Editing Selective perception (section)

== History ==
The concept of selective perception was established in early psychological studies when researchers began to look at how people select and filter information according to pre-existing beliefs, attitudes, and experiences.<ref>{{Citation |title=Selective exposure theory |date=2024-09-19 |work=Wikipedia |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_exposure_theory |access-date=2024-12-10 |language=en}}</ref> The area took its basic grounding in Gestalt psychology, noting the dominant role of cognitive frameworks in perceptual processes during the early 20th century. The concept attracted a great deal of scholarly attention in the mid-20th century as researchers studied its implications for decision-making and communication. The work of Leon Festinger provided a major milestone in the field with his statement of the cognitive dissonance theory in 1957, which went a long way toward explaining selective perception. Festinger argued that when people are exposed to information inconsistent with their already held beliefs, they experience discomfort and are motivated to reduce this dissonance through selected interpretation or perception of information that supports their already existing worldview.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cognitive Dissonance |url=https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/cognitive-dissonance |access-date=2024-12-10 |website=The Decision Lab |language=en}}</ref>

Festinger's theory was given empirical support through some brilliant experiments, most notably his study of a UFO doomsday cult, in which participants rationalized their continued beliefs in the face of contrary evidence.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Festinger |first1=Leon |title=When prophecy fails: a social and psychological study of a modern group that predicted the destruction of the world |last2=Riecken |first2=Henry W. |last3=Schachter |first3=Stanley |date=1990 |publisher=Harper |isbn=978-0-06-131132-1 |edition=Nachdr. |series=Researches in the social, cultural and behavioral sciences |location=New York}}</ref> This research demonstrated the function of selective perception in reducing cognitive dissonance and thus maintaining consistency in one's beliefs. Around the same time, supporting findings were demonstrated through studies by Hastorf and Cantril in the 1954 Princeton-Dartmouth football game experiment, showing how personal allegiances influenced the perception of the same events. The studies established selective perception as one of the key concepts in understanding human cognition—outlining its strong implications for areas like media use, political decision-making, and interpersonal communication.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2015-01-01 |editor-last=Wagemans |editor-first=Johan |title=The Oxford Handbook of Perceptual Organization |url=https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/38175 |language=en |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199686858.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-968685-8 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>