Perception II
People tend to think of perception as a passive process. We see, hear, smell, taste or feel things brought upon our senses. We think that if we are, at all objective, we record what is actually there. Yet perception is demonstrably an active rather than a passive process. It constructs rather than records reality. Perception implies understanding as well as awareness. It is a process of inference, people construct their own version of reality on the basis of information filtered through the five senses.
Patterns of expectation become so deeply embedded that they continue to influence perceptions even when people are alerted to and try to take account of the existence of data that do not fit their preconceptions. Trying to be objective
does not ensure accurate perception.
This tendency to perceive what they expect to perceive is more important than any tendency to perceive what they want to perceive. In fact, there is no real tendency toward wishful thinking. The commonly cited evidence supporting the claim that people tend to perceive what they want to perceive can generally be explained equally well by people who see what they expect to see.
Expectations have many diverse sources, including past experience, professional training, and cultural and organizational norms. These influences predispose us to pay particular attention to certain kinds of information and to organize and interpret this information in certain ways. Perception is also influenced by the context in which it occurs.
Patterns of expectations tell us, subconsciously, what to look for, what is important, and how to interpret what is seen.
Once people form impressions on the basis of very little information, they do not reject or change them unless they add rather solid evidence. The early, but incorrect impression, tends to persist because the amount of information necessary to invalidate a hypothesis is considerably greater than the amount of information required to make an initial interpretation. The problem is not that there is any inherent difficulty in grasping new perceptions or new ideas, but that established perceptions are extremely difficult to change.
Psychology Today
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