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This is a property of a stimulus that causes it to stand out and attract attention in its context. People can be salient in the context of their immediate environment: for example, as the only person of that ethnicity in a group or the person dominating one's visual field in a given context. People's expectations set up broader contexts for salience, such as a person acting in ways that are unusual for people in general (i.e., negative or extreme behavior), unusual for that person's role, or unusual for that particular person. People relevant to a perceiver's goals are also salient ( Taylor & Fiske, 1978 ). Salient people are perceived to have disproportionate impact on their group, their salient behavior is often attributed to underlying dispositions ( see attribution theories ), and they are judged in extreme, polarized terms ( McArthur, 1981 ). See also: attention ; attribution theories . ( 1981 ). What grabs you? The role of attention in impression formation and causal attribution . In , Social cognition: The Ontario symposium ( Vol. 1, pp. 201 – 46 ). Hillsdale , NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum . ( 1978 ). Salience, attention, and attribution: Top of the head phenomena . In , Advances in experimental social psychology ( Vol. 11, pp. 249 – 88 ). New York : Academic Press . ... log in or subscribe to read full text