Selective Perception:

An Escape from the Objective World

Have you ever explained your point to someone and he/she just don’t get it? Have you ever thought that it is not because of plain stupidity but something else.. like intentionally choosing not to get it?

Mary O. Howard, in her article on SELECTIVE PERCEPTION to explain its use in advertising, wrote that during the 1950’s, Donald E. Broadbent created a model of human perception which emphasizes that due to limited capacity we process information selectively. Our brain works in astounding ways where every stimulus that is received by the body is sorted. Howard added that due to the restrictions on our individual perceptual systems, we tend to process only that which is believed to be most relevant. This may be affected by factors such as the type of channel used and the method at which the information was delivered.

Four stages of cognitive processing is involved when a stimulus or information is received from the environment through our senses. These four stages are: stimulation, registration, organization, and interpretation (Anil, 2000). As we progress through these four phases, the role of true facts gathered from the stimulation diminishes while the role of garnering meaning from the stimulation increases.

People respond or does not respond according to how well the stimuli makes it through the four stages of processing. The process of choosing what will make it through these four stages is what we call “selective perception.”

Selective perception from a psychological standpoint is how we view our world to justify or create our own reality (Sherif and Cantril, 1945). In other words, the world is how one sees it thus the information processed is in accord with his/her current beliefs.

Our perceptions may be selected at one of two levels: low-level (perceptual vigilance) or high-level (perceptual defense) (Assael, 1985). Howard explained that the low-level or vigilant perception is primarily concerned with physical safety where our senses filter out what is not needed to achieve a task at hand. A good example for this level of perception is when we drive. In driving, we see a lot, we hear a lot. The brain could not accommodate all the stimuli available so it tends to sort out sensory data to focus on those which are important for one to be able to safely get to the destination.

On the other hand, high-level perception or perceptual defense is more withstanding and long-term. It acts as the grounds for interpreting “facts”. Howard emphasized that it is at which we choose to perceive the world on which we live and relate it to our belief systems and ways of being. It is at this level of selectively perceiving that we likely don’t even realize we are the ones selecting. Over the course of time, the meanings we have created become routinely imbedded in our pool of knowledge.

We may habitualize both low-level and high-level ways of selectively perceiving. It is interesting to note that the reason we make our ways of perceiving, including the very act of perceiving, into habitualized actions is that such actions carry with them the psychological gain that we receive when our choices are narrowed. According to Howard, it frees us from the burden of numerous real decisions life gives us .

Thus in selective perception, we are able to distort reality and the truth. It may be destructive in instances when one imposes their false ideas into what they believe they perceive.
Would you still dwell on futile, “non-negotiable” conversations? Well, it could still be worth the try.


Read TO SING ANOTHER SONG at MHM Blog