When I was checking on social media, a top search term “The Recognition of Tao”1 popped up, saying how this Chinese k-pop star successfully changed his negative public image and attracted thousands of fans within only six months. Inappropriate use of words, badmouthing ex-members for quitting the team but quit the team himself 1 year later, weird accent in rapping, Tao was disliked by many people. They made his funny pictures into sarcastic emoticons. However, after these emoticons helped mainland Chinese beat Taiwan Independence advocators on Facebook, he suddenly became a star and was on TV everywhere.
I was quite shocked by his “luck”. Is Tao a good person for real? Did this image change just happened by chance? Why did people’s perception change so quickly from one extreme to another? Why did people still become his fans even though some aware that perceptions could go wrong? I feel confused.
Since people only see a limit of things, we tend to use selective perception for judgement. The definition is that: “People’s selective interpretation of what they see based on their interest, background, experience, and attitudes”. 3 It explains how people generate attitude and interpretation towards an unfamiliar object or person, but it doesn’t mention how people change selective perception after a negative first impression.
It’s impossible to judge celebrities based only on their TV appearance. I would say not always believe in selective perception, especially when talking about celebrities. His transformation is purely because of luck; people accidently shaped him into a patriot because we see how his emoticons defeat those aggressive comments on FB. Also, the reason why I believe it’s an accidental event is that people don’t tend to change believes or attitudes in a short time. We always react to breaking news or events but ignore minor matters. Tao’s image would not change so fast if he were simply doing charity and donating money; people weighed patriotism too much that they ignored that Tao did nothing spontaneously to support mainland China.
People usually tend to change slowly after they form an attitude based on selective perception, but are easily influenced by breaking news on social media. There’s no standard on changing perceptions under circumstances. Besides extending experience and knowledge and avoiding bias, I suggest people not to believe in instant breaking news but long-lasting positive behavior. Shortcuts always lead to troubles, but for Tao this time, the shortcut on interpretation turned him a star.
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1.From negative Public Image to thousands of fans, how did Tao transform in 2016?(n.d.) Retrieved February 05, 2017, from
http://www.jiemian.com/article/1048243.html
2. Chen, D. (2016, January 18). Hot Emoticon fights on FB. Is Tao becoming a hero? Retrieved February 05, 2017, from
http://www.ylq.com/redian/0119/31326.html
3.Chapter 5: Perception and Individual Decision Making. (n.d.). Retrieved February 05. 2017, from
www.csus.edu/indiv/s/sablynskic/ch5obe150.htm