meaning we rely heavily on unconscious shortcuts, assumptions and familiar patterns.

This has surprisingly profound implications, not just for physicists, but for all of us. Especially if, like me, you’re passionate about leadership, human potential and the neuroscience of perception.

The Dashboard of Human Perception

Cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman puts it plainly: our senses aren’t designed to show us the truth. They’re more like icons on a screen, a dashboard designed to simplify complexity so we can make quick decisions.

We mistake these symbols for reality. But really, they’re a useful interface, not a window into the actual world.

Perception, then, isn’t about truth; it’s about utility. And that utility is shaped by bias: neurological, cultural and personal.

This invites a powerful leadership question:

How much of what we believe to be “real” is just a reflection of our mental habits? What if our view of people, challenges and potential isn’t the truth but just what our brain has been trained to notice?

Leading Through a Wider Lens

At the About my Brain Institute, we’ve always championed the intersection of the brain, the mind, the body and leadership. This new research reinforces something we’ve long believed: self-awareness begins with recognising our filters.

When we teach people to slow down, to feel their body’s signals or to reframe conflict with curiosity, we’re not just developing soft skills. We’re challenging the interface.

We’re gently reminding leaders: You don’t see things as they are. You see them as you are.

This becomes even more important in times of pressure because our perceptions of power, success, or failure are often inherited from systems that prioritised survival, not growth.

3 Bias-Busting Practices for Expansive Leadership

Here are three everyday practices I use and teach to help leaders navigate beyond the limits of their perception:

1. Catch how you label

Notice when your inner voice jumps to judgment:

“They’re lazy.” “This idea won’t work.”

That’s your interface talking. Ask yourself: What else could be true?

2. Breathe before the opinion

A single conscious breath can re-engage your prefrontal cortex.

It shifts you from reaction to reflection and lets your leadership come from choice, not impulse.

3. Use micro-reflections

At the end of your day or a tough meeting, ask:

What was I assuming? What did I miss?

These aren’t critiques. They’re keys to insight.

You Are Not Just Your Thoughts

Let me be clear: what this experiment confirms and what Hoffman’s work helps us articulate is that we’re not perceiving reality. We’re constructing it.

And if your reality is constructed, then it can be reconstructed.

If you see life as a competition, your brain will keep scanning for proof that others are threats. 

But if you begin to see others as mirrors, as collaborators, as co-creators, your leadership and your experience of life transform.

The world doesn’t need to change. Your relationship to it can.

Leading with Less Certainty and More Curiosity

There’s a simple question I return to again and again, in coaching and in myself:

“What am I not seeing yet?”

Not as a challenge. Not as a correction.

But as an invitation to stay open and curious.

Because every moment of frustration or fear might be a sign: There’s a hidden bias shaping what you see.

As leaders and as people, we don’t have to see everything. But we do need to remember: what we’re seeing is never the whole.

Final Reflection

Maybe this century-old physics debate wasn’t just about photons. Maybe it was about us.

About how we interpret the world, how bias narrows perception, and how leadership begins not in certainty but in the willingness to see differently.

True power starts when we challenge the limits of our own vision.

From there, we can lead with more humanity, humility, and hope.

See Differently. Lead Differently.
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Surrounded by nature and grounded practices, if you are a leader, coach or entrepreneur, this experience invites you to step away from the noise and recalibrate your inner lens.

You’ll explore what it means to move beyond automatic patterns, to lead with presence, and to connect not just with others, but with the parts of yourself that are usually overlooked.

It’s not about having all the answers. It’s about creating space to ask better questions, together.

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Sources:

• Chu, J. (2025, July 28). Famous double-slit experiment holds when stripped to quantum essentials. MIT News. https://news.mit.edu/2025/quantum-double-slit-idealized-0728
• Owusu, G. (2025, July 28). MIT settles 98-year debate between Einstein and Bohr with an ‘ideal’ double-slit experiment. Interesting Engineering. https://interestingengineering.com/science/mit-settles-98-year-debate-einstein-bohr
• Hoffman, D. D. (2019). The case against reality: Why evolution hid the truth from our eyes. W. W. Norton & Company.
• Hoffman, D. D. (2020, August 14). Do we see reality as it is? [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/donald_hoffman_do_we_see_reality_as_it_is