What Is Social Perception???

Table of Contents

1.Meaning of Social Perception.
2.Factors Influencing Social Perception.
3.Frequently Asked Questions.

Meaning of Social Perception:-

The task of developing certain attitude towards other people by accessing and evaluating common social features and social knowledge related to their society is known as social perception.

People observe culture, social interactions, social situations, characteristics, context, relationship, rules and social roles in order to make social perception.

People learn about feelings, emotions and behavior of other people. It is done by collecting information from physical appearances, way of communication, expressions, voice tone, gestures and body moves. Social perception includes:-

(i). Observing people and their related society.

(ii). Finding different stable characteristics.

(iii). Evaluating and analyzing characteristics.

(iv). Making certain social perception.

Factors influencing Social Perception:-

1.Characteristics of perceiver,

2.Characteristics of perceived,

3.Characteristics of situation,    

4.Stereotypeing,

5.Halo Effects.

1.Characteristics of Perceiver:-

Every individual has different level of attitudes, culture, belief, motives, interests, experiences, expectations, norms and values. These factors influence directly way of their perception. Variations in these factors help to differentiate social perception about target. So, individual characteristics of perciever influences on social perception he made.

(i).Identifying self:-Individual who knows self properly will make better perception about other. Less secure people find fault in other people. Secure people accept others and become warm rather than cold.

(ii).Logical structures:-Logical structures of individual also influences his way of social perception. People have different type of logical structures in perception. Some use physical features short or tall, handsome or ugly, fat or thin etc. Some individual having complex logical structures use various psychological, physical and behavioral traits like friendly, hardworking, loyal, aggressive, honest etc.

(iii).Sensitivity Type:- Adversely sensitive people focus more on negative traits of people. Positively sensitive people focus on positive traits of people while making social perception.

(iv).Experiences:-Past experience influences the social perception. If we have positive past experiences with anyone, we perceive him positive longer. If we have negative past experiences with anyone, we perceive him negative longer though he improved himself now.

2.Characteristics of perceived,

Characteristics of the person to be perceived influence the social perception. Person having attractive face grabs attention than others. Person having louder and attractive sound also grabs attention than others. Similarity, proximity, sound, familiarity, motion, contrast, repetition, intensity, size, novelty etc. influence perception. Major factors influencing social perception are such as:-

(i).Physical characteristics like age, gender, race, height, weight etc influence the perception.

(ii). Way of communication like way of expressions, voice tones, body gestures, body moves, eyes expression, facial expressions, positive attitudes, self confidences etc influence perception.

(iii).Written characteristics like occupation, status and personal characteristics influence perception.

3.Characteristics of situation:-

(i).Employee's role in organizational hierarchy influences the perception.

(ii).Location of occurring events also influences the perception.

4.Stereotyping:-

Stereotyping is task of making same belief towards all persons of specific category of people. The belief that all group members possess same characteristics either positive or negative is known as stereotyping. Such attitudes can be on their physical characteristics, personality, looks, cultures, norms, values and abilities.Over generalization about specific category of people may be always not right. It can be inaccurate. Some time it helps in prompt decision making.

Stereotyping can be done according gender, age, indigenous group and occupation. Generally, we see men are more successful manager than woman but it may not be always right. We think army personalities are strict in following rules and regulations but it is not always right. We think youths always prefer autonomy it may not also right always. We always perceive judge, professors, doctors and engineers are ethical but they are most corrupted professionals in South Asia. Task of keeping same belief toward all members of same category is known stereotyping. Some examples of stereotyping are such as:-

(i).Nationality:-All Nepalese are brave.

(ii).Profession:-Government employees are corrupted.

(iii).Genders:- Women are generous.

(iv).Races:- Africans are black.

Perceiving all people same according to nationality, profession, genders and races which can be wrong if we analyze single person. It is because all Nepalese can't be brave, all government staff may not be corrupted in South Asia, all women can't be generous and all Africans can't be black too.

(5).Halo Effects:-

The cognitive bias created due to the perception of one trait influences the perception of other traits in a person or object though other trait is defective is known as Halo effects. In halo effects, the perception of one positive trait covers another bad trait of particular person.

It is tendency to like (or dislike) everything about a person including things which we have not seen. It happens due to suppressed ambiguity in characteristics. If you like overall impression of a person impacts your evaluations of that person's specific traits.

If we like overall impressions of a celebrity, we perceive him as attractive, successful, handsome, ethical, talent, intelligent, kind and funny.

Frequently Asked Questions

1.Explain  the Meaning of Social Perception.
2.Explain the Factors Influencing Social Perception.
4.What is social perception with example?
6.What is your social perception?
7.Why is social perception important?
8.What is the meaning of social perceptiveness?
9.Explain Halo Effects, Stereotyping, Characteristics of Perceiver, Perceived and Situation Factors of Social Perception.