Role of mindlessness in the perception of deviance.

An experiment was conducted to determine whether a theory of mindfulness could explain the perception of deviance. Subjects viewed a videotape of an individual who was purportedly either a millionaire, an ex-mental patient, a homosexual divorced, or a cancer victim. These individuals were expected to occasion mindfulness because of their statistical novelty, and therefore accurate perceptions of the target individual would be the result. A mindful "normal" and a mindless "normal" control group were included in the design. Since it was assumed that people are typically mindless in their interactions with "normal" others and thereby unaware of quite typical gestures and physical characteristics, it was predicted that all mindful groups would evaluate characteristics of the target individual as extreme and unusual. Both predictions were supported. Mindful groups, whether they were viewing a normal or deviant other and whether or not the deviance was positive or negative, more accurately perceived the target's characteristics than the mindless group and evaluated the particular characteristics as extreme.