Social Perception

1. Social perception has many psychological concepts, which include The Primacy and Recency Effect and The Halo Effect. Firstly, the Primacy Effect is the theory that a person’s initial impression of a subject based on information given, is one in which they are most likely to remember; whereas the Recency Effect focuses on the impact of further information given about a subject later on. A very striking study was conducted by the psychologist Luchins. In 1957, Luchins produced two description of ‘Jim’ to two groups of people. Group A were given a paragraph to read describing Jim as an extrovert, therefore, in reading the description, came to the conclusion that Jim was warm and friendly. Group B were given a paragraph which described Jim as an introvert, thus producing the opposite effect from Group A. This proved that, based on the information we receive, we automatically make an overall assumption about a subject. However, Luchins then asked the two groups to read a comic for 15 minutes and then exchanged the descriptions between the two groups. After both groups had read the second description, most changed their opinion of Jim after receiving different information, consequently, demonstrating the Recency Effect (Atkinson 2006).
Similarly, another concept of social perception which involves people making assumptions about a subject is The Halo Effect. This theory explains that one particular good or bad trait that a person may know about a subject will define whether or not that subject has general positive traits or general negative traits. This method of thinking is identified as Implicit Personality Theories. One study which supports this concept was directed by Kelley in 1950 whereby one group of students were given a drawing of an unfamiliar lecturer who was described as warm to the group, while the second group of students were given an identical drawing although told the lecturer was a cold person. Upon being given this piece of information the first