Perceptual error

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In psychology , a distinction is made between perceptual errors , perceptual disorders and perceptual delusions. In addition to the primary effect, the halo effect and the rezen effect, the group of perceptual errors also includes errors resulting from the social role , the assessment of the social environment, the similarity with the person of the observer, the experienced contrast to the person of the observer or a logical one Errors can result.

Primary effect

The primary effect (Engl. Primacy effect ) is the impression one gets from a person when you see them for the first time.

A person appears to the individual as pleasant or unpleasant, as sympathetic or unsympathetic, he is either comfortable or uncomfortable. This happens regardless of other impressions such as age, gender, appearance, religion, etc. The first impression a person can have of another is so strong that other characteristics of a person are not seen or overlooked. The primary effect manifests itself at the beginning of an observation phase, the person concerned wants to perform; after a certain period of time the performance decreases or it only occurs sporadically. Many everyday occurrences that occur in the course of an individual's life play a role here. The primary effect is a factor that should not be underestimated for objective perception in psychological diagnostics.

Halo effect (psychology)

The halo effect (or halo effect) ( Greek  ἅλως hálōs or ἅλων hálōn = halo effect ) is an assessment or perception error . Individual characteristics of a person create an overall impression that "outshines" the perception of other characteristics of the person being assessed. The halo effect is used when the performance is performed during the entire period of observation, e.g. B. also u. U. is concealed.

Examples of this include properties such as:

which are determined in an individual.

Causes of Halo Effects

The causes of the development of a halo effect are attributed to various personality factors . When a person meets for the first time, character traits are unconsciously ascribed to him, which assess his temperament , his logical thinking and his individual situational behavior. There are unconscious evaluations of his zest for life and his understanding of rules and norms . Evaluations of emotional stability and social integration arise in the first moment of an encounter with the judged individual. How much empathy the individual possesses is just as much a factor of human valuation as the observation and evaluation of individual attention and abstract thinking . The privacy of the individual is no less the cornerstone of observation of human evaluation than the individual fearfulness of it. The openness to new things plays a role at the latest when it comes to social integration into a new group. Two opposing poles can be observed here: The daredevil, who tries to gain approval in the group through conspicuous behavior. This can be proven by various properties. There are z. B. in a school class the class clown who tries in every possible way to attract the attention of the group by fooling around, but not necessarily in order to distract from his other characteristics. On the other hand, there are students or employees who stand out because of their open, aggressive nature. In addition, there are very calm employees who either don't dare to say something or who simply don't want to say anything because they are frustrated with the idea that they are e.g. B. could not be taken seriously enough. In this phase of integration into a social group, the self-confidence of the individual plays no less a role than the individual characteristics of perfectionist actions or the general characteristics of emotions.

Examples of halo effects

A halo effect can e.g. B. occur when hiring a new employee, when the new employee appears with dirty clothes or torn pants. In general, this does not leave the head of the company with a favorable impression on the future employee.

Even when granting a loan or loan, the bank employee can determine his liquidity and creditworthiness from the appearance and clothing of the borrower . Is the clothing z. B. clean and well-groomed or the borrower in his whole kind possibly even more cheerful and relaxed, the bank employee will pay less attention to the formalities than with a customer who comes along unkempt and grumpy.

Individuals prefer to be served by a waitress in a white apron than by a waiter who has coffee stains on his vest. If the waitress is also friendly towards the customer, she is more likely to be judged better than the waiter, who may be unfriendly because he has just discovered the coffee stains on his work clothes .

Halo effects in test questions

When creating a psychological test, it is possible that individual questions put the answerer under so much stress that other questions are not answered correctly. This is one reason for repeating individual questions several times in a test series. The questions must be operationalized in such a way that the reliability and validity cannot be called into question by the test leader's lack of objectivity.

Rezen effect

A recency effect is used when an individual behaves at the end of an observation phase that was not noticed before the end of the phase and could not be foreseen. The rezen effect occurs when the performance is only determined by the observer for the first time at the end of an observation phase.

Further errors of perception

Other possible perceptual errors are:

  • Logical errors are errors that can arise when evaluating a person's properties, characteristics and appearance. If a person is known to be good-natured, he will z. B. also referred to as a tolerant person.
  • a perceptual error that can arise from a person's social role relates to the characteristics assigned to that role. A good example is the beggar on the street who makes a living by asking for a charitable gift or the unemployed person who sits in front of the television all day. These people are said to be unclean or drink too much alcohol. However, the fact that the beggar adapts to the circumstances of the environment and washes himself in spite of everything is masked by this perception error.
  • The recommendation of a socially upscale person can have a positive influence on the assessment. The vernacular then speaks of "good relationships".

This example shows that the social affiliation of a person in society is assigned certain characteristics.

  • A similarity error occurs when properties or character traits of one's own person are also attributed to strangers. Whether these are positive or negative properties is rather irrelevant for the ascription.
  • The contrast error is a perception error that assigns other people characteristics that are not present or not clearly present in the observer.

Causes of Perceptual Errors in Science

In science, errors of perception are mainly made through errors in the operationalization of a scientific study. When errors occur in a test, these also affect the validity and reliability of the test.

Other factors such as cold, warmth, colors, space and time affect the perception of the individual. Personality factors play a role because they are crucial to how someone perceives themselves and other people.

General causes of perceptual errors

Perceptual errors arise through the connection between observations and prejudices , which can either be verified or falsified . They can be found in the everyday psychology of every person and subject every observation result that has not been operationalized.

Effects of Perceptual Errors

Perceptual errors do not only occur in individuals. They also appear in groups. They can consist of a lack of personal information and differences in the opinion of the individual and the group belonging to it, as well as the fact that individual group members work too specialized and subject-related. In addition, the degree of adaptation to a group must be individually tailored to the individual, which means that individual people who, for example, when they are alone, work very well, in their work performance in the group etc. They may fall behind or fail. This can lead to a one-sided distortion of the opinion of the group and, last but not least, of the individual and lead to non-conformity and exclusion .

An important indication of such perceptual errors can also be the assessment of personality factors of the individual. A person who is perceived as fearful may appear calm and sensitive in a group and may therefore not be assessed as brave. If this person fills out a questionnaire, he will probably judge himself more courageously than the group would do so.

It can also happen that the same person assesses a situation as dangerous and tries to solve this situation in the known way. The group can be wrong in choosing a new way of solving this situation and putting themselves in greater danger than the individual who chose the known way.

The decision that is made therefore always depends on the wisdom of the individual decision-makers , their perceptual abilities and the personality factors that occur in a group.

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See also