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1 Marks

7b) Define social perception. Describe any four errors or biases that people commonly encounter in social perception. Elaborate with an example for each.   (10 marks)  Choose the best answer from the model answers below.

Model Answer A:  

Social perception is defined as how a person perceives another individual or people around him or her. It can be a one-to-one or one-to-many kind of relationships.

I would like to describe the following FOUR factors: Attribution errors, selective perception, projection and stereotyping. These are most likely the biases that people commonly encounter in social perception.

1. Attribution errors mean errors people make when they judge other people. People always like to attribute their own failures to others. We are always very fast to blame other people when things go wrong. We seldom blame ourselves. This is the attribution effect because we attribute happenings to other people or ourselves. For example, in my family my father always scolds me when he receives the monthly telecom bill. He blames me for attributing to the high bill because he says I always talk for so long with my friend on the telephone. My sister also talks a lot on the telephone. Yet she doesn't get scolding from my father. I feel that this is very unfair. Therefore I think my father has committed an attribution error.
   
2. Selective perception means people like choose thing they like to perceive and leave out others they don't like. This is very likely the case for people who are not very thorough or short of time. That means they select or choose only those they want to perceive and leave out the rest. For example, I choose to read the sports section, the cartoon page and the cinema advertisements of the Straits Times. I don't think the others are of interest to me. Therefore when the OB exam has questions set on other cases in the Straits Times, I cannot answer. I have made a big selective perceptive error.
   
3. Projection is when we like to project our style of doing something on other people. For example we like to take tea breaks therefore the majority should also like to take tea breaks. We know this may not be the case. When we behave in one way we also think that other people around us should also behave in the same way. We project our habits on other people thinking that many people are like us when in actual fact they are not. This is therefore an error which we called projection.
   
4. Stereotyping is when we judge people based on our own perception of the class or the group to which they belong. This is very common among people who are very quick to pass judgement on people around them. They think that people are easy to be classified into various types. For example, I like to stereotype people who wear spaghetti straps or tank tops to show off their navels. I think they are very loose or low in moral standards. I don't like this kind of fashion and I think these people are of one kind. They are like the "Ah Lian" kind of people.

Model Answer B:  

Social perception means perception done in a social setting. In organisational behaviour it is very important to study social perception. Especially when I need to study about perception, which is a very important topic in organisational behaviour.

1. In the study of organisational behaviour and the study of perception, one must have a good understanding of social perception. I think I have good understand of social perception. In it there are attribution errors. Attribution errors are how we make errors when we look at other people. This is because people are different. So the differences cause us to have problems and we commit errors sometimes without us knowing about. It is very serious. For example when something is not right we blame other people. We never blame ourselves. This is also very unfair to other people around us. This is no way to treat people.
   
2. When I study organisational behaviour I always make it a point to be selective in my study. Like that I don't waste time studying things that are not important at all. Therefore in Selective Perception this is also the same. Selection Perception is an organisational behaviour concept meaning what I like to see of other people. Selective means we see some things and not all other things.. For example I choose only to eat chicken cutlet at lunch time because I have made a selective perception that other stalls are not good at the School of Business canteen. Maybe other stalls are very good. But I made the Selective Perception and decide what I want to eat in this manner. Selective Perception therefore is a problem which we must not commit.
   
3. There are many important and useful things to learn in the study of organisational behaviour. But we have very little time and we have so many projects to do. When we do too many projects we may have a problem with the concept of projection. Thus Projection means we project my way to your way. I am therefore very selfish and always pass over my projects to let other people do. This is also an example of the concept of projection. Another good example of projection is that we always project what we like to do on other people we don't know what they like to do. It can thus be seen that Projection is no good therefore it is an error.
   
4. Another problem is the study of Stereotyping. Stereotyping is like in sound system, where we have mono or stereo. To be mono means one type. To be stereo means to do things in a left and right way. Therefore we can stereotype things and also people like the way we look at sound systems. Instead of one kind, we have two kinds and sometimes many kinds. This is always the case in life which is so complicated and difficult to understand. What I like about one kind of people may not be according to your liking. So we will have problems. Sometimes these problems can lead us to quarrel among ourselves and make life even more difficult. So you see stereotyping is indeed a very serious problem .

Model Answer C:  

I would like to describe the following FOUR factors: Attribution errors, selective perception, projection and stereotyping. These are most likely the biases that people commonly encounter in social perception.

Attribution Errors: There is a tendency for people to attribute their own successes to self (internally caused) and failures to others. This is the basic explanation of attribution errors. When something goes wrong, people are quick to link or attribute it to others and not themselves. This is called externally caused behaviour. For example, in my OB project, I sometimes blame my team members for taking too long a time to contribute ideas. I could be impatient and should have been more understanding. My classmates could have other legitimate priorities that I may not be aware of. My inclination to underestimate the influence of external factors (my classmates' own priorities or personal problems) and overestimate my own judgement (internal factor) of other people is clearly an error on my part. This is attribution error in action.

Selective Perception: We are easily attracted by objects that stand out and we tend to ignore things that are less obvious. Sometimes things that are less attractive could be important. Yet we choose to ignore them. For example, I tend to always look out for students who carry colourful folders, especially those with attractive pictures on them, like Brad Pitt or Madonna. I am somehow "turned off" by those who have pictures of football teams or animals and consider them as "not my type" or "not really cool". Surely this is no way to judge people. This is the problem with most people and we call this selective perception.

Projection: This is another error which is very common in life. For example if we are always neat and tidy we tend to expect or be quick to assume that other people should also be likewise. We "project" our abilities or preferences on people around us without being conscious of it. This error is also commonly experienced when we think that just because we are honest other people should also be honest. Surely this is very naove thinking.

Stereotyping: When we judge people on the basis of our own perception of the class or the group to which they belong to, we are very inclined to commit this typically common mistake called stereotyping. For example, when I met my OB tutor for the first time, I found him always speaking with a very loud voice. I have this personal belief that people who talk loudly must be hot tempered. I should be careful with them. Later I discovered that I have made a stereotyping error. As I get to know him, I find that he is not a temperamental person at all. In fact he is very patient with us. My impression of him changed for the better.