The Impact of Culture on Perception and Behavior Essay

The Impact of Culture on Perception and Behavior - Essay Example It is undeniable that even things that are considered fairly fundamental such as sexual attraction and beauty are viewed differently, in different cultures, depending on their traditional perception, thus indicating great divergence even in simple matters. Culture plays a significant role throughout life and expresses itself in everyone’s life in multiple forms such as perception and behavior. Thus, the beliefs and norms that people learn from their culture are the basis of their perception and behavior and contribute to the differences in human behavior in the context of their environment. Perceptions Values and beliefs that humans learn from their culture â€Å"serve as norms† based on which they determine which behavior is appropriate while interacting with others in a social context (Zimbroff, 2007, 1311). Thus, it transpires that perceptions are affected by many things rooted in culture because culture provides structure and guidelines deemed significant in understanding and interpreting behaviors. According to Burton (2007), emotions influence people’s perceptions differently depending on the surrounding society’s perception as explained by the two theories of social perception. The two theories are attribution theory that focuses on causes of action and social comparison theory that elucidates the notion of people comparing themselves with others (Thomas & Inkson, 2009).