Human behaviors are influenced by how they believe other people perceive them. Not only are humans concerned with perceptions of people they consider close to them, but they are also sensitive to the perceptions of strangers towards them. With time, people develop social knowledge which contains information about social relationships, other people and even themselves (Gallese et al., 2004). For example, in the case presented in this study in which a person suggestively smiles at another person in a party, the person being smiled at would easily interpret that the person smiling likes her or maybe trying to communicate something positive. How one perceives the world influences one's attitude and inner emotions. For example, the one being smiled at would easily interpret the scenario to mean that the one smiling is maybe interested in her likes her. For this reason, the person being smiled at would be attracted to the person smiling, and they may even proceed to start a conversation. The way the person being smiled at perceives the one smiling determines the attitude she would have to the person smiling. In turn, they would get attracted to each other and may begin communication after that. If one perceives a world of abundance, then the attitude and actions would also attract abundance. Conversely, if one perceives one's life as lacking his or her needs, then one gets to worry more about conserving what one has.
Counter Argument
In contrast with the first argument, one may also argue that other people's perception of them does not in any way influence human behaviors. The proponents of this notion believe that human behaviors solely rely on their perception and not on other people’s perception about them (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995). For example, going with the party incident, the holders of this notion would suggest that the person being smiled at would not in any way react to the person smiling and instead would only act according to how she thinks about herself. This argument is pegged on the fact that humans in most cases are not sincere with their feelings and may not be accurate to what they say. As a result, it is not proper to trust how one perceives or says about the other since in most cases it may not be a true reflection of what they believe or feel about the next person. For example, one may complement another person's dress code to please him or her, but the inner feeling does not hold the same view.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
New Evidence
The second argument, however, does not reflect the actual picture of social psychology. There are two significant types of knowledge which are essential in social psychology: attitudes and schemas. Schema refers to the representation of knowledge which includes information about an individual or a group of people. Attitude, on the other hand, refers to the representation of knowledge which includes primarily liking or disliking of another person, group or thing (Taylor & Koivumaki, 1976). For example, in the party incident, one may easily interpret that the person smiling at another person likes the person he or she is smiling at and another person would interpret the same incident to mean that the person smiling is likable. Both the attitudes and schemas allow people to make the judgment without much thought on whether the other people or things they encounter are either good, bad, hurtful, helpful if they should be avoided or get attracted to them. Thus, the attitudes and the schemas play a significant role in influencing the processing of social information as well as their social behaviors (Wyer, 2014).
Social cognition involves how people actively interpret events. For this reason, different people draw different conclusions on the same event. Concerning the party incident, for instance, the person being smiled at might think that the person smiling is romantically attracted to her while the person smiling may think that he is just friendly. In another example, when a person tells a joke about a particular tribe to the tribe members, the person telling the joke may think that he is funny while the audience may feel prejudiced by the fun. The fact that people give diverse opinions about the same event makes life interesting, though sometimes it can also lead to conflict and disagreement. Social psychologists study how different people understand and interpret their worlds and in particular how they make conclusions on the causes of other people's behaviors.
In support of the first argument, humans experience feelings in their normal lives. As the day progresses, people find themselves feeling happy, sad, grateful, jealous, embarrassed or proud. This is commonly known as an effect. The experiences help people to function effectively and increase people's survival chances. Effect can also lead people to engage in behaviors which are appropriate to the given situation. For example, when people are happy, they tend to seek out to other people and socialize, when they are sad, they withdraw, when angry they may attack and when they are fearful they may run away (Stevens & Fiske, 1995). In the case of the party incident, the person being smiled at may decide to reach out to the person smiling and start a conversation.
People experience affect in the form of emotions and mood. Mood refers to either the negative or positive feelings brought about by everyday experiences. Most often, positive mood brings positive consequences as it encourages people to do what should be done in any particular situation. When people are in a good mood, their thought processes open up, and they are likely to open to other people (Wyer, 2014). People tend to be friendlier when in a good mood than when in a bad mood. In addition, when people are in a bad mood, they tend to withdraw and remain by themselves rather than reaching out to others. Humans tend to be more creative when in a good mood than when they are in a bad mood.
Since people influence and interact with each other on a daily basis, they have developed means of making the interactions to proceed effectively and efficiently. They cooperate with others to get better outcomes that they cannot obtain on their own. Furthermore, humans exchange services, goods, and other benefits amongst themselves. These interactions attract several benefits such as attention, affection, praise, love, or even financial support. For example, in the party case, one can argue that the person being smiled at had presentable looks or had nice clothing which attracted the person who was smiling at her. On the other hand, humans may receive negative outcomes after interaction with others. These are referred to as the social costs. They include frustrations that come about after disappointments or disagreements, the guilt which comes after the inappropriate act and the effort that people undergo when trying to make relationships.
People prefer to maximize the positive outcomes from social interactions and to minimize the social costs. Although people normally behave according to self-driven goals, these goals are profoundly influenced by other people's opinions and perceptions. Other people's perception highly influences the goals of accepting, cooperating and respecting others. For instance, in the case of the party incident, just by the act of smiling, the person being smiled at may not have to interact with the person smiling, but the act alone may lead into self-enhancement. The person being smiled at may easily accept to do the person smiling a favor without expecting any form of payment.
References
Gallese, V., Keysers, C., & Rizzolatti, G. (2004). A unifying view of the basis of social cognition. Trends in cognitive sciences , 8 (9), 396-403.
Greenwald, A. G., & Banaji, M. R. (1995). Implicit social cognition: attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes. Psychological review , 102 (1), 4.
Stevens, L. E., & Fiske, S. T. (1995). Motivation and cognition in social life: A social survival perspective. Social cognition , 13 (3), 189.
Taylor, S. E., & Koivumaki, J. H. (1976). The perception of self and others: Acquaintanceship, affect, and actor-observer differences. Journal of personality and social psychology , 33 (4), 403.
Wyer Jr, R. S. (Ed.). (2014). The automaticity of everyday life: Advances in social cognition (Vol. 10). Psychology Press.
