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