Why are Chipmunks Cute and Mice Repulsive?

Perception, mostly perception

Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash

Chipmunks live in wooded areas, scurrying around outside and feeding on nature. Mice burrow into walls and attics, looking for nesting material and food. They’re considered pests because they leave their nasty droppings where we live. So for many of us, chipmunks are cute but mice are repulsive. On the other hand, there’s probably an equal number of people who keep mice (and chipmunks) as pets. It’s all a matter of perception and personal choice.

In the business world, however, perception is 90 percent of reality—not a matter of personal choice.

You get only one chance to make a first impression. I certainly have my own proclivities that cause me to categorize people based on a first impression, whether it’s based on looks, their voices, or the words they use. These filters come from a lifetime of meeting individuals and evaluating whether my first impressions were validated over time. I’m sensitive to my own prejudices and try to avoid using first impressions as a filter for whether to continue an exchange with someone.

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Of Mice and Chipmunks

Dear Mr. Taormina,

I really enjoyed reading your contribution “Why are Chipmunks Cute and Mice Repulsive? - Perception, mostly perception”. The assertion that, in the business world, perception is 90 percent of reality, struck a chord with me. In mid-June, Quality Digest published my article titled “Searching for the Definition of Perceived Quality. - Can we develop a unified definition of this nebulous term?”. In this paper, I cited, among other sources, Geoff Hutt, the past director of corporate quality at AT&T Istel, who had observed in his contribution to The TQM Magazine:

“Quality is like a rainbow—it’s nothing more than a perception. Quality, like a rainbow, looks colourful and tangible from a distance. When you approach it, and try and grasp it, you realise the illusion. Both are merely perceptions, but both are capable of rational explanation—the perception of a rainbow is caused by the refraction of light in water droplets; the perception of quality is caused by the practice of good management.”1

Dana Thomas cited Valentino CEO Michele Norsa who had explained: “In the United States and Japan, “perceived quality is more important than real quality”2.

This may sound like a contentious claim, but I believe that impression formation in people (and in gnawing animals, for that matter), and in quality, have a lot in common. A pioneer in social psychology, Solomon Asch astutely observed: “We look at a person and immediately a certain impression of his character forms itself in us”3. Social perception, the study of how people form impressions of other people, utilizes social cues, such as eye contact or body language, and also more sophisticated cues, like the clothing choice. In a similar fashion, impressions of quality can be formed, based on a combination of product cues. According to Jacoby et al.4, the following cues were relevant to forming the impressions of quality: (a) price; (b) product composition characteristics such as taste, aroma, color, style, and size; (c) packaging; d) brand, manufacturer (i.e., corporate), and store image; (e) advertising; (f) word-of-mouth reports; and (g) past purchase experience.

Just as people can produce wrong impressions, so can some unscrupulous manufacturers produce counterfeit goods – copies of originals of lower quality. They can also leverage superficial attractiveness of their merchandise to give their potential buyers the impression of ‘the real thing’.

We need to practice genuine dialogue, just as you described it, in order to better understand other people and, most certainly, our customers.

Thank you for your article,

Andrey

P.S. I think mice are cute.

References:

1) Hutt, G. (1991), “Understanding the perception”, The Total Quality Management Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 161-165.

2) Thomas, D. (2008), Deluxe: how luxury lost its luster, Penguin Group.

3) Asch S. E. (1946), “Forming impressions of personality”, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 41, pp. 258–290.

4) Jacoby, J., Olson, J.C. and Haddock, R.A. (1971), “Price, brand name, and product composition characteristics as determinants of perceived quality”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 55, No. 6, pp. 570-579.