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Perception and Culture

Your cultural background influences your perception in at least two ways. Recall from Chapter 1 that culture is an established, coherent set of beliefs, attitudes, values, and practices shared by a large group of people. Whenever you interact with others, you interpret their communication in part by drawing on information from your schemata. But your schemata are filled with the beliefs, attitudes, and values you learned in your own culture (Gudykunst & Kim, 2003). Consequently, people raised in different cultures have different knowledge in their schemata, so they interpret one another’s communication in very different ways. Competent interpersonal communicators recognize this fact. When necessary and appropriate, they check the accuracy of their interpretation by asking questions such as “I’m sorry, could you clarify what you just said?”

Second, culture affects whether you perceive others as similar to or different from yourself. When you grow up valuing certain cultural beliefs, attitudes, and values as your own, you naturally perceive those who share these with you as fundamentally similar to yourself—people you consider ingroupers. You may consider individuals from many different groups as your ingroupers as long as they share substantial points of cultural commonality with you, such as nationality, religious beliefs, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, or political views (Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987). In contrast, you may perceive people who aren’t similar to yourself as outgroupers.

Perceiving others as ingroupers or outgroupers is one of the most important perceptual distinctions we make. We often feel passionately connected to our ingroups, especially when they are tied to central aspects of our self-concept such as sexual orientation, religious beliefs, or ethnic heritage. Consequently, we are more likely to give valued resources such as money, time, and effort to those who are perceived as ingroupers versus those who are outgroupers (Castelli, Tomelleri, & Zogmaister, 2008). Basically, we like people who are “like” us. Think about it. If two different volunteers show up at your door asking you to donate money and time to a fund-raising effort, which one are you more likely to support: the volunteer working for a group you feel connected to, or the person acting on behalf of a group you feel no link to whatsoever? The answer is simple: the ingrouper.

We also are more likely to form positive interpersonal impressions of people we perceive as ingroupers (Giannakakis & Fritsche, 2011). One study of 30 different ethnic groups in East Africa found that members of each group perceived ingroupers’ communication as substantially more trustworthy, friendly, and honest than outgroupers’ communication (Brewer & Campbell, 1976). And in cases where people communicate in rude or inappropriate ways, you’re substantially more inclined to form negative, internal attributions if you perceive them as outgroupers (Brewer, 1999). So, for example, if a cashier chides you for breaking a large bill but he’s wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a message advocating your beliefs and values, you’re likely to make an external attribution: “He’s just having a bad day.” The same communication coming from someone who is proudly displaying chestwide messages attacking your beliefs likely will provoke a negative, internal attribution: “What a jerk! He’s just like all those other people who believe that stuff!”

While categorizing people as ingroupers or outgroupers, it’s easy to make mistakes. For example, even if people dress differently than you do, they may hold beliefs, attitudes, and values similar to your own. If you assume they’re outgroupers based on surface-level differences, you may communicate with them in ways that prevent the two of you from getting to know each other better. You may never discover that you share other important qualities, and you lose an opportunity to make a friend, gain a new colleague, or forge a romantic bond.