ABSTRACT
In the ecological approach to visual perception, J. J. Gibson redefined visualperception in reciprocal terms, an important departure from the theories ofthe time. The visual perception of objects, he argued, is bound to the objects’ inherent affordances, or the interaction possibilities between the perceiver and the object of perception (Gibson, 1979/1986). Gibson’s functional perspective had, and continues to have, a sweeping impact on theories of visual perception. Yet with a few notable exceptions (e.g., McArthur & Baron, 1983; Zebrowitz & Collins, 1997), rarely have researchers considered how social affordances fundamentally change the perceptual process, a notion to which Gibson alluded but about which little progress has been made. To be sure, objects of perception that afford social interaction (i.e., other people) are likely to be among the most important targets to be visually perceived. By this reckoning, few perceptual tasks are as critically important as the mandate to perceive the characteristics and identities of others from the extant visual cues availed to the perceiver. It is these very percepts that implicate the likely course of interpersonal interaction. Social perception, or person construal, may therefore be characterized as an index of social affordance insofar as the early perception of person characteristics has a profound and lasting impact on subsequent attitudes, judgments, and interactions (McArthur & Baron, 1983).
