Social Perception

Chapter 03
Perceiving And Understanding Others

CHAPTER 03

FARHAN SHAHZAD [FACULTY MEMBER @ SUKKUR IBA UNIVERSITY]

Perception
Perception is interpreting the information gathered by senses.
Every human being in his or her life wanted to know
and understand people around them in any social
setting.
Because they play important role in our lives directly
or indirectly.

FARHAN SHAHZAD [FACULTY MEMBER @ SUKKUR IBA UNIVERSITY]

Social Perception
The process through which we seek to know and understand
other people.
[Make opinion about other person in your mind & express it]
Based on:
Personality [ Physical Appearance ] Inner state of person

Emotional state
Ethical values
What is the philosophy
about life ?
Religious Belief & so on
Impression
How we perceive others in first go ?
First Impression

You will never get a chance

to make first impression
Non Verbal Communication

The Unspoken Language of Expression, Gazes,

Gestures and Scents.
Non Verbal Communication: The Basis Channels
In different emotional states we behave differently.
We use these five channels to express such emotions.
• Facial Expression
• Eye Contact
• Body Movement
• Posture
• Touching
1. FACIAL EXPRESSION
The face is the image of the soul
Human feelings and emotions are often reflected in the face
and can be read.
Five Basic different emotions are reflected on our faces.
Combinations of emotions can be reflected on face
Mixed Feelings Happiness & Surprise
i.e Result
◦ Happiness and Surprise
◦ Fear and Happiness
◦ Angry and Sad
Facial Expression Across Culture
◦ Some facial expressions can easily be recognized across the cultures
but some are unique in nature and identified by few people.
◦ Degree of Emotion Defines the expression.
Sometimes people just laugh without being happy
Smile for selfie Boss/Teacher is telling lame joke

FARHAN SHAHZAD [FACULTY MEMBER @ SUKKUR IBA UNIVERSITY]

2. GAZES and STARES: Eye Contact as Non Verbal cu
Speaking with person who has put on
sun glasses.
Eyes are “windows to the soul.”
You may feel uncomfortable:
◦ Because you can’t see person eyes
◦ Eyes also express the feelings
◦ You may not find him friendly
Staring
A form of eye contact in which one person continues to gaze
steadily at another regardless of what recipient does.

Cold Stare:“Nonverbal cue of disturbing others”

Staring is often interpreted as sign of anger and

hostility.
3. Body Language: Gestures, Postures, an
Movements
The conscious and unconscious movements and postures by
which attitudes and feelings are communicated.
Gestures & Postures
A movement of part of the body, especially a hand or the
head, to express an idea or meaning.
(Purposeful and Deliberate)
Be careful in different cultures the meaning of
such gestures will change:
Widely accepted as sign of approval
or agreement.
But in Bangladesh used as an insult
 Interact with the sense of touch

Touching“Haptic communication”
Physical Contact a person while interaction – gives different
meanings based on:
Cultural Context
Person (A Friend, A Stanger, Same gender, Family etc)
Which part of body is touched
Context of situations ( Business or Social Settings) – i.e Surgeon
Touch may send positive or negative message: It can show
Affection, Dominance, Love, Caring, or even Aggression
FARHAN SHAHZAD [FACULTY MEMBER @ SUKKUR IBA UNIVERSITY]
High vs. Low Context Culture
High-context cultures: Rely on nonverbal cues and the total
picture to communicate. Meanings are embedded at many
social levels.
Low-context cultures: Emphasize words, straightforwardness,
openness.
 High
Japanese
Arab
Latin American
Spanish
English
Italian
French
North American
Scandinavian
German
Swiss
Low
Scent: Another source of Non Verbal
Social Information
A distinctive, typically pleasant smell in human body

Natural smell in human body may send positive or negative

cue to another person.
The Facial Expression an Especially Important
Source of Information About Others
Individuals can spot angry faces more quickly than
neutral or smiling faces.
Male faces carry greater expression for anger than
female face (They may not be angry but their face show angriness)
Facial Expressions are source of information for
observers. (It reflects the internal state of individual)
Do We Show What We Feel
& Feel What We Show?

There is close link between Facial Expressions we show

&
Internal Feelings we do have
What we see, we feel
What we feel is shown on face
Sometimes People are Unwilling to Reveal Their Inner Feelings

Salesperson can be over friendly with you while selling

product.
Nonverbal Cues
Recognizing the deception behind such behavior through
some hints we can identify with carful watch on facial
expression, eye contact or body language.
Understand the micro-expressions that may last for nanoseconds
Non Verbal cues
Recognizing Deception: The Role of Nonverbal Cues

◦ Microexpressions—Fleeting facial expressions lasting only a few

tenths of a second
◦ Interchannel discrepancies (nonverbal cues are inconsistent)
◦ Your expression does not match with verbal conversations.
◦ Eye contact (blink more, unusually low or high eye contact)
◦ Exaggerated facial expressions (overly broad smile)
Linguistic Style
Understand the hidden meaning behind voice.
Aspects of speech apart from the meaning of the words
employed (pitch of voice), tone etc..
◦ Be careful from very skillful liars
The Effect of Deception on Social Relation
Deception is an all-too-common aspect of social life, what
are its effects? As you might guess, they
are largely negative.
Studies found when people find themselves on the receiving
end of lies, they react with mistrust of, and disliking toward,
the liar.
Lying undermines the quality of social relations.
Once it begins in a relationship or group, it is difficult to
reverse, and the result may be a serious decline in mutual
trust and faith.
Attribution: Understand The Causes Of Others’ Behavior
Why that person is not
accepting your offer

By knowing the reason

behind such behavior
Attribution help you to
form perception
 We Don’t Simply Want To Know:

HOW PERSON HAS ACTED! BUT UNDERSTAND WHY HE HAS DONE SO!
Theories of Attribution
Framework of understanding How We Make Sense of the
Social World
Behavior Is Driven From:
Internal Personal Attributes
External (Situational) Attributes
Internal (Personal) Attributes:
The process of assigning the cause of behavior to
some internal characteristic, rather than to outside
forces.
◦ Personality traits
◦ Individual Characteristics
Examples: (Internal)
She is always late to the class She is very tardy.
His point of view on following the discipline is completely rigid.
She believes in one God. Monotheist
Emmad frequently meets with their friends Social
External (Situational) Attributes:
The process of assigning the cause of behavior to some
situation or event outside a person's control rather than to
some internal characteristic.

◦ Situational or Environment Factors, Social pressures

i.e I haven’t completed my project because I had to go to
party!
External (Situational) Attributes:
Internal vs External Attribution
For Example: If Someone Earns Bad Grades

I Guess They Didn’t Study The Teachers Is Harsh

Well Enough ! Grader!
External Attribute

Internal Attribute

Woke Up Late
Correspondent Inference [Dispositional Attribute]
A theory describing how we use others’ behaviors as a basis for
inferring their stable dispositions.

When we see the correspondence between personality traits and

behavior.
Internal attributes help us to better predict the future behavior of

person.

[ Theory: Jones and Davis’s ]

Give Causal Explanations to Event

Is someone angry because they are short-

tempered or because something bad
happened?
 Information Sources
Lead Us To Make Correspondent Inference

Choice

Non
Common Social
Effects Desirability
Choice

Behavior that seems to have been freely chosen,

there is no any external force.
i.e Friends challenge
Socially Desirability
Behaviors low in sociably desirability (non conforming) lead us to make
(internal) dispositional inferences more than socially undesirable
behaviors.
Non Common Effects
Any result that can not be produced by any
other apparent cause. [Not Frequent Behavior]
Consider The Following Events:
You arrange to meet someone at a restaurant, but she doesn’t show
up, so after waiting 20 minutes, you leave!

You leave several text messages for a friend, but he doesn’t replayed
to any!

You expect a promotion in your job, but don’t receive it!

Find out the Cause
You arrange to meet someone at a restaurant, but she doesn’t show up, so after
waiting 20 minutes, you leave!

What can be the cause behind this behavior:

Internal:
She might have forgotten
She doesn’t want to meet you
External:
She might have an emergency
She might have lost on the way
Behavior
You have visited the restaurant and found
waiter flirting with customers.
Why he has acted in such a way?
Internal Attributes
Or
External Attributes
Or Both Attributes has influenced!
 HAROLD KELLY’S THEORY OF CAUSAL
ATTRIBUTIONS
Either this behavior is influenced by internal or
external factors?

There are three types of causal information: On that

you can decide!
 Consensus: If you observe other waiters are also flirting with
customers (Consensus is high)

Consistency: If you have seen that particular waiter doing

same flirting at different occasions.
(Consistency is high)

Distinctiveness: If you haven’t seen this particular waiter not

flirting with other customers. Flirting with one
specific customer (Distinctiveness is high)
 • The extent to which other people behave in
Consensus a same way in similar situation.

• The Extent to which an individual responds

Consistency to given situation in the same way on
different occasions. (i.e accros time)

• The extent to which an individual responds in

Distinctiveness the same manner to different situations.
 Many other WAITERS
also flirt with customer
(Consensus is High)

The WAITER’s behavior

This WAITER also flirts is attributed to
WAITER FLIRTS
with this customer at EXTERNAL CAUSES.
with the
CUSTOMERS
other times (e.g The Customer is
(Consistency is High)
Good Looking)

The WAITER does not

flirt with other
customers
(Distinctiveness is High)
 No other WAITER flirts
with the customer
(Consensus is Low)

The WAITERS behavior

This WAITER also flirts is attributed to
WAITER FLIRTS
with this customer at
with the INTERNAL CAUSES
CUSTOMERS
other times (e.g This SERVER Likes
(Consistency is High)
to Flirt)

The WAITER also flirts

with other customers
(Distinctiveness is Low)
Scenario 01: Identify High vs Low
Emmad is not listening in the maths class.
Others students were also not listening. He did
not listen to any math class. But he listen to
other subjects.
External
Attribution
Scenario 02: Identify High vs Low
Emmad is not listening in the maths class. But
all others were listening. He did not listen to any
math class and also to any other subjects.

Internal
Attribution
Scenario 03: Identify High vs Low
others
Emmad argues with maths [Link]
don’t. He argues to maths teacher all the time.
And he also argues with other teachers.

Internal
Attribution
Conclusion of Kelly’s Theory

Factors
Internal External
Attributes Attributes
Consensus Low High
Consistency High High
Distinctiveness Low High
Attribution: Some Basic Sources of Error
The Fundamental Attribution Error: (Correspondence Bias)
Overestimating the internal (personal) influences and
underestimating external (situational) influences.

In presence of situational causes we consider as the

behavior is driven from internal behaviors.
The Fundamental Attribution Error - Example:
You Observe that there is student in the class that has been very
quiet during the entire semester. Student does not even talk during
the class discussions.
You conclude that the student is introvert and shy person!
It is possible that you may wrongly assume that this current behavior
reflects his personality.

May be teacher is not giving him chance to participate

May be class is boring
The Correspondence Bias And Gender
We generally tend to believe that women is more emotional than
men.
But specific Research deny this But even though we believe in it.

Whenever we found man and woman equally little worried we tend

to say:
Woman is because of her personality, whereas man may have
affected from external situation.
Actor-Observer Effect (Bias)
•When something bad happens to us we blame external
factors. (Actor)
•And when something bad happens to other we blame
them and their (internal attributes) (Observer)
Because: We don’t like to blame ourselves but only the
surroundings
Example

“I was unprepared for the exam because there

was a family emergency last night, but Geeta
was unprepared because she’s basically not that
good at maths.”
 Example
“Actor-observer bias
As you are walking down the street, you trip and fall.
You immediately blame the slippery pavement, an
external cause.
However, if you saw a random stranger trip and fall,
you would probably attribute this to an internal factor,
such as clumsiness or inattentiveness.”
The Self Serving Bias
ATTRIBUTE POSITIVE OUTCOMES to the INTERNAL FACTORS
ATTRIBUTE NEGATIVE OUTCOMES to EXTERNAL FACTORS

Example:
“I won the game today because I am a great athlete; yesterday I lost
the game because the referee made some bad decsion.
 Positive Outcome Negative Outcome
Attribute success to yourself: I am talented Attribute Failure to Teacher: Teacher is
& worked hard harsh checker
Impression Formation and Impression
Management
Impression formation is an important aspect of
social perception.

First Impression: It seems to be relatively effortless

to perceive on the basis of first interaction someone.
How Quickly are First Impressions Formed
and Are They Accurate
Our general conclusion from social psychological research on First
Impression They are formed quickly but are not accurate!

Thin Slices: It refers to small amount of information about others we

use to form first impressions of them.
First Impressions are Reasonably Accurate
Research
Participants viewed faces of strangers Another group of participants
for a very brief period of time: 1/10 of examined those photos of the same
second, half a second or a second. strangers without time constraint.
Then participants rated on the basis of
traits:
- Trustworthiness The requested to rate on the basis of
- Competence
trait
- Likeability
- Aggressiveness
- Attractiveness

The ratings of both group was near to each other!

Implicit Personality Theories: Schemas
Shape the First Impressions
Implicit Personality Theory: We relate newly formed impression
to what is already known about the other person.
A person who is polite and attentive may be assumed as
Trustworthy.
Person who shows attitude & arrogance Intelligent
Person who is Quiet Timid
Person who is Aggressive Stupid
Person who is happy Friendly
Impression Management:
Tactics for Looking Good to Others
Impression Management is an attempt to control the
perception of others.
Tactics:
1. Self Enhancement
2. Others Enhancement
1. Self Enhancement:
Effort to increase appeal to others

◦ Physical Appearance
◦ Personal Grooming (Attitude, Expressive)
◦ Appropriate dress (as per event) Personal hygiene (Cleanliness)
◦ Describe your positive qualities, easy to adjust attitude
◦ Affiliations or membership (i.e IBA Sukkur, Member Welfare Society )
2. Other Enhancement:
Make the target person feel good in various ways.

◦ Ingratiation: Flattering others in various ways.

◦ Doing small favors
◦ Show high degree of interest in his/her discussion
◦ Asking for advice and feedback in some manner
◦ Focus on more on Non verbal communications
Does Impression Management Work?
Yes, obviously it works!
For Job Candidate:
- Those who make mange impressions are successful
in hiring?
You can make your impression
When interviewer ask open ended questions not YES
or NO type of Questions

When interviewee is more social (Communicate Easily)

Slime Effect
“Licking Upward- Kicking Downward”

Likeable Dislikeable
Toward Toward
Superiors Subordinates

Slime Effect: And once its behavior is observed Judged Person as Negatively
So much Ingratiation(Flattering) to Higher ups
Likeable Behavior towards superiors:
- Ulterior (Hidden) Motives (Promotion, Pay Increase,
Bonuses, Career Growth)
- Too much flattery lead you to suspicion and mistrust
Chapter Completed 