Habits — one of the results of learning, the formation of new but relatively fixed ways of response — in their totality, make up the character of the individual; that is, they are the individual, as he appears to other people. — Knight Dunlap, Habits: Their Making and Unmaking, 1932

No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs, institutions and ways of thinking. Even in his philosophical probings he cannot go behind these stereotypes; his very concepts of the true and the false will still have reference to his particular traditional customs. — Ruth Fulton Benedict, Patterns of Culture, 1934








Individuals shape their world through their perceptions. Once they have created this world, they resist changing it. [They] selectively process information in order to keep their perceptions intact. They hear what they want to hear. They ignore information that challenges the world they've created. — Stephen P Robbins, Essentials of Organizational Behavior (6th ed.), 1999