Perceiving Others

This part of the note highlights how we perceive other people, and how we form
opinions about others. Our opinions are based on our
perceptions, stereotyping, prejudices, and ethnocentrism.

There are some pictures in the PowerPoint for this unit. If we only see something for a
brief moment, we may not catch all the details. If we take our time and study a situation by
looking at it from all sides, we get a much fuller picture. Sometimes, it takes another person to
point some of the details that we fail to notice. understand others. 

There’s a picture that some see as a cup, and others see it as two faces.

In the second picture, some see an old lady, others see a young woman. 

One needs a longer time to fully grasp a situation or get to know another person. 

Hastily made decisions/judgments are often unsound.

First impressions are almost always wrong.

Just as someone else can’t really “know” you in a few moments; you can’t know a
person in one meeting.

Stereotyping is a phenomenon where based on some external attributes of an individual

we assign other attributes to them. We assign certain characteristics to people based on the
color of their skin, their hair, their age, and their body types. Through stereotyping, we cultivate
notions such as:

All men are irrational.

All blondes are dumb.

All Muslims are terrorists.

 All Hispanic-Americans are lazy.

We may also have stereotypical notions such as

People with red sports cars are rash drivers.

Accountants are boring people.

Short people are less intelligent than taller people.

None of the above stereotypes have any validity. Yet, we all stereotype others.

Prejudices are beliefs/opinions that people hold internally. These may be about a

person, a nation, a place, or an and ideology. Our prejudices can be negative or positive. 

We may like a person and believe that they can do no wrong. This is known as the halo
effect. The saints and angels have halos around their heads. We may also dislike a person to the
extent that we believe they would always act badly. This is the horn effect. The devil has horns. 

Prejudices are our personal and internal thoughts. As long as we don’t speak about
them or act on them, they remain hidden. When we speak of, or act on our prejudice and show
our liking or disliking a person or a group of people, we engage in discrimination.

Discrimination is the verbal or behavioral expression of our prejudices.

Perception, or how we perceive others, is a three-step process – Selecting, Organizing,

Interpreting.

Selecting. At any given time, we hear many sources of sound and yet we are capable of
selecting the sounds that we want to listen to and tune out the rest. In so doing, we have made
a selection.

On any given day, we come across many, people, objects, automobiles, and ads on the
roadsides. These things are in front of our eyes, but we don’t pay attention to every person,
object, automobile, or advertisement. We noticed things selectively. Why we pay attention to a
particular person or an object may depend on our dispositions. This is called selection.

Factors that draw our attention are contrast, size, intensity, and repetition of a stimulus.

Once something gets our attention we ask if the information is relevant, useful,
important, or vital to us. This part of the process is called organizing. Different people seeing
the same event may organize (perceive) it differently. For instance, a piece of cheesecake, for
one person may be an inviting dessert; for another, it may be a warning about diabetes. 

We try to figure out what a new piece of information means. 

Trying to make sense of an external stimulus is called interpretation. We may wish to

ignore it, or we may make a mental note and try to remember the information as it may be
useful in the future. 

There can be no interpretation unless we have organized the information in our minds.
There can be no organizing the information unless we have selected to noticed it. If something
doesn't enter our selection process, there can be no interpretation.

We judge people based on how they dress, what they do (professionally), and their
personalities. psychologists group people into five personality types. These are: open,
conscientious, extrovert, agreeable, and neurotic.

Often, people think that their culture is the best in the world; their way of dressing, their
customs and traditions, their cuisine, and their language are superior to other cultures. Such
thinking is called ethnocentrism. People use their culture as a yardstick against which they
measure other cultures. 

In a global world where we are continuously having to collaborate with people of

different ethnic backgrounds, cultures, religions, and value systems, it’s important to
understand why others do things differently. 
 What is needed is that all of us develop a broader worldview and be more accepting of
the beliefs and values of others. When we travel to another country to study, to work, or to live
there, our first ethical obligation should be to respect the host culture, values, traditions, and
language. It is a prerequisite that we respect their way of doing things, accept their customs
and lifestyle. If we blend in, we have a much better chance of succeeding and being welcomed. 

The old saying, “Do what Romans do in Rome,” is a useful piece of old wisdom.