Diversity and Perception

So much more than you think you know

A Social Information Processing Model of Perception

Perception

cognitive process that enables us to interpret and understand our surroundings

Perceptual Distortions

Perceptual Illusions

Perceptual Illusions

Perceptual Illusions

More Mind Tricks (from Cambridge U.)

Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs. I cdnuolt blveiee taht

I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The

phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to

a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't

mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny

iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the

rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can

sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the

huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but

the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? Yaeh and I

awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Stage 1: Selective Attention/Comprehension

Attention

Process of becoming consciously aware of

something or someone

People pay attention to salient stimuli

Salient

something that stands out from context

Stage 2: Encoding and Simplification

Schema

Represents a person’s mental picture or

summary of a particular event or type of

stimulus

Four Layers of Diversity

Stage 2: Encoding and Simplification

Stereotype

An individual’s set of beliefs about the

characteristics or attributes of a group

Stereotyping Process

1. Categorize people into groups according

to various criteria

2. Infer that all people within a category

possess the same traits

3. Form expectations of others and interpret

their behavior according to our

stereotypes

Stereotyping Process

4. Stereotypes are maintained by:

– Overestimating the frequency of stereotypic

behavior exhibited by others

– Incorrectly explaining expected and

unexpected behaviors

– Differentiating minority individuals from

oneself

Characteristics of Stereotypes

• Their nature is not always negative

– Women are nurturing

– Asians are smart

• Allow people to save time and effort when processing information about others

• Based on generalizations (often inaccurate)

– Older workers are more accident prone

– Women are more emotional

• Can lead to poor decisions and discrimination

Causal Attributions

Causal Attributions

suspected or inferred causes of behavior

Attributional Tendencies

Fundamental attribution bias

Reflects one’s tendency to attribute another person’s

behavior to his or her personal characteristics, as

opposed to situational factors.

Stereotype-confirming attributions

Dismiss individuals who don’t match stereotype as

an exception

Selective perception

Confirmatory bias

Prevents people from noticing/focusing on useful,

observable, and relevant data

Bounded Awareness

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF

YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED

WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS

Inattentional (Perceptual) Blindness

• How many passes does the team in white make?

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

• Target is expected to behave in one way, is

treated consisted with that expectation and

actually becomes that way

• Person may negatively internalize aspects of a

culturally held stereotype

• Loss in performance due to low expectations

– Word, Zanna, & Cooper (1974) – job interviews

Power of Distinctions

• Even trivial distinctions can lead to

derogation (blue eyes and brown eyes)

Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes video case

Overcoming Biases

• Do not overlook the external

causes of others’ behaviors

• Identify and confront your

stereotypes

• Evaluate people based on

objective factors

• Avoid making rash

judgments

Kelley’s Model of Attribution

Behavior can be attributed either to:

Internal factors within a person (such as

ability) or to:

External behavior within the environment

(such as a difficult task)

Ethnocentrism

• Ethnocentrism

– belief that one’s native country, culture, language, and behavior are superior to all others.

Defining and Managing Diversity

Diversity

represents the multitude of individual

differences and similarities that exist among

people