Social Perception

Abstract

The term “social perception” might seem a misnomer, as it refers less to how people perceive their social environment through their senses than to how they make a judgment. Unlike the color of a car or the loudness of a piece of music, both of which can be more or less directly perceived by the respective sensory systems, the trustworthiness of a person or the aggressiveness of a social exchange can only be inferred or construed from various indirect cues. People have to go beyond the information given in order to arrive at a social judgment. In this sense, social perception is an active and constructive process of the perceiver. Not surprisingly, then, the same social situation or the same person may be “perceived” quite differently by different perceivers, or by the same perceiver in different situational contexts.

The Impact of Mass Media on Political Support

“…Since perceptions of political processes are "attitudes and beliefs about others" (Shrum, 2008), they can be conceptualized as social perceptions. Characteristic for social perceptions is that different individuals may hold diverse perceptions of the same group of other people, because social perceptions are an "active and constructive process" (Samochowiec & Wähnke, 2008). "How individuals interpret the real world around them" (Hoffmann & Glynn, 2008) is, for instance, influenced not only by experiences but also by individual expectancies and motivations (Shrum, 2008).…”