Factor Influencing Individual Perception
Factor Influencing Individual Perception: We are constantly bombarded with data. As a result, it is hard for humans to digest everything we see – some impulses may be picked up by the eye. As a result, their employer may punish some workers for doing something that might go undetected by another employee. We participate in selective perception because we can’t see everything going on around us.
Selective perception is also our inclination to pick information that supports our points of view; people often overlook information that makes them uncomfortable or threatens their ideas of view.
Selective perception helps us to “speed-read” people, but it also comes with the danger of constructing a false image. We might take unjustified inferences from ambiguous stimuli because we see what we want to see. Perception is impacted more by an individual’s attitudes, interests, and background than by the stimulus itself.
Factor Influencing Individual Perception
- Stereotype
A stereotype is a blanket statement made about a group of individuals. We use the shortcut known as stereotyping when we assess someone based on our view of the group to which he or she belongs. Stereotypes are effective in compiling and using knowledge about other people because they condense information about them to a manageable level. It allows us to retain consistency while simplifying a complicated environment. When we employ stereo types, dealing with an overwhelming amount of inputs becomes easier. Stereotypes may be correct, and when they are, they can serve as helpful perceptual guides. However, stereotypes are often incorrect.
The stereotype of attractiveness is a strong one. We expect beautiful people to be warm, kind, sensitive, poised, gregarious, outgoing, self-sufficient, and powerful. Is it true that handsome individuals are gregarious, extroverted, self-reliant, and strong? Is this how gorgeous people truly are? Certainly not all of them.
We constantly hear statements in the workplace that reflect stereotypes based on gender, age, nationality, and other factors. People will notice this stereo type if they expect to see it, whether it is correct or not, from a perceptual standpoint.
- The Halo Effect
Stereotyping is quite similar to the halo mistake in perception. Whereas in stereotyping, a person is judged on the basis of a single attribute, in the halo effect, a person is judged on the basis of many traits.
A halo effect occurs when we form an opinion about someone based on a particular trait, such as intellect, friendliness, or looks. The halo effect’s propensity to function is not random. According to research, it is most likely to be extreme when the features to be judged are unclear in behavioural terms, have moral overtones, and the perceiver is assessing traits with which he or she has little experience. The halo effect is shown by the exceptionally lovely female secretary who is seen by her male employer as educated and capable, despite the fact that she is a terrible typewriter.
- Error of first impression
People lay a great lot of emphasis on initial impressions. First impressions stick with you for a long time. We tend to recall the first impressions we get of someone, and we are often hesitant to modify those opinions. The propensity to establish long-term judgements about someone based on first impressions is known as first-impression mistake. Because we establish first impressions rapidly and these impressions may be the foundation for long-term job ties, primacy effects may be especially damaging in interviews.
- Effect of Contrast
Stimuli that stand out from the background are more likely to be chosen for attention than stimuli that blend in. Color, size, or any other distinctive characteristic might provide a contrasted impact (any factor that distinguishes one stimulus from others at present). A guy strolling down the street on crutches, for example, attracts more attention than a regular person.
A contrast effect occurs when the judgement of a person’s attributes is influenced by recent encounters with other persons who rate higher or lower on the same traits. The “contrast” concept asserts that external stimuli that stand out against the backdrop or are different from what people anticipate get their attention. In a swarm of female students, the contrast effect also explains why a male student stands out. The male students are unremarkable, but when surrounded by girls, he stands out.
An example of how contrast effects work in a job interview setting when there is a pool of candidates to choose from. Because of his or her position in the interview schedule, any particular candidate’s assessment might be skewed. If the candidate is preceded by average applications, the candidate is more likely to obtain a favourable rating, and if the candidate is preceded by great candidates, the candidate is less likely to receive a favourable evaluation.
- Projection
It’s simple to pass judgement on people if we presume they’re like ourselves. Projection is the propensity to ascribe one’s own attributes to other individuals.
Projection has the potential to skew one’s views of others. People who participate in projection have a tendency to regard others in a negative light. They are judged based on their own characteristics rather than the characteristics of the person being watched. Managers who use projection jeopardise their capacity to adapt to individual variances.
People seem to them to be more homogenous than they really are.
- Theories of Implicit Personality
We all have our own beliefs about how individuals seem and act. These ideas assist us in organising our senses and using shortcuts rather than constantly absorbing new information. Implicit-personality theory describes how we acquire views about other people based on our own small ideas about human behaviour. We feel that females dressed in trendy apparel would like current music, whereas girls dressed in traditional attire, such as a saree, will enjoy Indian classical music. These implicit personality theories act as roadblocks because they impede our capacity to absorb new information when it comes our way.
- Prophecies That Come True
Self-fulfilling prophesies occur when our expectations of others influence our interactions with them in such a manner that our expectations are met. The Pygmalion effect, named after a sculptor in Greek mythology who built a statue of a female that came to life when he begged for this desire and it was fulfilled, is a kind of self-fulfilling prophesy.
The Pygmalion effect has also been noticed in professional environments. The manager’s expectations of a person have an impact on both the manager’s behaviour and the individual’s reaction. Assume a manager has an early opinion of an employee as having the capacity to advance within the company. The manager is likely to devote a significant amount of time to coaching and counselling the employee, as well as offering demanding tasks and grooming the worker for success.