Perception’s Influence
Take a moment and try to recall having a disagreement with a coworker, friend, or
family member that ended with some variation of“I just don’t see it that way”or
“You just don’t understand.”Very likely, the inability to resolve your difference was
because you each had a different perception of the problem. In other words, each of
you had interpreted some or all of the factors relating to the conflict from a different
perspective. That people evaluate stimuli differently is a common cause of intercul-
tural disagreements and conflict, and because perception is so important when com-
municating with someone of another culture, it is essential to have a thorough
understanding of the concept.
We live in an information-saturated environment. Daily, our senses are barraged with
far more physical and psychological stimuli than we can process and interpret. To survive,
we engage in a three-step process—selection, organization, and interpretation—to
manage the stimuli considered important. In the first step, we selectively decide
which of the stimuli to attend to and which toignore. Next, the selected information
must be organized, or categorized, after which a meaning is assigned. The complete
process produces your perception of a situation, emotion, or even another person. In
its simplest form, perception is how we make sense of the world, how we construct
reality.
The distinguished theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking and his colleague offer a
more scholarly description of this process. They contend that just as models are used
in science, people construct“mental models...in order to interpret and understand
the everyday world,”and the resulting perceptions are subjectively influenced because
they are“shaped by a kind of lens, the interpretive structure of our human brains.”^1
British author and scholar, C.S. Lewis, has provided a more practical view of percep-
tion, and one that introduces the role of culture:“What you see and what you hear
depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of per-
son you are.”Particularly noteworthy is the last thought, because culture is perhaps
the most important social influence in shaping an individual. Thus, the relevant
sociocultural factors, such as beliefs, values, and attitudes, provide a template for
assigning meaning to the many stimuli, which ultimately coalesce to form our
perceptions.
Two examples readily illustrate the interaction between culture and perception.
The first contrasts culturally based communication practices. In the United States, a
direct, forthright communicative style is expected and valued. Frank exchanges of
ideas and animated debates often characterize meetings. In contrast, this type of com-
munication can be threatening to people from Northeast Asian nations (China,
Japan, and Korea). Their concern for positive, enduring interpersonal relations leads
to a preference for indirect communications between valued associates. Accordingly,
negative or adverse information is often couched in ambiguous terms. From this, it is
easy to imagine how a culturally uninformed American might perceive a typical Japa-
nese speaker as being evasive or even duplicitous and have reservations about enter-
ing into a business arrangement.
The second example concerns how age is perceived across cultures. In the United
States, culture emphasizes the value of youth and rejects growing old. As a result,
older people are often viewed less positively. This is evident in media commercials
that usually appeal to a youth demographic. According to one communication
researcher,“Young people view elderly people as less desirable interaction partners200 CHAPTER 6•Cultural Values: Road Maps for Behavior
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