One of the more interesting findings from attribution theory is that there are errors or biases that distort

attributions. Each of these errors can lead to poor decisions and are discussed below.
1) Selective perception: people selectively interpret what they see on the basis of their interests,
background, experience and attitudes. You are more likely to notice care like own, or why some people
may be reprimanded by their boss for doing something that, when done by another employee, goes
unnoticed. Since we can't observe everything going on about us, we engage in selective perception.
A group's perception of organizational activities is selectively altered to align with the vested interests they
represent. In other words, when the stimuli are ambiguous, as in the steel company case, perception
tends to be influenced more by an individual's base of interpretation (i.e., attitudes, interests, and
background) than by the stimulus itself.
Selective perception allows us to "speed-read" others, but not without the risk of drawing an inaccurate
picture. Because we see what we want to see, we can draw unwarranted conclusions from an ambiguous
situation. if there is a rumor going around the office that your company's sales are down and that large
layoffs may be coming, a routine visit by a senior executive from headquarters might be interpreted as the
first step in management's identification of people to be fired, when in reality such an action may be
furthest thing from the mind of the senior executive.
2) Halo effect: drawing a general impression about an individual in the basis of a single characteristic.
This phenomenon frequently occurs when students appraise their classroom instructor. Students may
give prominence to a single trait such as enthusiasm and allow their entire evaluation to be tainted by how
they judge the instructor on that one trait. Thus, an instructor may be quiet, assured, knowledgeable, and
highly qualified, but if his style lacks zeal, those students would probably give him a low rating.
3) Contrast effects: evaluations of person's characteristics that are affected by comparisons with other
people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the same characteristics.
An illustration of how contrast effects operate is an interview situation in which one sees a pool of job
applications. Distortions in any given candidate's evaluation can occur as a result of his or her p place in
the interview schedule. The candidate is likely to receive a more favorable evaluation if preceded by
mediocre applications and less favorable evaluation if preceded by strong applicants.
4) Projection: attributing one's own characteristics to other people. If you are honest and trustworthy,
so you take it for granted that other people are equally honest and trustworthy.
People who engage in projection tend to perceive others according to what they themselves are like
rather than according to what the person being observed is really like. When observing other who actually
are like them, these observers are quite accurate- not because they perceptive but because they always
judge people as being similar to themselves. So when they do find someone who is like them, they are
naturally correct.

5) Stereo typing: judging someone on the basis of one's perception of the group to which that person
belongs. It's less difficult to deal with an unmanageable number of deals with an unmanageable number
of stimuli if we use stereotypes. As an example, assume you're a sales manager looking to fill a sales
position in your territory. You want to hire someone who is ambitious and hardworking and who can deal
well with adversity. You've had good success in the past by hiring individuals who participated in athletics
during college. So you focus your search by looking for candidates who participated in collegiate athletics.
In so doing, you have cut down considerably on your search time. Furthermore, to the extent that athletes
are ambitious, hardworking, and able to deal with adversity, the use of this stereotype can improve your
decision making. The problems, of course, are when we inaccurately stereotype. All college athletes are
not necessarily ambitious, hardworking, or good at dealing with adversity.
In organizations, we frequently hear comments that represent stereotypes based on gender, age, race,
ethnicity, and even weight. "Women won't relocate for a promotion"; "men aren't interested in child care";
"older worker can't learn new skills"; "Asian immigrants are hardworking and conscientious"; "overweight
people lack discipline". From a perceptual standpoint, if people expect to see these stereotypes, that are
what they will perceive, whether they are accurate or not.
6) Impression: people often form impression of others on the first sight. Even before knowing any of
their personality traits, they start having impression and making assessment of individuals they meet for
the first time. This sometimes leads to perceptual distortion because first impression need not be the last
impression. If a employee in an industrial organization is judged on the basic of his first impression on the
superior, it will be a injustice to such an employee.
7) Inference: there is a tendency on the part of some people to judge others on limited information. For
example, an employee might be sitting at his desk throughout the working hours without doing anything,
but it may be inferred that he is sincere towards his duties. Thus, performance appraisal must not be
based on half-cooked or incomplete information. In the above case, the productivity and the behavior of
the concerned employee towards customers, fellow employees and others must also be taken into
consideration.
8)
Attribution: when people give cause and effect explanation to the observed behavior, it is known as
attribution. Perception is distorted sometimes by the efforts of the perceiver to attribute a causal
explanation to an outcome. There is a tendency for the individuals to attribute their own behavior to
situational factors, but explain the behavior of others by their personal dispositions.

EXAMPLES
Let us consider a woman who is in an abusive marriage. Her husband is an alcoholic and picks fights
on the most mundane issues. He has made her believe that it is for 'her good' that he behaves in this
manner. She finds herself emotionally dependent on her husband. You as a friend try to convince her
to get out of this abusive marriage by trying to show her the reality; her husband is a raging, abusive
alcoholic and is completely dependent on it. Because he does not know how to deal with this habit, he

is venting his anger and frustration on her. She on the other hand, refuses to accept this truth. She
claims she can change him, that there is a good side to him that she will eventually bring out. This is a
clear selective perception example, where the woman in question distorts the reality, fails to accept it,
and perceives it in a manner that is suitable to her comfort (which may be financial or emotional
dependence on her husband, or the mere comfort of having a man in her life). Unless a situation does
not trigger a defense in her and present reality in a whole new light, it may seem to you that you are
trying to get through a stone wall with nothing to actually aid you in your defense.
Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/selective-perception.html

Selective perception is often used as an advertising strategy to enhance the popularity and the sales
of a product. For instance, there is a great demand for a particular brand of a cell phone, which you
then consider buying yourself. You suddenly see an ad for the same in the newspaper, a magazine, or
on television. Suddenly, that phone is all over the place. What you don't notice is that all this has
always been around you but you have filtered out these stimuli because you never really needed that
cell phone. However, now that you are considering buying the cell phone, you are seeing it everywhere
because your general awareness now includes the lookout for the cell phone. The company on the
other hand, has created or triggered the desire in you to buy the phone by promoting the product to
make it popular, thereby increasing your awareness about it.
Re

For example, say youre trying to lose weight. When you were younger you were on the
track team, and you ran your guts out every day. Now that youre trying to lose weight,
youve decided the top priority inside that particular goal is exercise. So you find time to run
every single day, without fail, because its your top priority. This is not a bad thing.
Unless your weight problem is not cause by inactivity, but rather by an unhealthy diet. If
youve put all your focus toward exercising and havent put one thought into what youre
eating, you may find yourself at a plateau on your way toward your weight loss goal
because youre not getting the right nutrition to complement your running. In this case, you
would need to shift your priorities to include changing your diet.
It can be extremely difficult to identify your own selective perception. So if you find yourself
in a rut you cant understand, try explaining your situation to an outsider who doesnt look
at things the same way you do. Getting a second (or third) opinion can help you determine
whether your difficulties are the result of self-inflicted blindness and set you on the path
toward better progress.
ad more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/selective-perception.html

Selective perception - it is a distance given to drive by car. Every person, who would do that,
would notice different buildings, signs, posters and etc. We cannot notice everything, because
our brain cannot receive that much information. So we concentrate on safe driving, and notice
only those things, that we like: the dreamer will be looking at clouds perhaps, the advertising
manager will be analysing new posters that competitors made, the old man will be looking at
every road sign in order to comply with road rules. We see world different, because we all are
different.

halo effect
For example, if a chef is famous for making one particular dish, then the halo effect allows
people to assume that he can cook anything with equal proficiency. Analyzing examples of the
halo effect in the workplace can help you to better understand how it can affect productivity and
morale.
For example, if a customer buys product C which is made by company X, not
because of the attributes or benefits of the product, but because he or she had a
favorable experience with product D - another product made by company X, the
purchased item is said to be prospering because of the halo effect.
A classic example of the halo effect is the relationship between the Mac notebooks
and iPod. When the iPod was released, there was speculation in the market place
that the sales of Apple's Mac laptops would increase, because of the success of the
iPod. The belief was based on the halo effect, as customers who had a great
experience with the iPod would buy a Mac computer simply because it is made by
Apple Inc.
At Home
Assuming that a family includes two male children out of which one is handsome and attractive looking
and the other appears to be ugly, then many parents have a habit of presuming their attractive child
to be smarter, more intelligent with a higher IQ level and a more pleasant personality than their ugly
child. Such prejudices are created without any intention but have persisted in the society all the time.
Once a certain mother was quoted to have said that if her two young daughters happened to weep at
the same time, then there was every chance that she would comfort the prettier one first.
In Education
In schools or higher education, such prejudices out of halo effect, take place when one chooses one's
new friends or when teachers grade their students. We often come across people trying to strike
friendship with attractive/ beautiful looking people because it is assumed that their company will be
more pleasant. Even teachers are seen to make a discrimination in this way when grading their
students.
In Social Life

Often when girls and boys are trying to seek their new life partners, girls are always seen to be in
search of someone who is 'tall, dark and handsome' while boys tend to attach attributes such as
kindness and intelligence to a beautiful girl. This is in a sense a tiny version of Darwin's theory which
stresses on 'Survival of the fittest!' or rather the most attractive as per halo effect. Since centuries,
there has been a general preference for white or fair skin in all parts of the world. There have been
many racial biases based on colors of skin as it was always assumed white people are superior to
black. This facet of halo effect has led to social unrest and war at different times around the world.
At Work Place
At work place, halo effect plays its tricks during processes of interviews and appointments, allotment
of work, promotions and appreciations, etc. In most of the organizations, while interviewing new
candidates for a post, there is every chance of the interviewer shortlisting attractive candidates over
less attractive ones. Research shows that there is always a subconscious assumption that attractive
employees are smarter, more honest and more capable to fit into the organization. This halo effect can
be seen further when attractive people are given better job responsibilities than the others.
Consequently, it has been noticed that better looking employees have a chance of gaining better
appreciation for their work and higher chances of future promotions and pay hikes.
In Politics
Halo effect makes its bright impact in political scenario too. It is often seen that during elections with
two or more competing candidates, public will readily vote for a political candidate who is the most
handsome and best speaker of all. This is because, attractive personality has the hypnotic effect of
making people believe that the candidate is honest, intelligent and with great leadership qualities.
Ironically, some of the worst political tyrants of the past and the present are regarded to have an
attractive persona.
In Law & Order
In the field of justice and law & order, halo effect comes to play when exercising judiciary decisions.
Research shows that, an unattractive looking criminal might be asked to pay a fine double in amount
than the one paid by an attractive looking criminal for a similar crime. Law and order forces have often
been seen to be lenient towards attractive criminals since they are assumed to be incapable of doing
anything wrong. However, this observation has often been protested by executors of law citing reasons
such as difference in circumstances of crime rather than physical appearance of criminals.
Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/the-halo-effect-on-people.html

Contrast effects
When you meet two other people, you are likely to compare each against the other on
several dimensions to decide which you prefer. This may include physical beauty, similarity
of interests and various personality factors.
A simple physical way of illustrating perceptual contrast is to put one hand into hot water
and other into cold water, then move them both to lukewarm water. The cold hand will feel
hot and the hot hand will feel cold.

for example. People can utilize this effect in sales. A coffin salesperson can show people the same
medium-range coffin in the midst of low-end products and high-end products, and they will perceive
it differently depending on the surrounding comparison samples. This may encourage people to
spend more than they would otherwise.

An example of contrast is thunder storms on one end of an island and clear,

blue skies on the other end.

Stereo typing
Blacks

One of the more common stereotype examples is stereotypes surrounding

those who are Black. Saying that all Blacks are good at sports is a stereotype,
because its grouping the race together to indicate that everyone of that race is
a good athlete.
Men and Women

There are also some common stereotypes of men and women, such as:

Men are strong and do all the work.

Men are the "backbone."

Women aren't as smart as a man.

Women cant do as good of a job as a man.

Girls are not good at sports.

Guys are messy and unclean.

Men who spend too much time on the computer or read are
geeks.
Cultures

Stereotypes also exist about cultures an countries as a whole. Stereotype

examples of this sort include the premises that:

All white Americans are obese, lazy, and dim-witted. Homer

Simpson of the TV series The Simpsons is the personification of this
stereotype.

Mexican stereotypes suggest that all Mexicans are lazy and

came into America illegally.

All Arabs and Muslims are terrorists.

All people who live in England have bad teeth.

Italian or French people are the best lovers.

All Blacks outside of the United States are poor.

All Jews are greedy.

All Asians are good at math. All Asians like to eat rice and drive
slow.

All Irish people are drunks and eat potatoes.

All Americans are generally considered to be friendly,
generous, and tolerant, but also arrogant, impatient, and
domineering.
http://examples.yourdictionary.com/stereotype-examples.html

For instance, The Asians are stereotyped to be good at mathematics; the blacks are
stereotyped to be good at athletics and dancing. These can be regarded as positive
stereotypes. Other stereotype like "All Muslims are terrorists" is a negative
stereotype.There are examples of gender stereotypes too, often perpetuated by the
media. Many films, advertisements and television programs show men engaged in
physically demanding pursuits such as sport, rock-climbing, and beach surfing or
canoeing. They also show young boys playing with action toys such as trucks,
robots and super-hero figures. This depiction of men strongly suggests that they
are strong, adventurous and active paving way for them to be stereotyped in that
manner. On the other hand, the same media shows young girls putting on make-up,
brushing their hair and generally worrying about their overall appearance. Some
other advertisements show mothers serving meals to their families. The depiction of
women in such roles suggests that they are good at performing household chores
and taking care of their appearances and they are eventually stereotyped by these
traits. Examples of gender stereotypes are Men are masculine, Women are good
cooks, Men are strong, adventurous and brave, Women are in charge of the
house and Men are in charge of finances etc.