ABSTRACT
A person’s social behavior is determined by the physical and social world as the individual perceives it. There are important differences between the perception of objects and the perception of persons, if only because the per sons being perceived are, like the perceiver, capable of intentional action. Instead of passively processing all of the information contained in the envi ronment, perceivers actively select bits of information, from which they construct their final percepts. Our impressions of others are formed from descriptions we receive, from the stimulus person’s body language, facial expressions, and paralinguistic cues. Although nonverbal cues are less subject to the stimulus person’s conscious control than are that person’s verbal statements, these nonverbal behaviors are still influenced by so cially structured display rules. Six emotions-happiness, surprise, fear, an ger, disgust, and sadness-are universally recognized from facial expres sions, and such facial expressions may alter the underlying emotion being experienced by the stimulus person. Although perceivers are frequently accurate in their judgments of others, that accuracy is extremely difficult to measure. Recent social psychological research on social perception con centrates more on the process than on the accuracy of the outcome. In the study of that process it is important to remember that the stimulus person can control, through self-presentation, the cues that are made available to the perceiver.
