The Role of Perception
In the Decision Making Process
People’s perceptions are influence by many different factors. Some of these factors are people's moods or frames of mind, their physical abilities to experience sensation, their personalities and motivations, and the social and physical context in which they were perceive things. Perception plays a vital role in the choices humans make. People make decisions every day based on the perceptions that they construe. Perception as defined, by Stephen P. Robbins, "...Is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment (Robbins, p.134)”. How does perception play an important role in the decision making process?
People see what they want to see; hear what they want to hear; smell what they want to smell; feel what they want to feel; and taste what they want to taste not what is, in fact, there. Human behavior is shaped by their perceptions not on facts. Humans habitually interpret what they see, hear, touch, taste, and smell into something that makes logical sense (Milbourne, 2001). Each individual sees, hears, touches and smells things differently. This may explain how two people can see the same thing but interpret it differently. People’s behaviors are not based on reality itself, but it is based on what their perception of reality is.
Person perception refers to how people perceive and make inferences about other people. Research on perceiver characteristics shows that perceivers are not objective observers of their social world but are active agents whose cognitive and motivational biases color their interpretations of others (Perception, 2008). Knowledge structures, such as schemas, scripts, or stereotypes, assist perceivers in processing information efficiently. A person’s perception of others can impact an organization’s behavior. Sometimes one may judge someone on the basis of their perception of the group to...