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Glory Li (she/her/hers), Low Entropy Volunteer Writer 

Once upon a time, I confidently submitted my literary masterpiece of the quality which I thought would battle against both the works of ancient scribes and modern authors alike. However, little did I know, a cruel fate awaited me. Unpredictably and unprecedentedly, just before my submission, a classmate summoned an essay that left Shakespeare rolling in his poetic grave, rendering my so-called masterpiece more “masterpiece-ish.” It was like my stellar writing was struck down before it had the moment to sparkle in the sky. So, does that mean that I arrogantly overestimated my essay, or that my luck betrayed me in that crucial instant? Possibly, but on a superficial level. You see, the underlying principle that simultaneously degraded decent writings into humble scribbles and elevated mere adequate ones into wordsmith honours of the class was witnessing the perceptual contrast principle at work. 

Perceptual contrast[1] occurs when two starkly different items are placed side-by-side, causing people to interpret them as more positive or negative than they actually are (which suggested I exaggerated both my classmate’s literal ingenuity and my subpar performance). Examples of this principle apply to every subjective aspect of the world; judgments without proven accurate answers are subjective and can be transformed into topics of debate. When teachers evaluate essays, there is always a marking rubric, although it is up to a teacher’s subjective impression of how much writing technique used in the paper is considered enough by their standards. Often, marks fluctuate under the hands of different teachers, with one giving you a 97 and the other one a 92 depending on what the teachers have read previously, which bases the general critical assessment of your own writing quality on a real ambiguous scale. On the contrary, I doubt anyone will argue against you insisting that the square root of four is two because your toes could just scream it is the inevitable correct solution to the question. 

Further demonstrations and studies of perceptual contrast:

Fill three pails of water, one moderately hot, one cold and one lukewarm. Put your left hand in the hot bucket and your right hand in the cold bucket at the same time for twenty-ish seconds. When you thrust both your hands into the room temperature bucket, you will feel as if the cold hand is submerged in warm water and the hot hand seems to be in cold water even though in reality the lukewarm bucket remains the same temperature.[2] The perception of the same thing can be made to feel different based on the nature of events preceding it. It’s a study first designed by Dr. Robert Cialdini and is published in his book Influence.

Salespeople and real-estate companies usually use the contrast principle to their own advantage. By first presenting a “negative item” before the “positive” item that they were actually hoping to sell, they double the chance of a sale and cash in client decisions without the appearance of manipulation or structuring the circumstance in their own favour. For instance, clothing retailers may first show you an expansive brand of pants that most people wouldn’t be willing to spend their money on. Any ordinary, relatively good-quality pants they show you afterward will appear much more affordable and cheap then they actually are compared to the overall pants market. Likewise, estate agents might first exhibit a “setup property,” a house of poor condition and unreasonably high prices that the agents have no intention of selling you. But it makes the house they later host the tour at look much more attractive and well-furnished because the first one felt pathetically miserable.[3] 

Studies conducted by Guangzhou Medical University[4] found people rate attractive faces more charismatic and average faces much less attractive when they were presented in the same environment than if they were presented one-by-one. The contrast principle works most severely when social media advertise and glorify unrealistic standards of beauty that natural people in real life cannot satisfy, lowering the physical attractiveness of potential partners actually present in the vicinity for people to become unsatisfied and preoccupied with a more attractive prince charming that might never appear in the world.

The perceptual contrast principle is a double-edged sword that could make your life harder by casting a shadow over your writing prowess or turning your partner’s special face plain. Conversely, you could also be the top-performing, the standout writers and the savvy merchants selling overpriced items for profit generation. So, how can you recognize the tricks when the principle is practically undetectable? Just avoid taking the contrasting feedback too seriously. Instead, learn from your experiences and consciously interrogate your judgements. Learn from both the teachers who edited and marked your essay up or down, there are always valuable insights from either party. Understand sometimes undervaluation of your work does occur, giving you a mark out of proportion to your effort in writing it. But it might stem from a teacher’s previous reading experience that is not equivalent to a universal denial of your capabilities. Knowing the contrast principle allows you to separate personal evaluations from environmental impacts and helps you work through diverse feedback with resilience and acceptance in mind. 

Works Cited 

[1]Anumolu, Joshua. “How to Have Influence, Part 2: The Contrast Principle.” Ethos Debate, LLC, 17 Jan. 2018, www.ethosdebate.com/influence-part-2-contrast-principle.

[2]Without Contrast Everything Seems Expensive. www.wickersham.co.uk/blog/without-contrast-everything -seems-expensive.

[3]Cialdini, Robert B. Chapter 1: Levers of Influence. Page. 34-35. Influence, New and Expanded. HarperCollins, 2021.

[4]Lei, Yatian, et al. “Contrast Effect of Facial Attractiveness in Groups.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 11, Frontiers Media, 15 Sept. 2020, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02258.

 

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