Perceptions, attributions and diversity

What is Perception?

  • The process of interpreting sensory cues to create meaning and order in our environment.

  • It helps:

    • Organize what we see, hear, feel, etc.

    • Make sense of ambiguous or unfamiliar situations

Perception is influenced by:

  • Past experiences

  • Emotional and cognitive state

  • Context and environment

  • Ambiguity of the situation

3 components influence perceiver’s impression of the target

  • Perceiver: Experience, needs, and emotions

  • Target: Ambiguous? how much info is provided

  • Situation: What information does the setting add?

Perception: A personal and social lens

  • We see the world through two lenses:

    • Personal lens: shaped by our traits, interests, and experiences

    • Social lens: shaped by the groups we belong to (gender, culture, roles…)

  • These lenses form our social identity: how we see ourselves and others

Social Identity in Action

  • We use identity categories to navigate social situations

  • These categories shift depending on context

  • It’s a natural process: but it can also lead to biases and assumptions

When Bias Emerges

  • Bias: assigning others into categories and giving those categories meaning

  • Tend to perceive those in our own social categories more positively than those who are not

Stereotyping

  • Tendency to generalize about people in a certain social category and ignore variations among them

  • Common are based on gender, age, race, religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation

  • Shows up constantly in employment decisions

More Ways Our Minds Can Trick Us

  • Primary effect

  • Recency effect

  • Central traits

  • Projection

Bruner’s model

  • Focuses on how people interpret sensory information and we form impressions

  1. Unfamiliar target encountered

  2. Openness to target cues

  3. Familiar cues encountered

  4. Target categorized

  5. Cue selectivity

  6. Categorization strengthened

Why do people do what they do?

  • The attribution theory is how we make sense of people’s actions

Blame the person or the Circumstance?

  • Dispositional Attribution

    • We believe behavior is due to the person’s personality or character

    • Blaming WHO that person IS

  • Situational Attribution

    • We believe the behavior is due to the situation or environment

    • Blaming WHAT HAPPENED

To Conclude

  • Our own experiences and identities influence how we perceive others and the world around us

    • We are pro-us and anti-them

  • This leads to biased perception: systematically categorizing others in relation to ourselves

  • This is normal and a part of being human but it can have negative effects