Perception; How can it vary person to person?

  There was a time in which my friends, sister, and I were involved in a fender bender. As we got to my house to tell my parents what had happened, we found that all of our perceptions of what had happened were different. My dad was not surprised that we had perceived the small details differently. During his time on the job as a Boston cop, he found that every incident or report that involved multiple witnesses had various perspectives and differences. So how is it that what is clearly perceived for one person can be perceived as a total opposite for another? 

   The simple answer to this question is that perceptions vary person to person. Perception is self centric, molded by the person's sensory capabilities, personal experiences, and accumulated knowledge (Iliopoulos, 2016).  Have you ever found yourself in a situation in which you do not particular like an individual while all you other friends do. Perception can actually play a big role in how you connect with people and initially your first assumptions of them. "One factor that influences how we perceive others is the current cognitive accessibility of a given person characteristic—that is, the extent to which a person characteristic quickly and easily comes to mind for the perceiver. Differences in accessibility will lead different people to attend to different aspects of the other person" (Jhangiana & Tarry, 2014, Para 4). Basically, things that we find interest in can reflect the different aspects we attend to in various people. For example, if you pride yourself in intelligence or school work, you will most likely choose to describe your friends on the basis of your qualities. 

    The need for cognition also plays a role in how we perceive others, in which people differ in terms of how carefully they process information from others. This tendency can range, in which people either have a strong or moderate need to think carefully and fully about our experiences. People with a strong need for cognition actually make more casual attributions overall, while the opposite tend to be more impulsive and impatient when it comes to their attributions (Jhangiana & Tarry, 2014). Thus, if you find yourself with a strong need for cognition, you may take situational factors into account when considering the behaviors of others. If someone acts poorly towards you or does not have any filter, you may consider their upbringing and home environment as the result of their behavior. If you find yourself on the other end of the spectrum, you may not take factors into consideration and may jump to conclusions far to quickly. 

References;
Iliopoulos, A. (2016). The Problem is Not That Others Don't Get You: The Problem is Your Perception. The Quintessential Mind. Retrieved from; https://thequintessentialmind.com/the-problem-is-your-perception/

Jhangiana, R., Tarry, H. (2014). Principles of Social Psychology (1st ed.). Vancouver,Mpls: Open Book Publishing.