Even though perception and impression formation occur in specific ways, they are not unchangeable processes. You can improve your perception and impressions by critically questioning your own judgments and routinely considering the feelings, needs, and viewpoints of others.

In the movie Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, a master at “extraction”—entering people’s unconscious minds while they’re asleep and stealing their thoughts. Since he spends much of his time living inside others’ dreams, Cobb often has difficulty telling what’s real and what isn’t. To help with this, he uses a spinning top to tell whether he’s dreaming or awake. Within a dream state, Cobb’s top spins smoothly and endlessly. When he’s awake, it spins for a few moments, then wobbles and falls. In either case, the top allows Cobb to quickly perceive the truth.

Of course, in the real world, you don’t have a top to tell you if your perceptions are accurate. Instead, you must rely on your own perceptual abilities. Two skills can help you improve your perception and the resulting communication choices you make: perception-checking and empathy.