Perception and Perceptual Bias

What do you see?

Individual Psychological Variables

1. Perception- the process through which we select, organize, and interpret information gathered by our senses in order to understand the world around us

Social Perception- the process through which individuals attempt to combine, integrate, and interpret information about others.


2. Attribution – the process through which individuals attempt to determine the causes of other’s behavior

Answers the question Why? Correspondent inferences-

judgments made about what someone is like based on observation of his behavior

E.g. if a person falls off the ladder- he is clumsy- inaccurate


Keep in mind: behavior is complex and has many

different causes and people sometimes purposely disguises their true characteristics

The opportunity to make accurate correspondent inferences is greater in situations in which there is only one plausible explanation to their behavior


Convenience of doing something does not say much

But despite inconveniences, then that says something


Causal attribution- the approach suggesting that people will believe other’s actions to be caused by internal and external factors based on three types of information: consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness.


Internal or external cause? Internal causes are directly caused by the

individual while external causes are by the Environment

How do people go about judging whether someone’s actions were caused by internal or external causes?

If all three factors are high- external cause If two factors are low and consistency is

high- internal cause


Consensus- the extent to which other people behave in the same manner as the person we’re judging. If others do behave similarly, consensus is considered high, if they don’t consensus is considered low

Consistency- the extent to which the person we’re judging acts the same way at other times when he or she is in the same situation. If the person acts the same way at other times, consistency is high, vice versa would mean the consistency is low


Distinctiveness-the extent to which this person behaves in the same manner in other contexts. If he or she behaves the same way in other situations, distinctiveness is low, if he or she behaves differently then distinctiveness is high


“Perceptual Biases”

Perceptual Biases

Perceptual biases are predispositions that people have to misperceive others in various systematic ways

These are the fundamental attribution error, the halo effect, the similar to me effect, first impression error and selective perception

Perceptual Biases

1. The fundamental attribution error- the tendency to attribute others’ actions to internal causes (e.g. their traits) while largely ignoring external factors that also may have influenced their behavior

Perceptual Biases

2. The halo effect- the tendency for our overall impressions of others to affect objective evaluations of their specific traits; perceiving high correlations between characteristics that may be unrelated

Perceptual Biases

3.Similar-to-me effect- the tendency for people to perceive in positive light others who are believed to be similar to themselves in any or several different ways

4.First impression error- the tendency to base our judgments to others on our earlier impressions of them

Perceptual Biases

5. Selective perception- the tendency to focus on some aspects of the environment while ignoring others

Stereotypes- beliefs that all members of a specific groups share similar traits and behaviors and are prone to behave the same way

Why do we rely on stereotypes?

Due to the fact that people tend to do as little cognitive work as possible when it comes to thinking about others. That is, we tend to rely- on mental shortcuts.

Perceptual Biases

Guidelines in overcoming bias in social perception


Do not overlook external causes of other’s behavior

Identify and confront your stereotypes

Evaluate people based on objective factors

Avoid making rash judgments


We, as perceivers, are imperfect processors of information. We assume that people are internally responsible for their behavior because we cannot minimize being aware of all the possible situational factors that may be involved

Do not overlook external causes of other’s behavior

The fundamental attribution error leads u to discounts the possibility that peoples poor performance may actually be caused by factors beyond their control. As a result we ignore legitimate explanations for poor performance

Identify and confront your stereotypes

Although the tendency is natural, erroneous perceptions are bound to result-and quite possibly at the expense of someone else. For this reason it’s good to identify the stereotypes that we hold

Key is AWARENESS, enables you to counter

Evaluate people based on objective factors

The more objective the information you use to judge others, the less your judgments will be subjected to perceptual distortions.

People tend to bias subjective judgments in ways that are self serving

Define objective?- per Webster, not being affected by personal feelings or prejudice

Avoid making rash judgments

It is human nature to jump into conclusions about what people are like, even when we know very little about them.

TAKE THE TIME to get to know people better before convincing your self that you already know all you need about the them. WHAT YOU LEARN MAY MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE IN YOUR OPINION

Meaningful Interaction

The more we interact with people in a meaningful way, the less we rely on stereotypes and under perceptual shortcuts to understand a person.

This needs frequent and close interaction working towards the same goal. (managers working in frontline positions, Basketball players sharing rooms and the like)

Meaningful Interaction

Meaningful interactions results in empathy, which is a persons ability to understand and be sensitive to the feelings, thoughts and situations of others.

Mutual Understanding

Knowing yourself, which is becoming more aware of your values, beliefs, and biases, is a powerful way to improve your perceptions

See the Johari window…

OPEN AREA BLIND AREA

HIDDEN AREA

UNKNOWN AREA

DISCLOSURE

Known to others

Unknown to Others FEEDBACK

Known to self

Unknown to self

THE JOHARI WINDOW

The Johari Window

The idea is to expand the open area through to disclosure, the more you know the person, the more you understand their behavior, and the more you learn

Dialectical Inquiry Method

Dialectical inquiry method- a method of analysis in which a decision maker determines and negates his own assumptions and then creates counter solutions based on the negative assumptions (devils advocate method)

WE HAVE TO

RECOGNIZE and IDENTIFY

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Perception and Perceptual Bias