Social Perception — A Psychological & Spiritual View

Have you ever made a bad judgement call? or misread a person or a situation? if your answer is yes, then this article can be useful for you.

In Social psychology, the process of discerning people, and figuring them out, is called “ social perception”, it is a mental tool people use to form impressions about each other, and make conclusions about these impressions.

Forming impressions on people, is a process we practice daily, consciously or unconsciously. Consider for example the barista who serves you your morning coffee, and the conclusions you draw from your impression on him, even thou you barely know him.

Impressions help us in taking decisions and making judgment calls about people and situations in our lives, however, these judgments can be biased, stereotyped, or even made based on a memory, which make them delusional and not really accurate.

How do we form impressions?

Our first impression about others is a result of a selection of variables. A lots of factors can influence the process of impressions formation such as, the person’s behavior and traits, their physical appearance, the social context, traits, and past experiences.

Social Identity Theory

In 1979, psychologist Henri Tajfel initiated one of the best contribution to psychology, which is the social identity theory.

Social identity is a person’s sense of who they are within their group membership (s). the groups we belong to, are a source of pride and self-esteem and a sense of belonging (Henri Tajfel , 1979)

Social Identity Theory suggests that we divide the world into “them” and “us” (i.e. we put people into social groups), and we use three mental processes to do that.

Social Categorisation

The first mental shortcut we use in forming perceptions. In this process, we mentally categorise people into different groups based on common characteristics. This can occur consciously, but for the most part, social categorisations happen automatically and unconsciously. Some of the most common social categories are age, gender, occupation, , religion and race…etc.

Social Identification

In the second stage, social identification, we adopt the identity of the group we have categorized ourselves as belonging to.

If for example you have categorised yourself as a student, the chances are you will adopt the identity of a student and begin to act in the ways you believe students act (and conform to the norms of the group).

There will be an emotional significance to your identification with a group, and your self-esteem will become bound up with group membership.

Social Comparison

The final stage is social comparison. Once we have categorised ourselves as part of a group and have identified with that group we then tend to compare that group with other groups. If our self-esteem is to be maintained our group needs to compare favourably with other groups.

This is critical to understanding prejudice, because once two groups identify themselves as rivals, they are forced to compete in order for the members to maintain their self-esteem.

Competition and hostility between groups is thus not only a matter of competing for resources like jobs but also the result of competing identities.

Discernment & Judgement in Spirituality

The spiritual perspective always directs us towards a higher understanding, it does promote learning , healing and soul growth. One of the main laws in spirituality is that there is no separation, or “ THE OTHER PERSON IS YOU”. So each time, you judge or form an impression about the other, you are just projecting your own wounds and insecurities on them, otherwise, you will have no motivation to judge, categorise or label anyone.

If you are spiritually inclined, you would be familiar with the word “Inner- authority, which is the ability to judge, people and situations. Having a good judgement is different than being judgmental, it is the foundation of discernment to have the ability to observe and evaluate a situation, while being judgmental is taking the superiority platform, to criticise the other or put him down.

This discernment is a choice to either plug to the high energy and truth of the creator of “all that is”, or plug to the lower vibrations of the lower density of the “Matrix”, and get enslaved by the illusion of separation.

A very powerful meditation to develop inner authority, good discernment, is visualising a royal chair location in the area between your eyebrows (third eye), and picture yourself sitting confidently on this chair, and looking at situations from there, from a higher perspective.

Discernment can be cultivated by taking responsibility of your own life, and stop blaming your misery on people or situations , instead learn to observe your patterns, understand your emotions, they will point you towards the only reason behind your projections and illusional judgment which is nothing other than your own wounds and insecurities.