Sexual Assault and Opinions

¶ … Social perception is the process of thinking about others with an aim to understand and learn more about them (Stangor, 2015, p. 12). This concept connects with the video in that our brains have the ability to read a person's facial expression and react based on the expression (Eagleman, 2016). This happens so fast that one might not be aware they are reacting at all. Understanding what a person is saying or feeling is vital in human interaction in that it allows ones to know how to interact with a different person.

Self-categorization infers that we might at times act as individuals and at other times we might act as members of a social group (Stangor, 2015, p. 13). According to Eagleman (2016), the genocide event demonstrates how individuals who used to interact and live peacefully with their neighbors, turned against them when they became members of the opposite group. On an individual level, they did not have a problem with their Bosnian Muslim neighbors (Eagleman, 2016), but when there were self-categorization things changed.

In-group and out-group is a way of categorizing oneself to belong to a specific group (in-group) and not another group (out-group) (Stangor, 2015, p. 14). This categorization results in one feeling empathy towards a group they belong to and not another group. Since the individual sees the in-group more favorably than the out-group, they are likely to activate their pain matrix when they see a member of their group being stabbed by a syringe needle (Eagleman, 2016). Similarity is another concept that has been presented in the video.

The genocide event that took place was mainly because there seemed to be a lot of differences between the two groups. Similarity infers that a group must have the same interests, opinions, and beliefs (Stangor, 2015, p. 17). Since the Bosnian Muslims had different beliefs, the others saw them differently, and this resulted in their massacre (Eagleman, 2016). A group must have something in common for it to exist cohesively.